Six years ago the first community gardens appeared in Spain. In the last two and half years the phenomenon is on its way up. In the Madrid region, there are more than twenty. They are managed by neighbourhood associations, universities and environmental groups. Even the city participates in a project.
"Due to the crisis, which we find ourselves in, we have created a different model," says José Luis Fernández, from the Regional Federation of Neighbourhood Associations in Madrid. "Of fundamental importance is that we manage the vegetable garden organically," says Jorge, one of the driving forces behind El Caminito, a community garden in the centre of the southern Spanish city of Malaga. "It is pure participatory democracy."
The city council of Madrid last year made temporary fallow land of 100 m2 available. The residents have planted trees and vegetables such as tomatoes, peas, corn, avocado and broccoli. The project involves fifteen people. They work the garden and hold meetings. In addition, even children and elderly are giving a helping hand.
Fernandez argues for a legal framework, because now 85 percent of the vegetable gardens are legally wrong, often because they invade public property without permission. "The city gardens don't not only recover unused space, they are also meeting places, social centers in the open air, which stand for certain values."
The city gardens show that alternative methods at local level are possible. Because of the economic crisis, the Government is making serious savings. A quarter of the population is currently unemployed. According to UNICEF the percent of Spanish children in poverty threatens to go from 8 to 26, a situation which within Europe occurs only in Bulgaria and Romania.