Etterbeek Community Gardens

Participatory Gardens of Etterbeek

Original PDF, in French - the 2017 Plan & Brochure PDF, in French

Practical information.

Jardin participatif: Avenue Nouvelle, 171-173, Etterbeek

→ Permanence: Sunday from 10h30 to 12h Type of plots: collective, managed by several associations.

Website: http://www.etterbeek.irisnet.be

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= 100003644412746

Historical

The project of participatory gardens was launched by the municipality of Etterbeek, following a political desire & will.

Etterbeek is a very urbanized part of town, with a high population density and few green spaces.

In 2007, following the work carried out for the development of the RER, the municipality acquired by leasehold, a strip of land of 2700 m², located along the railway line.

The goal of the municipality was to create an additional green space and to realize a collective kitchen garden project benefiting the greatest number of Etterbeek inhabitants.

The participatory gardens were born from a project created with a collaboration between the municipality and Etterbeek associations with social and / or environmental goals.

The objective of the project is to entrust associations with the management of vegetable parcels, with the active participation of the inhabitants, to develop projects combining social cohesion, the preservation of fauna and flora in urban areas and awareness raising. to the nature and the garden, by the population and schools.

The participatory gardens opened in March 2009.

Timeline

End of 2007 - beginning of 2008

• Etterbeek responds to a call for projects Agenda 21 type II and receives a subsidy of € 25,000 to develop the area as vegetable gardens.
• Site visit.

February - March 2008

• Call for partners and presentation of the project during the monthly picnic of associations Etterbeekoises.
• 1st meeting with partners and definition of a calendar.

April - May 2008

• Organization of 2 meetings to define the common values, via an external expert paid by the municipality.
• Definition of the participation of each partner.
• Construction of the collective project and drafting of a charter.

June 2008

• Meeting in the field to define the project with associations, according to the principle of speed-dating.
• Realization of the plan by a landscape architect paid by the municipality.

September 2008

• Presentation of the plan to the partners and integration of the various projects.

Fall 2008

• Search for a contractor for structural work.
• Launch of the first cycle of conferences on the world of plants.

February 2009

• Development work
• Presentation of the project to the population.

March 2009

• Opening of vegetable gardens to gardeners and beginning of projects.

2010

• Beautification of the areas, activities, first open day ...

2012

• The development of a phase 2 of the project is under study

The participatory gardens project took a total of one year to start.

Projects set up by an administration take time, procedures must be followed.

Description of the garden

The participatory gardens are open to everyone, whether to participate or discover the site.

This green space contributes to the green network of Brussels and promotes biodiversity in the city.

The project has several dimensions:

• Place of meeting, learning and exchange of knowledge.
• Demonstration site of gardening opportunities in town.
• Place of contact with nature.

The site has been divided into different zones:

• The relaxation zone, as a place of meeting and conviviality.
• Collective vegetable gardens, where plots are managed by associations: RES 59 and Housing and Social Harmony (LHS). In the garden LHS, a facilitator is paid to animate and manage the plots. RES 59 gardeners are volunteers.
• The collective compost, which houses the organic waste of the inhabitants of the district.
• The conservatory orchard, composed of old local varieties, whose purpose is to make known to the public the varieties of our home and to discover maintenance techniques such as trellising and transplants. The association Flore and Pomone has set up the orchard and organizes 10 events per year. The orchard is managed and maintained by volunteers.
• The pool, created by volunteers from Natagora, who offer awareness and education activities on water and wetland biodiversity wasteland.
• The wasteland, set up by the center Paul Duvignaud.
• The apiary, managed by a group of inhabitants trained for 2 years by a passionate beekeeper. Introductions to beekeeping are regularly organized.

Partnerships

The commune of Etterbeek opened the participatory gardens in close collaboration with various associations, which occupy different roles:

Managers of a plot:

• Natagora: creation of the pond and animations.
• Center Paul Duvigneaud: management of the fallow land and animations.
• Network Exchange of Knowledge (RES 59): exploitation of a vegetable plot to cultivate together and sharing of knowledge around culture and permaculture.
• S.R.A.B.E: development and management of the bee garden with a group of participants.
• Maelbeek Medical Center and RES 59: creation and management of the collective composting site, as well as composting training.
• Etterbeek Home and Housing and Social Harmony (LHS): exploitation of a vegetable plot to cultivate with the inhabitants of Foyer Etterbeek.

