Get inspired – urban community gardens in Poland

Spring is a time when nature awakens to life, and the sun invites everyone to actively relax outdoors in a green retreat full of vegetation, trees, shrubs and flowers. Resting in nature is now not only a necessary hygiene of the mind, but also is important to take care of one’s own well-being and good social relations. But how do you escape from the daily hustle and bustle of the city to nature when you live in the city? 

See how we do it in Poland and get inspired

The ideal solution to the situation seems to be urban community gardens, which are being created as grassroots social initiatives by residents of Polish cities. Their purpose is not only to develop, green and revitalize local, accessible areas for the community. Urban community gardens carry a much deeper social message – they integrate the local community, create a place for neighborly cooperation, teach how to build good relationships with other people, shape a proactive attitude, and working in the soil allows to clear the mind and has a therapeutic effect (this is the so-called hortitherapy, or horticultural therapy). Moreover, growing a garden together shapes sensitivity to the environment and nature, and teaches pro-environmental attitudes. 

Grassroots garden initiatives are different forms and interesting approaches to the topic of green social innovation. This includes not only issues related to the purpose of such a community garden, the possibility of its establishment, the formalization of the activities of groups establishing the garden, the question of financing the neighborhood initiative, the management of the garden, ideas for local garden events such as training, workshops, etc. Also open is the question of equipping the garden with recycled elements, for example. 

What elements characterize a community garden? 

• Community-mindedness – this means that the garden is an initiative of the community of residents working for specific goals and on set democratic principles. Its members are open and ready to include new people in the gardening ranks. The goals of a community garden can be, for example, integrative activities for residents, educational or therapeutic. 
• Organization – means that the garden has a regulated legal situation in terms of the land on which it operates (for example, a lease agreement), utilities (if any are supplied to the garden), clearly defined rules for the use of the garden, including the rights and obligations of all users. The rules defining how the garden operates, all the news, are publicly available, for example, on the website of the garden or on the initiative’s social media profile. 
• Gardening activities – this means that a community garden is first and foremost a place for joint work and cultivation of the land, agro-culture on a proper urban scale. A community garden is not just a place for social gatherings or neighborhood events, but a place for working together, growing plants, vegetables or fruits. 

The most important element of this type of green social innovation – urban community gardens – is a broadly positive change in social attitudes, neighborhood relations and urban space.

Urban community gardens were found to contribute to: 

• improving the residential environment, as community gardens often occupy wasteland, neglected urban spaces, old orchards, etc., also introduce cleanup of previously neglected land; 
• social integration, involving all interested residents, including seniors, children, young people, people with disabilities, immigrants, in joint activities. Community gardens wonderfully integrate the local community; 
• building lasting neighborly relations, cooperation between people, and the anonymization of residents, typical of block housing, is also reduced; 
• spreading gardening knowledge, ecology, green changes in the environment; 
• shaping proactive attitude, cooperation, building and strengthening soft skills such as involvement in local initiative, responsibility, sensitivity, sense of responsibility for one’s own environment. 

The variety of forms of urban community gardens is enormous. We can talk about: 

• typical urban farming gardens such as vegetable garden, fruit garden, herb garden, orchard, apiary;
• gardens with a non-cultivated function that are gathering places for residents. These gardens serve social purposes, for example, they are gardens with a playground, rain gardens, retention gardens, ecological gardens;
• thematic gardens – ecological, sensory, species gardens (for example, a rose garden);
• pedagogical gardens with an educational, therapeutic function, these gardens are often established at schools, kindergartens, nursing homes;
• companion gardens or pre-gardens – the space between the walkway and the window of a given apartment. 

We can now speak of a real fashion for urban community gardens in Poland. Family Allotment Gardens (Polish abbreviation – ROD), which are located in virtually every city, are experiencing a real renaissance. They are post-communist relics typical of all former Soviet countries. The gardens are located in the territory of a given municipality, divided into small plots, equipped with traffic routes and necessary utilities (for example, water, electricity). There are almost 5,000 of them in Poland and they cover an area of 44,000 hectares, with an estimated number of developed plots of land of about 966,0001. The dream of almost every city dweller is to own an allotment, cultivate it, barbecue and relax surrounded by greenery. Currently, the largest group of allotment owners are pensioners – 46.9%, but the cultivation of gardens is often multi-generational2. 

Community gardens established as grassroots initiatives by NGOs or neighborhood groups are also popular. According to available data, there are 29 community gardens affiliated with the Lush Warsaw3(Polish: Bujna Warszawa) network in Warsaw in 2024. The Polish capital is leading the way in urban gardening and inspiring other cities to do the same.  

The value of these gardening initiatives is that urban gardeners organize networks between individual gardens/cities, offer joint training, exchange of experience, tools or plants. In addition, grassroots urban initiatives shape positive cooperation with local governments, which allows for a climate of favorability for urban gardening initiatives. Local governments actively support green initiatives of city residents by subsidizing projects submitted under, for example, City Civic Budgets or under so-called green funds. 

Here are two examples of long-established community gardens that are thriving and continue to inspire others to be similarly active: 

• Community Garden – Fort Bema (Warsaw). The garden was established in 2015 on the site of an abandoned orchard, which was developed by the local community in cooperation with the local government. Vegetables and fruits are grown in the garden, and the site is used for environmental education for local residents and schools and recreation for Varsovians. Various workshops conducted by botanists, ornithologists, beekeepers and gardeners are held there.  

See: Strona ogrodu społecznościowego na Forcie Bema w Warszawie (ogrodspolecznosciowy.pl). 

• Motyka i Słońce community garden (Warsaw). The garden was created in 2015 by two NGOs. It is located on a historic estate of Finnish houses – Jazdow. It was established, among other things, thanks to the support of the Greenpeace organization – with funds raised during the “Adopt a Bee” campaign. The garden is currently managed by an NGO – Pracownia Dóbr Wspólnych. It is this organization that co-creates the urban project “Lush Warsaw” and promotes urban agro-culture, networks Warsaw gardens and supports them financially, with advice, training or in kind.

See: Motyka i Słońce | Warsaw | Facebook 

Below are examples of smaller, but equally interesting initiatives: 

• Silesian House Garden (Katowice) – “1 Grain – 1000 Grains” project. A project of the initiative of the residents of the Śródmieście district in Katowice, whose aim is to jointly create urban vegetable gardens within housing communities, balconies, terraces, etc.  

See: Ogród Domu Śląskiego | Mapa Permakultury (permakultura.edu.pl)

• Krakow Community Garden “Macierzanki” (Krakow) – conducted in the spirit of permaculture, Its goal is to grow vegetables, herbs and fruits together and integrate the local community. 

See: Krakowski Ogród Społeczny Macierzanki | Kraków | Facebook  

• Nowe Sady Family Allotment Garden (Lodz) – run by a group of local residents, in the spirit of organic permaculture, accompanied by the interesting BTE (back to Eden) gardening idea.  

See: Permakultura Łódź | Łódź | Facebook 

Now that you know the idea of urban gardening it’s time to make your move. Get inspired and start acting locally for the benefit of others!