How to apply for an urban garden in Madrid

Hello farmers. In this article we are going to discuss how we can request the administration to create an urban garden.

It is very important to know that the land in Madrid where the urban orchards are carried out are property of the administration that will be transferred to a non-profit entity. Normally, the neighborhood associations of each neighborhood are used for this purpose. Obtaining the transfer of the land and municipal support for the assembly of the orchard at this time is somewhat complicated.

Through the FRAVM (Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid) a kind of protocol organized in 6 steps has been created for the application process.

1. Find suitable land.We need a piece of land that is at least 50 square meters and without very marked slopes. It is advisable that the enclosure is fenced and it has to be a land that does not have a beneficial use for the citizens. Another aspect that must be taken into account is that it has a nearby water intake.
2. Request an appointment with the District Council.This is the point where we will have to expose our project. It may be necessary to discuss the project with the person in charge of Environmental Education at the town hall. We can also request the collaboration of the Department of Parks and Gardens to provide us with information about the fence, the suitability of the land, the procedures that we have to carry out with water, the need to provide good land, etc.
3. Prepare a project.It is logical to think that if we are going to request the transfer of a space to the administration, we need to write a project that serves as a presentation of the idea, it must collect the following information:
   1. Project’s name.
   2. Basic description of the project.A synthesis of the project will be carried out, which allows understanding the purpose of making a garden.
   3. Association or people presenting the initiative.Indicating other projects they have carried out and the objectives for which they are involved in it.
   4. Reality of the area and benefits it would bring at a social, cultural, environmental, educational and leisure level.
   5. Relationships of support and collaboration that will be established in the areas, such as schools, centers for the elderly, health centers… This type of collaboration will be fundamental when specifying the tasks that are going to be carried out since, for example, a nearby institute intends to carry out planting work, planting will be proposed for the day of the visit.
   6. Description of the space and location.This point is of fundamental importance when studying the possible accesses to the orchard or the space that must be traveled to reach it.
   7. Description of the basic design of the orchard.On this page you can find a lot of information on how to design an orchard, such as: method of operating walls in Crestall, species to cultivate such as lettuce, rotation that we are going to follow, and much more.
   8. Description of the municipal support needs for the start-up of the orchard.For example, the need for heavy machinery to prepare the land.
   9. Start-up strategies.
   10. Basic proposal for regulations and rules of use.Legally, a series of rules will have to be established to make the operation of the orchard as dynamic as possible.
4. Go to the Municipal Heritage Service.When we have already found the perfect piece of land to make our garden, we have to go to this service to request information about the ownership of the space and how it is affected by the urban approach. The spaces classified as FREE or for EDUCATIONAL USE are the ones that can be used to install an urban garden.
5. Before having the land concession.The orchard will have to be publicized and the working groups consolidated.
6. Land concession.Once the land has been granted, it will be necessary to carry out an activity plan for its proper functioning. Depending on what we have described in the project, we will begin to carry out the crops, always taking into account the date that we meet.

Following these 6 steps in order is essential because, if they are not followed, it could lead us to a point where we have a spectacular project but it cannot be carried out because we have not carried out the necessary steps.

Finally, it is necessary to know that these spaces need a few hours of work that have to be fulfilled, since if not, the orchard could fail due to not carrying out the necessary tasks, such as, for example, complying with the irrigation calendar taking into account what days it has rained and the amount of water that has fallen in our area.

I hope you liked it and that it is useful to you. All the best.