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the media, others arbitrate in possible conflicts, and people well-versed in botany
and gardening are, obviously, indispensable with their knowledge.
One often hears that community gardens are “90% community and 10%
garden’. In addition to growing plants and community reinforcement, the
therapeutic and rehabilitating roles of the gardens are also very important. They
may offset or reverse the alienation of urban society and its separation from the
natural environment,’ while in some metropolises, community gardens are aimed
at helping marginal groups to catch up (such an attempt in Hungary is the social
garden program of the Budapest Bike Maffia),”” or integrating immigrants (see
the framed passage on intercultural gardens). They also build upon their locality,
as does the TT movement: the gardens play a great role in strengthening
neighborhood relations and preserving local identity.
INTERCULTURAL GARDENS
A special form of community gardens is the intercultural garden.
It was initiated in Göttingen, Germany, in 1995. The Bosnian refugees of the
immigration center wanted to grow vegetables the way they were accustomed to. They
joined forces with an Ethiopian agricultural engineer — also an immigrant — and looked
for a plot for their purpose. The plan was such a success that soon the International
Göttingen Gardens movement evolved, followed by the Intercultural Gardens Network.
The foundation maintained nearly 400 gardens in the country in 2015, about half of
them intercultural. The movement began spreading across Europe.
The aim of intercultural gardens is not only to produce food but also to create
contacts between immigrants of diverse cultural backgrounds and native inhabitants.
Jointly building and running gardens, the exchange of experiences, and diverse
communal occasions appear to be conducive to attaining this goal.
It helps refugees to integrate through language learning and collective work. At the
same time, it is an opportunity for fostering cultural traditions. It also offers a chance
for the handicapped to participate actively, to create, to fulfill themselves to the benefit
of the collective, and to gradually commit themselves to sustainable urban development
(Müller 2007).
On intercultural gardens in Hungarian, see: Fáczányi — Balogh 2015.
The knowledge gained in a community garden is not negligible, as it can be utilized
in ones own garden or in a potential crisis. An excellent example is the growth of
balcony gardening during the Covid lockdown or farming the small gardens which
— as several accounts prove — maintained peoples mental health in addition to
producing food for the kitchen.
Several community gardens lay great stress on promoting and giving guidance
to environmentally friendly thought and healthy living (for a summary, see Hajba
2017). Providing the venue for a variety of programs, a community garden can
M Just as the goal of the garden city movement was ’healing’ the city, this aim also enjoys high
priority in community gardens, but in addition to healing the city, another aim — healing society
— is also strengthening.” (Faczdnyi — Balogh 2015: 18)
15 https://bikemaffia.com/projektek/bbm-kertek/?fbclid=IwAR2fjdU_3nASfAz99zzuK9L1bo9XF
HbknAGRVsPcATwlAn9NntHvZSrRD8