Day 1, Sunday: 29.09.2024
After arriving in Seville on Sunday 29 September and taking possession of our room, the actual experience began the next morning with a visit to the facilities of the Pablo de Olavide University. Here our coordinator Aida, after a round of introductions, involved us in a short briefing on the Gardeniser Academy project, explaining the purpose of our stay in Seville and its expected results, and showing us the agenda for the week. We were then taken on a tour of an experimental aquaponics plant run by the university, where fish farming was combined with vegetable production. This was followed by a visit to the botanical garden and a pond set up for environmental restoration purposes, also belonging to the university. In the afternoon we visited the first urban community garden in the popular Triana neighbourhood.
Day 2, Monday: 30.09.2024
On the second day, we visited a peripheral district of the city, called Poligono Sur, which is very poor and degraded, inhabited mostly by people of Roma origin. In the morning, we visited the Ramon Amaya centre, watching a photographic exhibition dedicated to flamenco, after which we entered a structure belonging to the same neighbourhood, called CEPer (Centro de Educacion PERmanente) Poligono Sur, one of whose objectives is to integrate the marginalised communities of the neighbourhood, including through the use of a vegetable garden, which we visited. After lunch the day ended with a visit to another community garden in another neighbourhood of the city, built within a green area called ‘Parque Infanta Elena’.
Day 3, Tuesday: 01.09.2024
The third day was dedicated to visiting no less than three community gardens located in two areas of the city. The first (“Parque del Alamillo” garden) and the second (“San Jeronimo” garden), were located within a vast green area bordered by the Guadalquivir river, which represented the northern border of the city. The afternoon, after a picnic in the park, was dedicated to getting to know the garden in the ‘Pino Montano’ neighbourhood and the lively community of gardeners that animated it. The afternoon in the vegetable garden was enriched by workshop activities conducted together with the horticulturists in old structures abandoned and subsequently recovered and readapted to the needs of the local community.
Day 4, Wednesday: 02.09.2024
The day began pleasantly late in the morning with a tour with Aida through the busy streets of the centre around calle Feria, where there is a picturesque antiques market. From here we went on a visit to the only vegetable garden in the centre of Seville, called ‘Huerto del Rey Moro’, where we spoke with the president of the association that manages the garden. This was the end of the training day, as no activities were planned for the afternoon.
Day 5, Thursday: 03.09.2024
The last day involved only the morning, which was dedicated to visiting the large community garden set up within the large and evocative ‘Parque de Miraflores’ in the northern quadrant of the city. Inside the garden, it was possible to observe an old Arab well that is still functioning and well preserved.
