Local Food. Local Jobs.
Intercultural Community Garden in Austria
In response to Aubree's invitation to explain about our garden project in Austria. You can find photos on my
Wellfedneighbor Page
People came together to work who probably wouldn't otherwise have met. Our "Intercultural Community Garden" brings together people of different educational backgrounds, incomes, ages, nationalities and physical abilities. One member is wheelchair bound and two others have disabilities. The project focuses on women, half of them immigrants.
We have one professional organic gardener, who helps ten to fifteen participating gardeners and their families and friedns with advice if required. Then there are about 130-150 supporters who follow our website or help with fundraising activities or contribute with seeds. About half of the active gardeners and many of the wider community participate in the regional LETS-System: Local Exchange Trading System based on working hours with online accounting.
The project is situated on a former farm about 15 minutes from the center of our regional capital Klagenfurt by bus. There are 700 m² of individual and collective beds, a small building with kitchen and bathroom, and surrounding grasslands suitable for activities such as dancing ! There is a nice path to go there by bicycle and members can go there any time and spend the whole day at the garden. Every two weeks we have a meeting of the group.
Once a year we organise a soup party where neighbors, friends and supporters are invited.
During the garden season we have a special table in the kitchen which we use to practice the gift economy. It works very simply, people put gifts or goods for reuse on the table and anyone can take them !
On my "Wellfedneighbor" page you can find photos. And there is our german website http://www.astern.at with a few links on it.
For general information on "Intercultural Community Gardens" see http://www.stiftung-interkultur.de/intercultural
If you have any questions I'm looking forward to share my experiences with you.
Sabine
Wellfedneighbor Page
People came together to work who probably wouldn't otherwise have met. Our "Intercultural Community Garden" brings together people of different educational backgrounds, incomes, ages, nationalities and physical abilities. One member is wheelchair bound and two others have disabilities. The project focuses on women, half of them immigrants.
We have one professional organic gardener, who helps ten to fifteen participating gardeners and their families and friedns with advice if required. Then there are about 130-150 supporters who follow our website or help with fundraising activities or contribute with seeds. About half of the active gardeners and many of the wider community participate in the regional LETS-System: Local Exchange Trading System based on working hours with online accounting.
The project is situated on a former farm about 15 minutes from the center of our regional capital Klagenfurt by bus. There are 700 m² of individual and collective beds, a small building with kitchen and bathroom, and surrounding grasslands suitable for activities such as dancing ! There is a nice path to go there by bicycle and members can go there any time and spend the whole day at the garden. Every two weeks we have a meeting of the group.
Once a year we organise a soup party where neighbors, friends and supporters are invited.
During the garden season we have a special table in the kitchen which we use to practice the gift economy. It works very simply, people put gifts or goods for reuse on the table and anyone can take them !
On my "Wellfedneighbor" page you can find photos. And there is our german website http://www.astern.at with a few links on it.
For general information on "Intercultural Community Gardens" see http://www.stiftung-interkultur.de/intercultural
If you have any questions I'm looking forward to share my experiences with you.
Sabine
Comment
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Comment by Aubree Taylor on March 6, 2010 at 10:54am -
Yes...I will definitely explore those. There's several communities around that use different time bank systems. I believe Lawrence, KS and Eureka Springs AR both have one in place. I just visited the Community forge page and it got me EXCITED! Can't wait to explore this further. Thanks for your inspiration and resources.
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Comment by Sara Kali Sabine Stern on March 6, 2010 at 12:40am -
The idea of community gardens and LETS system seem to go together very well. It's all about localisation and cooperation anyway.
If you like find out with type of LETS system you want this may be interesting with John Rogers
If you want to find software that is easy to use probably this Communityforge or mail directly to Matthew Slater matslats@gmail.com
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Comment by Aubree Taylor on March 4, 2010 at 11:01pm
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Thank you so much for sharing this with us Sabine. Very inspiring! Would love to put a LETS system in place here in Springfield.
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Comment by Bill Buron on March 3, 2010 at 10:19am
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Wonderful photos of your Intercultural Community Garden. I hope the community gardens of Springfield are as nice.
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