The social partners:

• Le Grain day center: participation in garden activities, helping the community.
• Foyer Etterbeekois and Housing and social harmony: awareness and integration of the tenants of the Foyer in different projects.
• Prevention service: youth participation in wall decoration and permaculture training given to Moroccan women by RES 59, on a plot of LHS.

Resource Associations:

• The Flore and Pomone: expertise in fruit tree planting.
• Stories of Plants: realization of the development plan integrating the different projects.
• Worms: help with the management of the collective composting site.
• The Network of Solidary Gardens: advice for the collective construction of the project and its networking. Support for the training of gardeners in 2009.
• The Beginning of Beans: support for the training of gardeners in 2010 and assistance to the collective management of the garden.

Collective organization

The roles are as follows:

• Municipality of Etterbeek: financial management, coordination and promotion of the project.
• Participating associations: management and animation of plots.
• Inhabitants: regular or punctual participation.

At the beginning of the project, a charter defining the values shared between the different actors was created with the help of an outside expert. Each association has also signed an occupancy agreement.

Each area of the garden is "framed" by an association and is managed in collaboration with the inhabitants, whether they are in the neighborhood or elsewhere.

The associations manage their parcel autonomously and organize activities open to the public. The production of fruits, vegetables and honey is 80% shared by the participants, the rest being for activities open to the public.

Four times a year, the municipality calls the various partners to meetings of the management committee, to talk about the collective organization.

The duration of meetings is deliberately limited to 2 hours, to go to the basics, despite the sometimes frustrating side of this limitation.

Focus on LHS

The LHS plots are part of a social cohesion project in social housing in the Avenue Nouvelle district. The tenants of social housing are the target audience but the group has diversified, for lack of participants.

An LHS facilitator is paid to coordinate the group of gardeners and managers of the parcels. The goal of the project is to make the groups autonomous, with a minimum of LHS involvement.

At the beginning of the project, the plots were 100% collective. To resolve conflict problems, the facilitator had to intervene and divide the parcel into 5 zones, each managed by a small group. Each group has a manager, who serves as the interlocutor with LHS. The productions are shared by all the gardeners.

Collective organization

• Permanence once a week on the site.
• One Monday a month: convivial dinner to talk about the projects.
• One Sunday per month: all the gardeners meet in the garden (group cohesion).

The animator of LHS manages the budget of the kitchen garden and the relations with the commune. To gradually empower the group, he will integrate a gardener within two years.

Dynamics and Animations

Different activities, open to all, are organized in the gardens:

• Activities organized by the associations, to stimulate teamwork and encourage knowledge exchange between gardeners.
• Nature activities for schools on an LHS plot, provision for 3 months.
• Activities and training open to the public. For example, the orchard, the pond and the apiary publish each year the program of their activities. The composting site organizes 2 training sessions per year and a master composter is available by appointment.
• Permanences organized from April to October to the vegetable gardens.
• Open door day, organized by the municipality to help the discovery of the participatory gardens by the general public. In the future, the municipality plans to organize a day of gardeners, to weld the groups and the various partners.

Communication

Between the gardeners.

• Essentially on the ground, especially during the permanences.
• No or little communication between the different associations.

Outward.

• Communication provided by the municipality, which disseminates information via the facebook page, the website of the municipality and panels placed outside the site.

Budget

The development of the site cost € 60,000 to the municipality of Etterbeek (equity and subsidy Agenda 21), distributed as follows:

• € 50,000 for structural work, carried out by an adapted work company and a private contractor.
• 10,000 € for the landscaping plan by a landscape architect, soil analyzes, the purchase of the apiary and equipment and the construction of a shelter to recover rainwater.

Every year, a municipal budget of 12.000 € is allocated to the participatory gardens, to finance animations and trainings, to pay for tools or seeds, to organize the open day or to pay the leasehold costs of 1000 euros / year.

Tips to give?

• Build the project with all the partners.
• Define the common values and establish a charter.
• Do not wait to answer all the questions before opening the site: it is only by the successive resolution of the problems that the project advances.
• Importance of the mediation.
• The essential ingredients: flexibility, time and good mood!
• Have a balance between the project and the demands of the inhabitants.
• "If this does not work, what is it that does work? !"

And if it was to do again ...

• Achieve less development work.
• Improve the participation of residents.
• Think about accessibility for inputs, such as mulch and compost.

Source - interviews with:

Judith Charlier, Environmental Service of Etterbeek Municipality.

Michel Bastin, Collective of Roots and Seeds (see other sheet).

Son Quang Le, Housing and Social Harmony.