On Monday, April 8, the first workshops with the stakeholders of the EU project CoFarm4Cities took place in Zagreb, in the city district of Sesvete. At Brestje Elementary School, children from the third grade and their parents joined a discussion about the potential and wishes related to the urban orchard. The orchard is a pilot activity of the project, planned on a plot of land owned by the city, located to the north of the school playground along Emanuel Vidović Street.
Two workshops – one with third-grade students and the other one with their parents – provided the opportunity for big and little residents of Brestje to learn about the project, to explore through play the significance and influence of the orchard next to the school, and to learn about biodiversity and the importance of links between different elements of the ecosystem.
The students were divided into groups and each group gave their proposal for the new urban orchard. The result was shown on posters – a dream orchard for the school kids – which they presented to their classmates.
The workshop with parents brought a different, more down-to-Earth approach to the topic. Adult residents of Brestje showed great interest in planning the future orchard. The site – now an ordinary meadow – will transform into a pleasant public park with the ambition to resemble an “edible forest”, with old varieties of fruit trees, flowers and shrubs. It will be equipped with urban furniture – benches, waste containers, informative boards and other.
Two more workshops are planned, and their results will provide input data for the design of the orchard. This way, the local population of all ages will have an opportunity to influence the final result of the project, and they will embrace it and ultimately become its satisfied users.