The “Orti di Via Padova”, everyone’s garden
In 2012, the municipality of Milan approved a resolution to redevelop abandoned and decaying public areas. The basic idea was to open up these areas to citizens, creating green zones within the city, especially in its suburbs.
The area where the “Orti di Via Padova” are now located was formerly a car park, which had become an open-air illegal landfill in the early 2000s. Today it has instead become a green oasis, promoting integration and biodiversity in an urban centre.
Legambiente has designed a shared vegetable garden that has been cultivated collectively since 2014, sharing the produce. The aim behind it is to allow more people to enjoy the vegetable garden and together to redevelop an abandoned and degraded area to become a place of social aggregation. The vegetable gardens are located in Milan’s most multiethnic district. In the first few months, the area was cleared of debris and rubbish that had accumulated over time. Then 200 boxes with corn plants, which would otherwise have ended up in landfills, arrived from Expo Gate Milan.
Nowadays, in the 2,000 square metres available, many themes are touched upon: from the reuse of food waste to create compost and material for making furniture and structures, from beekeeping to the various ways of growing food — from hydroponics to synergistic gardens and so on. The space is open every day — except Sundays — and everyone is welcome.
Besides wanting to regenerate a forgotten space, another aim of the project is to introduce urban cultivation and improve biodiversity in the city. The “Orti di Via Padova” garden is made up of volunteers. The budget available to do what they want is therefore very limited. However, this has meant that the group has learnt to work with what is available, and learning to work with what is available means circular economy. From unsold food from the Milan Monday market that is turned into compost, to wood that is used to make new pots or furniture for the garden. From solar energy to run the two water pumps that are useful for the ‘waterfall’ in the reading corner and the pond, to the creation of two rocky areas, created with stones found during the land reclamation phase, and which now house succulent plants.
The “Orti di Via Padova” are divided into various sections, each with its own purpose. In addition to useful spaces, such as the office/kitchen with the veranda, there are various areas useful for cultivation and biodiversity. There is an area dedicated to earthworms and compost, there are two areas dedicated to flowers to attract butterflies and bees, which can then make honey in one of the four hives in the garden. One of these is an educational beehive where children and young people can be shown and explained how a beehive works.
In addition to the hydroponic vegetable garden where salads are grown, there is a space dedicated to the synergistic vegetable garden. It is a type of vegetable garden that is very respectful of nature: when planting, the needs of the plants are taken into account and a system of self-fertilisation is created, but also protection against weeds. Flowers and various vegetables share the space, while a path has been created in the middle that allows people to walk ‘in the middle of nature’.
Over the years, this garden has become a focal point for families in the neighbourhood looking for green activities, for schools wanting to teach children and young people about biodiversity, but also a space where university researchers come to put their studies into practice.
The Orti di Via Padova is in my opinion a fantastic example of an innovative solution to redevelop an area by giving it a true meaning. It is an example of a solution designed together with the community living in that area, to reuse it, instead of leaving it in a state of neglect. What this project communicates to me is a sense of long-term vision, with its educational and integrational purpose. A community taking care of its own spaces and of its own people!
