Kutxa Ekogunea launched the Baratze Park Network project in 2013. Hernani, Lezo, Usurbil, Tolosa and Alegia were the first plots that were made available to citizens, and year after year it has been increasing. “Today there are twenty villages in which there are gardens, and there are more municipalities waiting for us to do the study and get started,” says Olaizola. The Baratze Parkea Network consists of 1,180 plots and 5.4 hectares. The user can exploit the plot in exchange for a rental, and the conditions that must be met are organic farming and self-consumption. In Gipuzkoa, in addition, there are other localities that have vegetable gardens, but these municipalities are not on the net and they manage differently.

Olaizola is clear that in these five years the Baratze Parks Network has been strengthened. “On October 26, we made a balance with the municipal councillors and technicians. We welcome the last peoples who have joined the network and share experiences in which a great deal is learned. Everyone was happy with the experience.” All those who started follow and no one expresses their intention to leave it. It is, according to Olaizola, the best valuation that can be made.

On the grounds of Kutxa Ekogunea, in Donostia-San Sebastián, is the largest park of gardens in Gipuzkoa. It is a land of 154 sites, most of them 30 square meters, which were launched in 2014. “This is the size we recommend, because we believe it is appropriate for the consumption of a family. Here, in Ekogunea, most are 30, although there are 60 and 90 square meters and also adapted plots, but each city council decides its size.” Currently, series of 50 square meters and 40 square meters, and larger, managed by collectives, have been carried out in Zumaia. “Gautena and Atzegi are, for example, in the large gardens here.”

The work of Kutxa Ekogunea

The management of a vegetable garden has three legs: Ekogunea, local town hall and user association. The work of Kutxa Ekogunea begins before starting the vegetable park: conducting studies, preparing the project… Once in operation, it performs monthly audits to ensure that users meet the established requirements. “The reports are sent to municipalities and user associations; everything is done in complete transparency.”

They also come every two years from the Ekogune to conduct land analyses. “The quality and fertility of the land is changing, the cultivation of the land enriches the land and an analysis should be made. The Ekogunea, based on this analysis, tells users what is the ecological fertilizer that suits each land.”

The Furgobaratza is a specific service created for the Huertas Network. “I think that’s one of our greatest successes,” says Olaizola. Furgobaratza goes to all the vegetable gardens on the announced day and time and has several functions: to carry out inspections, to offer technical advice, to supply ecological plants, to organize workshops and courses, to answer the questions of the users… “In addition to advising on any topic, they try to satisfy what the users demand, providing recommendations, clarifying doubts or collaborating in the realization of new projects”.

The first steps, the municipalities

The City Hall takes the first step to start the park of gardens. The City Hall gains a green space for public and open use at the start of the park of gardens. “The City Hall asks us to do an analysis of those lands. Once the study was carried out, we designed the project and advised the City Hall how to start the park of gardens. Subsequently, a contract is signed and the City Hall pays an annual amount in exchange for the services of Ekogune”.

Olaizola II explained that the municipality usually recovers that money with the rent charged to the users of the website. “There are rentals for five euros a month, but there are also rentals for fifteen euros. What we advise is to charge users, because that requires a commitment, but we do not enter the amount; that is what the city council decides.”

The City Hall makes available to the users the operation of the vegetable gardens, which are responsible for the management of everyday life. “The degree of involvement of municipalities is usually different, some have a great intervention and others leave almost everything in the hands of the users.”

User functions

Olaizola explained that all users are forced to join an association to which they currently belong. “They are in charge of the common spaces, of the material and of the conservation of the tools, of the determination of the operating rules, of the cleaning…”. The constitution of the community is one of the objectives of the Huertas Park Network. Olaizola understands that someone is not willing to be part of that community or to assume responsibilities: “OK. But, then, this is not your project.” Neither the City Hall nor Kutxa Ekogunea come into the work of the associations; each decides how to work.

“Some organize small working groups, others do shift work, they are the ones who take over between two or three people and take over most of the work…” Olaizola has recognised that in some cases there are variations between users, and that in this case the way in which they operate is being adapted and changed.

An example of this is the vegetable gardens of Tolosa. There are 80 orchards and in each orchard there are one or more users. Elena Lakuntza, for example, works with her sister on her land. “In the 80 orchards there are always tasks: cleaning, composting, communication of things… Three people took care of it, but they overflowed.”

Three years ago there was a need for a larger group to strengthen this work and work began with a new organization. “We are between six and seven people in this group and our first step was to define the working groups and the obligations of each of the areas: maintenance group, communication group, composting group, new projects… There is one responsible in each one of them and the other users decide which group they want to work and sign up for.” In the cleaning shifts of the chabola comes those who do not want to enroll in a group and the communication team is responsible for organizing and communicating these shifts. “With that we guarantee that we all do something and that no one gets broken because he has to do it.”

Community and Basque Country

At Tolosa they have been working with this system for three years and are happy with its way of working. Lakuntza explained that although the profile of the users is very varied, the relationship, in general, is good. “There are people of different ages, they are also immigrants, but we have a good atmosphere among us, and we want to keep that environment going.” They have carried out various activities to promote this good environment: competition of scarecrow, food with products from the vegetable garden… “I say many times that this is like a campsite, which looks like the atmosphere of the campsites”.

Olaizola has stressed that the community is one of the objectives of vegetable gardens, but there are also others, such as the promotion of the Basque country. “In the vegetable gardens of Ekogunea, Euskera is the preferred language. We want to be a respiratory zone and we do so with criteria for the allocation of land”. For example, the citizen who asks for a land has one more point to know Basque.”In municipalities they have not yet dared to establish linguistic criteria, but have introduced other criteria”. Age range and gender are taken into account, for example, for users of all ages and parity. Quotas are also set for the unemployed and beneficiaries of IGR.

This news was posted by Gipuzkoako Hitza and we brought it to ARGIA thanks to the CC-by-sa license.