Living in Switzerland, I became aware of small city gardens where people like you and I can grow, for example, fruit and vegetables. At some time, my girlfriend and I decided to take on the challenge of building up a city garden. That proved to be quite an innovation challenge / initiative through which we learned a lot - about urban gardening and, not least, about the importance of communication and about learning to understand our values and the purpose we work towards. 

During a process, which lasted a few years, we renewed pretty much every square meter in the urban gardening space. Along the way, my girlfriend and I had some great successes one of which was the planting of raspberries. This project proved to be split in 5 different phases. 

1. In the first phase, one of us came up with the idea of planting fresh raspberries - not least because we both liked the taste of the fruit.

2. In the 2nd phase, we discussed who would take care of the raspberries - including cutting / nursing the plants - once they were planted.

3. In the 3rd phase, the finding of a location for the raspberries, we did some brainstorming on a wall one day to find the right location as well as find out how much space we would reserve in the garden for raspberries. We came up with ideas for several different locations, and by using criteria such as the amount of light / sun coming to the raspberries, we found a suitable location which resulted in digging up a part of the lawn. 

4. In the 4th phase, the search for the type of raspberries we wanted to plant, we visited some Internet shops to learn about the available supply. We agreed that the raspberries should be organically grown fruit and be relatively big and sweet. We chose to invest in the raspberry type "autumn bliss" and purchased the appropriate amount as well as additional materials needed. 

5. In the 5th phase of the project, the planting of the raspberries, we agreed to plant the raspberry plants on a Sunday morning. During the planting of the raspberries, I recall that we took 1 step at a time and communicated much throughout the planting process to make sure that each of us agreed on what we should do next and how we should do it.

Among other urban gardening initiatives we took were

• growing vegetables such as potatoes, onions, beans and peas. To support vegetables during their growth, we also installed pillars which we painted yellow to freshen up the place,

• composting old leaves, peels from carrots and potatoes as well as other compostable material to create wonderful soil,

• recycling rotten wood, broken stones, old metal, and other materials that previous users / owners had left. That helped us develop more healthy soil, create more space, and, in general, transform the garden environment into a more beautiful and more human friendly space.

• growing grapes. For example, we planted sweet grapes of the sort "muscat". 

A part of the urban gardening challenge was renovating the house there. For example, we

• replaced broken gutters on the roof of the house with some new grey ones,

• installed solar energy on the house roof.

• painted the house blue on the outside and white on the inside. When our neighbour, who had come to work in Switzerland many years ago from Slovenia, one day came by with a photo he had taken of our house, praised us for the renewal we had done, and later painted his own house partly orange, we knew we had done the right thing.

I like to use, for example, the app iNaturalist, to share photos of plants and animals. What I like about the app is also the possibility that people have to give feedback on observations that everyone makes. Through feedback that people give me I learn a lot. For me using apps like iNaturalist is an interesting and useful way, I find, to learn about nature. When I go for a walk, for example, I like to sometimes take photos of beautiful environments. Besides sharing observations over the app iNaturalist, I also like to use Google Maps to share what I learn.