KRAKOW TRANSFER STORY

In 2017 we visited Rome for the first time to learn from the experiences of Roman gardeners and our eyes got wide with amazement. The scale, diversity, and functionality of community gardens in Rome exceeded our imagination. It was there for the first time that both our officials and our urban gardeners encountered the Gardeniser training, which is one of the pillars of the RU: RBAN project. During the project, ten Cracovians took part in the training, gaining knowledge and competencies helpful in organizing new and existing social gardens in our city. Furthermore, the training and the project acted as a springboard for us to enter another very helpful project, Gardeniser +.

When we started the RU: RBAN project we had already had our first experiences in urban gardening. The year-long "ABC of urban gardening" campaign was aimed at educating and encouraging residents to make their first gardening attempts on their balconies. The "School of Urban Gardeners" enjoyed considerable interest and also popularized urban gardening in our city. The first community gardens also appeared. However, in these activities there was a lack of deep understanding and awareness of the importance of urban farming for the future cities. We gained understanding by observing and learning from both the Leader and our Partners in the RU: RBAN project. As one of our diarists noted: “I'm able to understand different points of view and different ideas for the urban gardens.

Now we are working in Krakow to grow our gardeners community and with this experience from Rome we will do it more efficiently and wisely.”

Each of our transnational meetings brought discoveries and inspirations which participants tried to implement in their own way. For us, probably the most crucial one was the idea of having multi plots community gardens. At first, as members of the community were raised on allotment gardens, this idea didn't inspire our confidence.  But when in Loures one of the invited speakers spoke again with such great passion and praised this kind of urban gardening, we gave up and decided to include this system into our proposed community gardening regulations. Once again I will quote our diarist: „ Now I understood, that there is no one “right” way to create an urban garden. Each group of people is unique and the garden they can create is the summary of their experiences and expectations.”

 If it succeeds it will be a great step forward for many of our inhabitants who can't afford an allotment garden plot but dream about gardening. Of course many difficulties may appear as it will be a completely new formula of gardening in our city. The main problem may be a lack of NGOs with skills and knowledge good enough to lead this kind of project. It may also need some extra funds to start e.g. for fencing the site or building a water system but we believe the sources and solutions will be found while working hand in hand.  In the next few weeks, the consultations with NGOs and the inhabitants will start and this will be a milestone for the legislative process on the City level. The adaptation of Rome's regulation regarding community gardens to our locality appears to be most difficult part of the project.

We’re still facing also some other difficulties regarding everyday problems which we were aware of from the beginning; like the lack of water or toilets in some of ours gardens, etc.  but thanks to the growth of their infrastructure (e.g. tool houses with rainwater collectors) step by step they manage to solve them. While some problems get solved some new appear. For example, in some new community gardens located in parks no fencing was planned which caused a big problem because some of them are co-financed by EU funds which make any changes impossible for some time. But as one of our ULG members noted in her “Transfer diary”: “Thanks to the unofficial meetings and conversations with ULG members who are city gardeners, I understand their intentions and expectations better. As a neutral person, I observe how the contact between an official and a resident is broken. In my opinion, this is one of the most important aspects of this project. When the residents and the administration speak with a common voice, the city will benefit a lot.” – we can believe that thanks to this communication we can overcome any upcoming difficulties.

 Our deepened awareness and experience resulted in the 1st international conference on urban agriculture, "New City Habitat", to which we invited our project experts as one of the main speakers. Moreover, being aware of the importance of city support for urban agriculture, we invited representatives of several cities from Poland to participate. We didn't have to wait long for the effects. A few months later, the Gdynia City Hall invited us as experts to participate in social consultations on community gardens.

The knowledge and experience of our speakers has been preserved in the form of publications and at the same time constituting a kind of bank of good practices and inspiration for other cities. You can find it here: https://zzm.krakow.pl/images/pliki/galeria/AKTUALNOSCI/publikacja_NCH.pdf

The carousel method used for transferring good practices enabled all of us to raise and grow during the project. Basing on the ULG as a core of the local actions guarantees consideration of the interests of all concerned. It enables us to have more complete insights and also improves our relationships and communications. Some surprising moments appeared during our international study visits which transformed after some time in some completely unexpected results like the "Garden with class" project which was initialized by the visit in one of Vlinus' kindergartens. Thanks to that visit we now have 18 school gardens which are a kind of green classroom combined with extra community gardens. There are also some new publications, beyond the above-mentioned post-conference one, such as the "Balcony Gardening Guide" which is finalizing and which will be for many gardeners presents a kind of "first-aid" manual in their gardening attempts. It wouldn't be possible without the wide range of inspirations we gained from the Leader and all Partners involved in the RU:RBAN project.

How deeply our city has transformed is best demonstrated by the words of the Mayor of our city, prof. Jacek Majchrowski, with which he opened the "New City Habitat" conference (enclosed as an illustration to this article)and the fact that a few steps from his office, in the courtyard of the City Hall in the heart of the old town, a new community garden is being created.

“The experiences of recent months related to the spread of the COVID-19 disease have clearly shown how important it is for humans to be in contact with nature. According to the latest research, a deficit in communing with nature contributes to the incidence of depression, weakening of immunity or concentration. Live, active contact with nature provided by, among others, the community gardens organized today more and more often in cities cannot be overestimated in this context. In addition, what is also worth emphasizing, by supporting the creation of community gardens, we also support the flourishing of biodiversity”