Growing vegetables, flowers, herbs and community

Context:

Madhu has offered her empty unsold land to be used for a garden project. The land is in the middle of “Ecotepec” a gathering of ecological housed, which have been constructed by rather well-off families and mostly from outside of Ocotepec. On the other hand “Ecotepec” is part of Ocotepec in which the local population lives in general more sober.

The empty land that Madhu has offered us to use, will be turned into a community garden. The plan is to establish a neighborhood garden in which everybody is welcome to join, not only the households of “Ecotepec”, but all the inhabitants of Ocotepec, Cuernavaca or other places who are interested. It will be a place where people can learn and practice about sustainable agriculture in a context which stimulates social interaction. This project aims to counteract the tendencies of violence and fear, present in Mexican society, Morelos and Ocotepec.

Goal (Visión):

The aim of the project is to create a space, in which social neighborhood life and sustainable agricultural practices integrate for the higher goal of experimenting, learning and finally building local communities of peace.

Objectives:

Social cohesion and community: Even more important than growing food are the social relations we hope to cultivate with this garden. As a social project we aim to create more integration between the participants, locals and outsiders, rich and poor, young and old. We hope to realize a nice atmosphere in which everybody feels welcome, whatever social class, religion, color, gender or age. The emphasis is more on this social function of the garden than on the result of the food production. People can come to talk, to drink a tea (alcohol and drugs are not allowed) or to work hard. There are no obligations and expectations for participants in which way they should be involved. And “participant” is a term, which refers here to any interested person, who has visited the garden and shown the wish to be part of the project. Putting social cohesion as main objective, we aim to adjust the garden design to this objective, so the garden will be rather accessible to work and learn form.

Production and sharing; of food and health: The “material” garden will mainly be dedicated to food production, which will be shared among the participants.  The food grown will mainly include vegetables, which can be grown easily in this locality, they will be organically produced and will provide a healthy addition to the daily diet and a welcome reduction in the family food budget especially for the poorer households. The food will be shared in a harmonious way, by giving more importance to the visitors and participants. The main organizers are not involved in this project, for their own interest in the food production. Next to growing vegetables we would like to establish a medicinal garden, in which well locally known and used medicinal plants find their place. Additionally we would like to make consciously use of (aromatic) plants which have a calming effect on the nerves and reduce emotions of fear and anger, like lavender and valerian. 

Learning self-reliance: Learning is an essential part of participating. Our hope is that participants will be enthused and reproduce the learned practices in their own households. An organic household garden not only benefits the family economically, but also contributes to their health. Next to this we hope that this project will reveal and enforce our local capacities and strategies to resist against the negative effects of international structures of violence, economic as well as social, cultural and political.

Activities:

 -Work days: There will be weekly common work days, in which interested persons can pass by and help or company the team.

-Dinners together with all participants, these will be hold monthly with the harvest of the garden and sometimes with a little contribution, in case additional ingredients were needed. All participants are welcome.

-Special events, courses or parties: the garden gives space for related workshops, gatherings and will hold regular festivities, to celebrate the harvest for example.

Project inputs

-Inviting participants to get started: The team will initiate the establishment of the garden, by actively inviting the neighbors to participate. Together a garden design will be realized in small steps, according to the number of participants.

-Responsibilities: The core group of organizers will take the main responsibilities of the security, communication and the finances and needed materials. Security in the meaning that there will always be someone from the team present when the garden opens.  Communication in the sense, that there will be regular meetings, where neighbors and other interested persons will be invited, in which the project will be clarified and elaborated. The needs of the surrounding neighbors will be taken seriously in this project and that we will care for a harmonious work environment by placing our social relations as number one priority, also within the process. Another aspect of a good communication will be to define team roles, if needed for a good work process. Related to the finances, currently for the initiation of the project, money will be collected on a voluntary basis from the own organizers and surrounding neighbors.

Current Team members: Presently the team consists of Susana, Miguel, Roberto and Mirre, to be expanded.