Urban gardens in Tetuán (Madrid)

Hello dear Agrohuerters!Today I want to return to the articles of Urban Gardens in Madrid, which I had somewhat forgotten about, and I am going to do it with the Urban Gardens of the Tetuán district. Do not miss it!

The Madrid district of Tetuan

Tetuán is a district belonging to the city of Madrid and administratively organized into six neighbourhoods: Bellas Vistas, Cuatro Caminos, Castillejos, Almenara, Valdeacederas and Berruguete.

The Tetuán district is very heterogeneous, both architecturally and socially. In it we can find from modern skyscrapers, in the AZCA complex, Madrid’s financial center, to small houses of rural or semi-rural typology, heritage of the neighborhood in its origins, in the western part of the district. Bravo Murillo street is the backbone of the district, which borders Chamartín, Fuencarral-El Pardo, Moncloa-Aravaca, Chamberí.

The origins of the neighborhood go back to the War of Africa, in 1860, when the victorious army camped in the meadow of Amaniel, north of Madrid, while preparing for the triumphal entry into the capital, which never happened. Around the camp, which was becoming permanent from provisional, merchants settled and the neighborhood known until today as «Tetuán de las Victorias» (after the Moroccan city of Tetuán, from where the soldiers participating in said campaign returned) was created..

Today, the concern of the neighbors for the environment and the proper functioning of the neighborhood itself, has led to the emergence of several urban gardens, do you want to know them?

Orchards in Tetouan

TETUÁN LANDSCAPE PROJECT: THE TETUÁN GARDEN

The Tetuán Project for the improvement of the urban landscape of Tetuán aims to develop an experience to explore the possibilities of improving the urban landscape through interventions of an artistic nature. This action is among those included in the Strategic Plan for Culture of the Madrid City Council 2012-2015 (PECAM) and is part of the strategic lines aimed at promoting creativity, public participation and dissemination in the improvement of the urban landscape. The project contemplates, therefore, two areas of work: on the one hand, the one aimed at artists and their interventions and, on the other, the tasks of dissemination and citizen participation. Currently part of the #PaisajeTetuán work team is still active to continue the project.

Within the framework of the Tetouan Urban Landscape Improvement project, the use of a municipally owned plot was transferred to develop several projects: an intervention in walls, an enclosure prototype and an urban garden. Moenia was in charge of managing and coordinating the actions to carry out the orchard. Now the orchard has already passed into the hands of the neighbors, who meet on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon.

La Huerta de Tetuán, which is the name given to it, is located on the site of Matadero street, behind the Juan Ramón Jiménez school. Several groups and cultural agents, as well as guest artists, are working on the development of an urban garden, with the collaboration of dozens of residents of Tetuán. Do you dare to participate?

OTHER URBAN ORCHARDS IN TETOUAN

LA VENTILLA URBAN GARDEN

The urban garden of La Ventilla emerged as a neighborhood initiative within the project of Good Environmental Practices in Tetuán Tierra-Aire. The project began in 2009 with a grant from the Madrid City Council (Agenda 21 Department) which included several lines of work:

– Promotion of mobility by bicycle (bicycle repair workshop).
– Start-up of an urban garden.
– Sustainable constructions.
– Ecological and healthy consumption.

The garden was launched at the beginning of 2010 after conducting training workshops on the creation and maintenance of theoretical and practical urban gardens. They have also organized conferences on the human habitat, construction of straw houses and cane structures. As a practice, they have built an «eye greenhouse» that collects and heats rainwater designed by the architect Ricardo Higueras Cárdenas.

On the other hand, they have carried out alternative projects to support the sustainability of the orchard (self-sufficiency of water and creation of drip irrigation systems; preparation and care of seedbeds; manufacture of compost for fertilizer …), they have created a live hedge of native plants around the orchard that acts as a thermal regulator, wind protector, refuge for pest control fauna and insulation against pollution.

CEIP DOCTOR FEDERICO RUBIO: SCHOOL GARDEN

The school garden is a fundamental tool in the educational and pedagogical activity of the students. Its action is aimed at developing and strengthening in students attitudes of respect and awareness towards the environment that surrounds us.

The idea of ​​a school garden is not conceived only to reinforce the contents of the Natural Sciences area, but rather has an interdisciplinary character, since it reinforces, in addition to the area mentioned above, the area of ​​Mathematics (measurements of plants, weight of harvested products), the Language area (you can work on vocabulary, riddles, stories, proverbs…). However, in addition to reinforcing and working on different curricular contents, it allows students to develop values ​​such as socialization, solidarity, cooperation, commitment, perseverance, order, responsibility and effort.

Among its main objectives we find: to promote environmental education in the center, to initiate students in agricultural work tasks in the garden, to learn about different types of fruits and vegetables, to learn about agricultural techniques and to promote the appreciation of effort and its relationship with the appreciation of the products obtained.

This is all about the orchards of the Tetouan district. I hope you are encouraged to participate in one of them, they will welcome you with open arms!

See you at the next stop!