Day 1, Sunday: 29.09.2024
On the first day we spent the morning at the University Pablo de Olabite (UPO), and in the afternoon we visited the vegetable garden of Vega de Triana. The people in charge of the vegetable gardens were two gentlemen, a man and a woman, over seventy years old, who kindly and passionately told us how with various difficulties, such as finding water, especially during the dry summer months, and the coexistence of people and/or associations who do not know each other, they had managed to create a small green area between a sports centre and a river where they used to release waste from the processing of an iron industry. The 37 50-square metre gardens have little light, water that they use by drawing from a cistern, but they have no regulations, in fact it all started with lists made by associations, and the first allocations were made by lot. Despite my fairly good knowledge of Spanish, I have always been fascinated by how the names humans give to vegetables change. Here are some of them:
- Citrinina: Hierba Luica
- Aubergine: Merenjena
- Pumpkin: Calabaca
- Swiss chard: Acelga
- Rosemary: Romero
- Celery: Apio
- Nasturtium: Capuchin
- Mint: Hierba Buena
- Beans: Habas or Frijoles
Day 2, Monday: 30.09.2024
The second day was full of visits and encounters. We started with the Ramon Amaya Flamenco Museum. The place where this museum was built, and the nearby Flora Tristan University, are very emblematic as they are located within the poorest neighbourhood in all of Spain, and home of the gypsy people: Il Poligono Sur.
Creating a free university for low-income students in a place so disillusioned with dreams and prospects brightened our visit as did the sunlit peace bench you can see above. Nature and culture mingle in a fruitful and verdant union
Despite the poverty, it seemed that the plant nation managed to have its say even in the most inhospitable places, among the cluttered pots and sheet metal of the university.
Late in the morning, we went to visit the Ceper garden, a garden structured through the practice of Permaculture in the Sur Polygon.
“A human culture cannot survive for long without basis of sustainable agriculture and aethical land management’.
This brilliant insight inspired Bill Mollison to coin the term Permaculture, a synthesis of theory and practice that systematises and develops the elements of different ecological sciences, opening up new design horizons.
The word ‘permaculture’ was created by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid-1970s to describe an integrated and evolutionary system of plant and animal species that is perennial or self-perpetuating, and useful to humans.
Permaculture is an integrated design process that results in a sustainable, balanced and aesthetic environment.
By applying ecological principles and strategies, the balance of those systems that are the basis of life can be restored.
Permaculture is the design, conscious and ethical conservation of productive ecosystems that have the diversity, stability and flexibility of natural ecosystems.
Similarly, it applies to economic strategies and social structures.
Permaculture can be defined as a synthesis of ecology, geography, anthropology, sociology and design.
Permaculture originated as a system of land design that harmoniously integrates humans with the environment and its elements (habitation, food, natural resources, human and social relations). The objective is to design lasting settlements, as similar as possible to natural ecosystems, through recognition, use and harmonisation of the components of the landscape (morphology, climate, soil, water, vegetation, animals) by developing mutually supportive relationships between the elements of the environment and people’s needs and based on a ‘non-predatory’ and ‘non-parasitic’ lifestyle. The result is a system that is aesthetically pleasing, productive, and sustainable over time, with low maintenance costs.
And so, thanks to this visit and the meeting with Tiziana, Fernando and Luciano, the three vegetable gardeners who designed this type of technique, we learnt about coexistence, integration and the sharing of common spaces within a vegetable garden in continuous relation with the rest of the environment, and not isolated in their monocultures. Below you can listen to a podcast dedicated to the polygon Sur vegetable garden from the Gota verde programme
radioabiertasevilla.com/entender-relaciones-humanas-permacultura
In the afternoon we went to see the gardens of Infanta Elena, where we had a lesson on vermiculata, and visited the gardens, each with their own techniques and experiences, respecting the community and its minorities.
Day 3, Tuesday: 01.09.2024
On the third day we went to see the Parque del Alamillo. Founded between 1995 and 1997, it was left in a state of semi-abandonment until 2014 when they started making vegetable gardens that gave back to the neighbourhood community.
The aim was just to be farmers and donate part of the harvest to Caritas. Of the 170 gardens, 120 are part of an association that for a few euros a year protects the farming community and invests in tools and cleaning.
In the afternoon, after a picnic in the Parque del Alamillo, we went to the Pino Montano vegetable garden, perhaps one of the most emblematic gardens in Seville.
The place was a psychiatric education centre also visited by the great poet Garcia Lorca, which in 2010 was converted into a place for ecological education. There were 270 vegetable gardens that stood out along a road long e sunny road.
After visiting several, we went a chemistry workshop that extracted essential oils from , in a large and spacious workshop where each workshop was dedicated to a type of craftsmanship.
Day 4, Wednesday: 02.09.2024
On the fourth day, we went to visit the Orchard del Rey Moro, a vegetable garden in the centre of Seville. We were greeted by a fig tree that, according to the manager Juan, was more than 300 years old.
Although October was a month of stagnation for cultivation in Seville, it was fascinating to imagine the industrious and happy peasants tilling the land in the centre of the city.
Furthermore, the space outside the gardens was experienced by the younger community. In fact there were benches and swings, where children came to have lunch after school, as we had witnessed that day.
The main problem was the lack of water, especially in the hottest months of the year, as in the absence of a source, they had to stock up with gallons. The Rey Moro community was also not just an association of people who worked the land, but a group of people who, by sharing spaces, brought places alive and transformed them, even into art, as can be seen in the murals on the next page.
Day 5, Thursday: 03.09.2024
Finally, on the last day, we went to see the gardens of Miraflores. Thanks to the very knowledgeable guide of Jose Manuel, a ‘Gardenizer’ student who had visited the gardens in Rome the previous week, we visited almost all the community gardens. The buildings seemed to surround the vegetable gardens, which seemed a hotspot of biodiversity surrounded by a “jungle of asphalt”
There was a pleasant serenity among the farmers, probably due to the fact that, besides being a passion, working the land is a cure. The vegetable gardens of Miraflores are small islands that dialogue with each other also through the sharing of trees, which are allowed within the grounds.
The vegetable gardens were formed in a place where there was an old well, which during the winter is still used to collect rainwater and supply farmers in the hottest months.
This week in Seville was a wonderful discovery of the fact that, as the great master Masanobu Fukuoka prophesied, revolution can also start from a straw.
