Cultural exchange in a Community Garden
Learning with, from and about each other! – Our Common Garden
On April 2022 DOZ e.V. started a new participative Garden Project in Leipzig, Germany. Together with our cooperation partner, gemeinsam grün e.V., we are creating a community garden: Our Common Garden. The aim is the participation and emancipation of people and families with a refugee or migration background through their involvement in the creation of a community garden. In Our Common Garden we aim to open the garden to everyone and create a place for intercultural exchange and Learning.
We organize workshops on gardening topics, such as food cultivation and harvesting, biodiversity in the city and the use of natural resources, as well as cooking events and gardening days open for everyone. We also celebrate open festivals at the garden with music, food, and other kind of activities for all publics.
No experience in gardening yet? No problem! Through the planned workshops, open encounters, and the creation of teams on different garden topics, we want to learn with each other, from each other and about each other!
Contact and Address
You can contact us under: p.sanchez@doz.international (Paula Sánchez Alandete, Coordinator)/ eddie.jahn@doz.international (Eddie Jahn, Coordinator and Contact person at the Garden)
Or just come and visit us at the Garden during one of our events (see Upcoming events)
SALVIA – der barrierefreie Bildungsgarten
(direkt am Toom-Baumarkt)
Riesaer Straße 104
04319 Leipzig
Garden Season 2023 and upcoming activities
Garden-Upcoming-EventsDownload
Our new open kitchen for the garden!
This year we are organize following activities. They are open for everyone.
- Open Garden Day, every Wednesday from 9-17h : Come and garden with us. You don´t need any previous knowledge, just interest in meeting new people, learning new things and enjoying being outside.
- Open Garden Day and Cooking all together, every Friday from 12-18h:
Every Friday we garden and cook together. With the concept of “Küche für alle” (Kitchen/Cooking for everyone) we cook recipes from different parts of the world and using ingredients and herbs from the very own garden. Would you like to share recipes from your country or culture? Would you like to participate in the cooking? Then write to us at: sanchez@doz.international. - Intercultural Late-Summer Festival at 30.09, from 14-19h: Like last season and with of the Intercultural Weeks in Leipzig, we celebrated cultural diversity with a summer goodbye party at the garden. Cultural and crafting activities, Life-Music and delicious food await for you!
Besides we planned different workshops for the Garden season and for the early Autum. Stay tuned for all our updates in our Social Media or write us if you have any questions: p.sanchez@doz.international
Our new open kitchen for the garden!
During two workshops and various working days, we successfully constructed a communal open kitchen and a dome oven using clay and other recycled materials. The idea and necessity for an open kitchen emerged during the first year of the project, with the initial intercultural cooking events. The community desired a spacious area where they could cook together and share recipes from different corners of the world.
Now, this newly constructed communal kitchen stands as a focal point, drawing attention and admiration within the garden. Built with clay, repurposed glass bottles, wood, and other sustainable materials, it serves as a central eye-catching feature. Volunteers worked collaboratively, fostering a sense of community, and belonging throughout the project.
A huge thank you to all the hard-working helpers who dedicated their time and effort to contribute to the creation of our wonderful kitchen.
Activities Implemented Under This Project
Garden season 2022
- Season Opening Party, Mai 7, 2022, SALVIA Garden, Leipzig, Germany: This event is yearly organized by our partner, gemeinsam grün e.V.. This time we could support with the organization as a kick-off our the Our Common Garden Project, where we presented the project to potential participants and interested people.
- Open Garden Day and Cooking events, every Friday from July 1, 2022, SALVIA Garden, Leipzig, Germany: From Juli until the end of October we opened the doors of the garden to participants to come and garden and learn all together every Friday. After the gardening session and sometimes with ingredients harvested at the very same garden, we cooked recipes from Cameroon, Nigeria or Spain, sharing different cultures and traditions. This helped to rise the community feeling between the participants and create a very welcoming atmosphere for new visitors and participants.
- Intercultural Festival, October 2, 2022, SALVIA Garden, Leipzig, German: With reason of the Intercultural Weeks in Leipzig, we celebrated an all-public festival at the garden to close up the summer, present the results of the first season of the project and enjoy with our participants and with other visitors. We had a Syrian buffet, danced to the music of local artist and enjoy a puppet theater, among other activities. We received more than 100 people at the garden.
- Environmental and Gardening Workshops, from July to October, 2022, SALVIA Garden, Leipzig, Germany: In July a butterfly workshop and the construction of an herb spiral were carried out together with the DAZ (“Deutsch als Zweitsprache” German as second language) class of the Herz Gymnasium, a high school close to the garden. In the next weeks, there was a workshop on growing vegetables from Cameroon, which was organized internally and led by one of our volunteers. In autumn, two open workshops took place, one on mushrooms cultivation and one on pruning trees. With these activities, we could reach participants from the close neighborhoods and increase the gardening knowledge of the participants.
- Internal Workshop on intercultural competences, November 9, 2022, Leipzig, Germany: We conducted an internal workshop with the project staff and the garden team of our partner, gemeinsam grün e.V., in order to exchange ideas on rules and steps for intercultural opening in the work of the garden association. The result was a draft of rules and information for the community garden.
- Evaluation round and planning with participants, January 28, 2023, Leipzig, Germany: To evaluate our first season in the project and start planning the activities of 2023, we carried out an evaluation and planning round with some our volunteers and regular participants. Since the Our Common Garden is an integration, participative project it is essential for the project to work hand in hand with the participants and involve them in the planning and execution of the activities.
Presence on the media
- MDR Selbstbestimmt: Regional TV Program about people with and without disabilities who work for inclusion and self-determination (in German) – 31.08.2022.
https://www.mdr.de/religion/salvia-barrierefreier-bildungsgarten-stadtgarten-100.html
- Featured in the Video „Die Welt vor Ort“(The world on site) from the City of Leipzig (in German)–16.09.2022
https://www.leipzig.de/news/news/stadt-leipzig-erhaelt-hauptpreis-von-kommune-bewegt-welt - Interview and article on a local magazine Die KiPPE “Ein Garten für alle” (A garden for everyone), Edition N° 271 (in German) – November 2022
https://www.kippe-leipzig.de/15-news/themen/631-leipziger-gaerten-teil-7 - Interview in a local Radio, RadioBlau, Mittagspause (Midday Break) – 03.05.2023
Interview not online anymore.
