Eko Ekipa Prečko The alternative urban garden in Zagreb

Environment Prečko is a part of Zagreb situated at the very edge of the city, surrounded by fields (partly abandoned), some of them are used for a long time as „wild gardens” – means, the „owners” does not have a permission for them (the land is either privately owned or owned by city of Zagreb) At last local elections (2013.) public urban gardens were one of the hot topics: NGO „Parkticipacija” („Par(k)ticipation”) promoted the idea of urban gardens and current mayor stole the idea and promoted it as his own At the time of birth of Eko Ekipa Prečko (beginning of 2013) there were no official urban gardens in Zagreb, first one appeared at the end of the year

Birth (1) Two mothers from Prečko, Nikolina and Romana, wanted to have a garden where they can grow organic food and where children can play and learn about gardening They started a campaign by small posters on streets of Prečko aiming to find a people with common attitude – a Facebook profile was open and an initial meeting held with about 15 people On the following meeting 30 people appeared and enthusiasm got high – a piece of land, owned by the city close to the school, kindergarten and the core of the Prečko is found. Later on, a private owner gave us one more plot.

Birth (2) Official request for use as a public garden was sent to the city services. After lot of misunderstandings and redirections, a Commission of agriculture and forestry of city of Zagreb declared itself as the right place to accept the request. Although oral permission was granted very soon, the official document we haven’t yet received (2,5 years after initial request was placed) Regardless of the lack of support from the city, the enthusiastic group in several days cleared the rubbish, cut the bushes and prepared the land for cultivation.

Garden It is about 1500 m 2, divided into three parts: – 45 small plots of land (about 5x5 m 2 in very different shapes) – A common garden aimed for visiting school classes, guests and gardening experiments of all kind – Other common areas (compost bins, a medical garden, sitting areas etc) Basic rules: – No chemicals in the garden – All decisions are made by the group in a most democratic way possible – Participation in common activities is strongly encouraged – Cooperation and tolerance is very important for us

People (1) Currently there are around 70 people involved in gardening (+ around 20 supporters) People of all ages, but majority between age 30 and 40 Coming not only from Prečko, but from neighbouring districts as well In the meantime public gardens organized by City council appeared, so some people closer to them left us and joined that groups

People (2) Important notice: lot of members of Eko Ekipa Prečko are not sharing the founders’ desire for permacultural view, but just the desire for gardening, so this is a source of occasional misunderstandings and disputes Nikolina, Daša, Ljiljana and Maja from the garden founded an NGO named „Zeleni klik!” („A green click!”) which works on projects related to urban gardening and permaculture

Society Media: they like us and give us their attention (TV, newspapers, etc) City council: pretending that we don’t exist Local affairs: usually interested for cooperation of any kind (school, kindergarten, library, NGOs...) Foreign affairs: contacts with all major players in permaculture and urban gardening groups in Zagreb and Croatia, sometimes even abroad General view: let’s make together a better life for all of us, on local and global level... And we are trying to do as much as possible to get it on a local level.

Future? Problems: – not all members of the group are sharing enthusiasm for permaculture and common activities and rather focus on their 20 m 2 without care for the rest of the world – consequently, common tasks are performed by only a small group of „activists” – way of making decissions is sometimes painfully slow – but, nobody wants to be „the master” Plans and desires: – Even more cooperation with local groups and permacultural projects promoting urban gardening and sustainable lifestyle – We love our garden and we try to enjoy it as much as possible!