Orchards in the center of Madrid

Today we talk about orchards in the center of Madrid. The Centro district is an administrative district of the city of Madrid and constitutes the oldest area of ​​the city. It is bounded on the south, with the districts of Arganzuela and Latina; to the east it borders the districts of Retiro and Salamanca; to the north with the district of Chamberí and to the west with the district of Moncloa-Aravaca. The population reaches 149,718 inhabitants. The district is divided into the following six neighborhoods: Palacio, Embajadores, Cortes, Justicia, Universidad and Sol.. It is the most touristic district of Madrid, as it has numerous places of interest and monuments, such as Puerta del Sol, Plaza de Oriente, Plaza Mayor, Gran Vía, Plaza de España, the Royal Palace or the Cathedral. de la Almudena and… a lot of orchards!

Urban gardens in the center of Madrid

TOBACCO GARDEN

The building of the former Embajadores Tobacco Factory is publicly owned, is a historical heritage site and is listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest. In the year 2000, the building became vacant and remained abandoned for 10 years. After several failed multimillion-dollar projects, the General Directorate of Fine Arts granted the transfer of the center in 2012 to the CSA La Tabacalera Cultural Association, thus creating a cultural center that understands culture as a notion that encompasses the creative and social capacities of the citizenship, which not only includes artistic production, but alsosocial action, critical thinking and the dissemination of ideas, works and procedures that seek to expand and democratize the public sphere.

The community garden of La Tabacalera (TBK) was born with the center itself. It is located in the east patio of the enclosure, and has three terraces and a lot of different containers in which to plant. As a community garden, it aims to meet at least two objectives: firstly, to be a meeting and learning place for people interested in improving the relationship between nature and the urban environment and, secondly, to occupy the city with care practices of the land and its processes, which are generally unknown due to forgetfulness or loss of the link with the rural.

They meet on Sundays at 12 at TBK, on ​​Calle Embajadores, nº 53. If you want to know more about this orchard, visit our post « Huerto de LA TABACALERA. A community garden in Madrid «

THE BARLEY FIELD

It was at the beginning of 2012 when this garden began to be built on the Campo de la Cebada site, a piece of land that was left abandoned after the demolition of a sports center next to the famous “Mercado de la Cebada” in the La Latina neighborhood. Having no natural soil, eight wooden cultivation tables were built. Different areas of the field were also planted and landscaped, such as the aromatic and native plant garden, and they even have a small greenhouse. All this is cultivated in an ecological way, making its own compost and associating and rotating crops, among other practices.

Like all community gardens, in addition to a garden, it is a meeting space, to do, think, create and enjoy together.If you want to stop by, the garden group meets on Thursday afternoons from 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday mornings from 12:00 p.m.

If you want to know it better, do not miss Lucía’s article « Community garden in Madrid: THE CEBADA FIELD »

WONDERFUL PATIO – SOLAR DE GRILO

This orchard was created by an open and self-managed collective that claims and acts for the recovery and revitalization of urban spaces for the creation of endowments that provide social benefits to the community. They defend the creation of green spaces in cities as meeting points for people, for community work, to relate to nature.

From this space they intend to learn and teach, collectively, about: urban gardens, ethnobotany, the manufacture of natural cosmetics, organic farming, permaculture, biodynamics, crop associations and rotations, the medicinal uses of plants, the reuse of materials, etc… and cultivate a small garden, demonstrating that in any space and in any container, at a minimum cost, you can have a garden in the city and enjoy the many associated benefits.

They are located at Calle Antonio Grilo, 8 (meters: Noviciado or Plaza de España).

THIS IS A SQUARE

This is a Plaza is a group of people who have come together around the project of creating a public space in Lavapiés. The objective is to build an alternative place for leisure, socialization, exchange and development of the social fabric. It is a community garden where you can meet, play sports, play, organize events, exchange time and objects. Its organic garden is made up of nine productive terraces and one for educational activities with children. This is a Plaza is open on Sundays from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m., although in summer it also opens some days during the week in the afternoon (Calle Doctor Fourquet, 24).

You can read Dani’s post about the visit made by the Agrohuerto team to É sta es una Plaza: « Community garden in Madrid: ESTAESUNAPLAZA Lavapiés».

Here is the video of the visit:

THE TERRACE

El Bancal is an association dedicated to working through the garden with people in different fields: environmental, social, educational, cultural…

The experience of working with groups of children, youth, the elderly or disabled people in different workshops in the garden led to the creation of an association in order to spread enthusiasm for the world of agroecology, both for therapeutic purposes, educational, community and social as well as purely technical to be able to develop a garden adapting to the environment in which it works, to the needs of each group and, above all, to the needs of the space (urban or rural) reusing and recycling materials, making a better use of waste and respecting or recovering the environment for its use and enjoyment.

The Bancal team is made up of very varied profiles: engineers, socio-cultural animators, educators, graduates in political science or communication… but all with a common goal: to train in the use of the garden as an integrating and cooperative leisure tool, within the criteria of environmental education, sustainable development and development education, introducing key concepts such as the limits of growth or food sovereignty.

I hope you have found this article about orchards in the center of Madrid interesting. As you have seen, the center of Madrid is full of organic urban gardens, so if you come to visit us you have no excuse not to stop by one of them and meet a lot of magnificent people who are part of these communities. I hope you have found the article interesting and do not hesitate to tell us about your experiences.

Until next time!