Work with nature for the community

The public green areas in a city are usually regarded by citizens as places of attraction and by city management as tools for improving the image and attractiveness of neighbourhoods. For urban planners greenery generally forms most of the recreational and blue-green infrastructure of the city. Traditionally, these areas are considered as being the beautiful pieces of nature within the urban environment, as well as opportunities to improve the local microclimate. More recently, however, they are increasingly planned and managed as providers of ecosystem services – producing resources, regulating climate factors, supporting natural cycles and providing cultural value.

The RELAUNCHTOWIN project aims to widen the understanding of public greenery by focusing on it’s social benefits. It transforms a former grass field in the city of Burgas into a public permaculture garden. The project builds on the potential of the green spaces to support public health, social life and integration, while strengthening the vitality of public space. The intervention is expected to raise awareness of nature-based practices, foster stronger connections between neighbours and their environment, support social interaction and provide health benefits.

The permaculture concept (from “permanent agriculture”) is a well-established and proven approach formulated in the late 1970s by two Australian researchers and environmentalists in a response to the industrialised methods of farming. It has since developed into a design system for implementing the principles of nature in the creation of man-made gardens and landscapes. It is described as being “based on a multi-crop of perennial trees, shrubs, herbs (vegetables and weeds), fungi, and root systems” (source) and is widely accepted worldwide as an effective approach towards sustainability, ecology, regenerative design, circular economy in landscape development and management, as well as towards exploring the productive nature of urban spaces.

Permaculture is based on three ethics: care for 1) the Earth, 2) people, and 3) the future. It recognizes the mission of mankind to restore, safeguard and regenerate the planet, the responsibility to care for the health and well-being of our families and to share the resources and the abundance created with everyone considering the future generations.

The twelve principles of permaculture design provide guidelines on how to work and create together with nature instead of fighting against it. Their implementation involves reproducing natural patterns such as waves, spirals, branches, repetitions or nets for maximising results while minimising efforts and working with the natural energies such as sunlight, wind, water, soil, fire and topography, to provide optimal conditions for the plants and crops based on a preliminary study of their potential at the particular site.

Well known techniques for sustainable design in permaculture are:

• the herb spiral, which takes advantage of the vertical growing to maximize the growing space and provide appropriate conditions for many herb species;

• the food forest garden – a layered garden with fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers mimicking the natural forest ecosystems, and

• the 'hügelkultur' bed, using free and recycled materials in order to optimise the use of soil and water and to provide optimal conditions for growing vegetables with less efforts and resources.

Despite following common guidelines and principles, the nature of every permaculture design could be considered experimental as it is rooted in the unique set of characteristics of the location and the bespoke character of the particular solution.

The permaculture garden created by the RELAUNCHTOWIN project is planned to be a public one. It is developed on a land owned by the municipality and located at a local centre in the city. All of these three elements are not usually found in the experiences and examples of implementing the concept so far – existing permaculture gardens are in general privately owned and developed by individual enthusiasts or communities and are located in rural areas, suburbia or non-central locations in urban areas. Thus, new layers of experimentation are added to the permaculture design in Burgas – the management and the integration in public space and in public life.

The projects ambitions, for the use and creation of the public permaculture garden spans diverse areas such as:

• education – to introduce the concept of permaculture design and to popularise the benefits of nature-based solutions, focusing on involving school pupils and elderly in planting and maintenance of the garden;

• public health – to provide the local community with the therapeutic effects of spending time outdoors, taking care of plants and working with soil, especially considering the accessibility of the garden for disabled people;

• social life – to provide spaces for social interactions and to support the social life in the neighbourhood, to enhance communication between different social groups and to engage disadvantaged groups like elderly, disabled, minorities and immigrants;

• management – to test the resilience of the concept in public space and its efficiency in terms of resources needed for the maintenance of a public greenery;

• design – to observe the adoption among citizens of an uncommon design approach to green areas in public space, which is supporting nature rather than aiming at beautification.

The location of the public permaculture garden in Burgas is supporting the project ambitions – it is accessible, visible, recognisable, yet spatially defined, providing a sense of seclusion without losing the visual connection to the adjacent open and busy public space. The design deals with the challenges of efficient use of resources, especially water, and is considering all specific characteristics of the location. The city is working on solutions for ensuring the longevity of the garden including measures for mitigating the risk of vandalism, for establishing clear rules for the use of the garden and for ensuring proper maintenance through training and informal knowledge sharing.

Realising the social benefits of the public permaculture garden demands an inclusive process. It starts with the design elements providing accessibility and comfort, and continues with the involvement of the urban authorities and diverse bodies working with the targeted social groups in the development of the concept for management, functioning and maintenance of the garden.

The Biotiful farm – the project partner developing the permaculture design in the RELAUNCHTOWIN project hosted one of the meetings of the stakeholders in their farm located at the city outskirts. Based on their experience on the field and when educating children, the farmers clearly described the essence of permaculture – its core ethics, design principles and their practical implementation.

During the visit the participating representatives of the municipal directorates responsible for social services and working with socially excluded, deprived groups, minorities and migrants were introduced to the concept of involving these groups in the public permaculture garden. The discussion underlined the opportunities for garden therapy and informal learning and opened the topic of the management issues related to use of the garden.

The public permaculture garden developed by RELAUNCHTOWIN is pioneering a new approach towards urban greenery underlining its productive nature along with its aesthetic and climatic characteristics. Beyond its expected efficiency and low ecological footprint, the most valuable benefits are social rather than technical or economic and related to improved public health and enhanced social life. Moreover, it has the potential to raise the awareness about the benefits of working with nature for the public good and of implementing nature-based solutions in public spaces.

This solution is promising, scalable and transferable, as it presents an open and inclusive process and follows generic design principles rather than delivering a particular design solution. Furthermore, it could easily be adapted to other green areas and neighbourhoods in the city – both large and small, as well as to specific social contexts and to different functional roles of various locations. Its inherent flexibility allows for the solution to be transferred to diverse regulatory and climatic contexts.

The author would like to thank Sylvia and Dimitar form Biotiful for the support in prepaing this article, for sharing their knowledge and for the inspiring tour on their farm.

The photo on top shows the pond in the Biotiful permaclture farm.