Urban gardens in the District of Moratalaz (Madrid)

Hello to all Farmers! Today I bring you a summary of the urban gardens of Moratalaz. Moratalaz is the name of a district located in the southeast of the city of Madrid. It has a population of 104,923 people and an area of ​​6.34 km² and borders on the districts of:

• Vicalvaro, to the east.
• Vallecas Bridge, to the south.
• Retreat, to the west.
• Ciudad Lineal, to the north (neighborhood of La Elipa).
  

  

It emerged as a dormitory neighborhood in Madrid during the 1960s. For centuries, and until 1959, it was an area with small country houses and flocks of sheep, and now it has taken up that rural style with the creation of different urban gardens, so… let’s meet them!

Urban gardens in Moratalaz

Ecological urban garden Siglo XXI of Moratalaz

The educational community of the Colegio Siglo XXI, together with the Moratalaz Avance Neighborhood Association, developed a project to create an ecological urban garden managed by the school, but open to the participation of the neighbours. The chosen plot is municipal property and its only use was as an improvised parking lot and a place where the pets in the area relieved themselves. This plot is adjacent to the school patio, it has an entrance through C/ Ramón Areces and access from the school patio. Pretty:

– to the east with the playground of the Colegio Siglo XXI;

– to the west with C/ Ramón Areces;

– to the north with the community of owners of C/ Lituania nº 2.

The school-community urban garden project gives continuity to another small garden already installed within the school grounds. Among the objectives sought in this project is promoting optimal use of underused and potentially degraded neighborhood areas, contributing to environmental awareness of the school community and neighbors regarding local and global environmental problems, promoting in the school understanding of the concepts of biodiversity, ecosystems, basic ecology, integration with the environment and respect for the environment, fostering the values ​​of teamwork and mutual cooperation, bringing students closer to rural and agricultural cultureand generate meeting spaces between the school community and neighbors.

Garden of the Albertia Moratalaz Nursing Home

This residence, like many other centers for the elderly, has an urban garden that is also therapeutic, as it brings multiple benefits to the elderly who participate in it. The garden encourages creativity and allows these people to remain active, also allowing them to exercise such important cognitive functions as planning, sequencing, memory, attention and spatial and temporal orientation.

The residence is so involved in this project that it participates in the contest of the Community of Madrid «Cultivating the garden». In fact, in the II edition of this contest, the Albertia de Moratalaz Residence hosted the awards ceremony in which the winners were among 16 participating residences.

CEIP Pasamonte school garden

Given the current environmental crisis and the problems that arise from it, there is a need to develop alternatives that confront the school with this problem, from early childhood education to all sectors of the educational community. That is why it was decided to start a school garden project in this center. Educational activity around the school garden, makes this a place where students can get to know in a practical way the different tasks that have to be carried out to obtain the fruits that are born from the earth and to value and respect nature. The garden is based on a participatory methodology, in which all the students have something to do; and active, since the school garden is used as a place for practices and experimentation of the topics worked on both in the classroom and in the initial explanations in the garden itself before each activity, inviting observation, manipulation and intervention on the environment..

In general, among the tasks that are carried out in the seasons that the activity of the orchard lasts are the preparation of the land for the first sowings: plowing and fertilization, the sowing of vegetables and observation of their birth, the maintenance of crops: protection against frost, support irrigation and pest prevention, organization of crops: rotation and association of plants, transplantation, maintenance of the compost bin, of course, harvesting.

In addition, in this center they are very prepared, since they have a series of activities to carry out on rainy days in the classroom, or in the garden itself on the days in which the work on the ground has been completed, such as the manufacture of seedbeds with reused materials, aromatic workshops, food identification activities provided by the garden, guessing games about the elements of the garden, planters with recycled bottles and creation of a seed bank.

That’s all, those of you who live in Moratalaz already know where to go if you get bitten by the urban horticulture bug. If you know of any other orchard in Moratalaz, don’t hesitate to comment on it! Until next time!