A Garden with People

An initiative aimed at involving citizens to care more for their green areas

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 02.04.2019, 13:20

If you
want to learn how to properly trim small trees and how gardens should be taken
care of in spring, a good alternative would be to join the initiators of a
project entitled ‘A Garden with People’. All you need to bring along is your
good cheer and gardening clothes and you are to be welcomed with tea, coffee
and the right equipment. In the following minutes, Alex Oprita, organizer with
the Civic Initiative Group Cismigiu is going to tell us more about this civic
education project.

We got the idea from the first event that we staged with the Civic
Initiative Group Cismigiu, after we did a survey of what people cherish the
most in Cismigiu Park and what they dislike most. And we were surprised to find
out that although people came from many walks of life, they almost had the same
likes and dislikes. Most of us don’t like the fact that the area is not well
maintained and not very clean. We aren’t very pleased when music festivals are
being staged in the park. We don’t like the noise, we don’t like when the park
is dirty and littered. And we decided to come up with a project to solve part
of these issues.

A
solution to the aforementioned issues started to take shape after funds had
been granted to several components of a project entitled ‘A Garden with
People’. Here is again Alex Oprita with details about this programme.

This is a
project by means of which we intend to get people involved in the conservation
of the eco-system in the Cismigiu area. We have already been running a
gardening branch of this project, in the green zones between various blocks of
flats. The park is a historic monument, a protected area and we aren’t allowed to
intervene. What we can do instead is get citizens involved in gardening
activities around their block of flats, help them improve these plots of land
and make them look better. The second component is focusing on preserving the
park’s wildlife, where we are assisted by Paul Tigu, an ornithologist, who
helps us monitor the birds in the park. We’ve already installed three bird
feeders around these blocks of flats and five hand-made nests in the gardens
around the Cismigiu Park in order to offset the poor nesting conditions the
region offers. The third component addresses noise pollution and we are
cooperating with the authorities to reduce the level of noise in the area. On
the long term, our vision is that Cismigiu ought to be a spot of peace and
quiet at the heart of Bucharest as its historical status deserves a lot more
respect than it now has, since it is the first public garden in Bucharest. The
fourth branch is that of urban beekeeping, we stage beekeeping workshops in the
neighborhood, we have brought two hives and placed them on a roof nearby the
park, we visit them every so often, and we look after them. Actually, we wanted
to offer people in the neighborhood the opportunity to spend their leisure time
in a constructive way, in the area they live in.

A
project of applied education, inviting us in the park, in spring. An invitation
extended to all those who may be willing to learn what landscape architecture
means, what plants best suit the urban gardens, and all sorts of trips and
tricks for all gardeners, small or big,
just as Alex Oprita told us. Our guest says people are taking part in
the project in large numbers.

Initially,
we wanted to stage the workshops for the people in the neighborhood. Gradually,
we realized a community was defined not by the area it inhabits, but by the
interests it shares. So attending our workshops are people who want to do
gardening and who are attracted by that kind of activity as a leisure activity,
also dedicating their own time, by their own free will.

People
would do well to announce their participation in workshops well in advance, for
organizers to use their resources. Here is Alex Oprita once again, this time
telling us what the options are.

Usually, quite a few people come to the gardening
workshops, which helps us a lot, since we’ve got so many things to do. We have
more than 20 participants in the gardening workshops. We even had as many as 40
participants. In the ornithology workshops, for instance, people are anxious to
see the birds, we have around 15-20 participants. For beekeeping, we have two
different kinds of workshops: we have visits taking people to the bees’ special
area, we stage such visits making the required gear available and with people
who have already showed their interest in beekeeping and who are capable of
complying with specific circumstances. And, every so often, we stage open-to-everybody
workshops where people may join in, get acquainted with the bees and with the
idea or urban beekeeping.

And
since the cleaning and spring planting season is in full swing, the Cismigiu
Civic initiative Group awaits all those interested to join, for the activities
they stage in the neighborhood as well as on the group’s Facebook page. The
aforementioned Group also welcomes participation on the Facebook page of the
project themed the Garden with people, or via email, at cişmi.civic@gmail.com.