The Benefits and Challenges of Community Gardens: Le Chant des Cailles

 

By Katherine Amber, Violette Lemieux, & Catherine Lachmann

 

La Ferme de Chant des Cailles, located next to the garden city Le Logis-Floréal in Brussels, came to life in August 2012 through the advocacy of local residents. The project is a combination of professional agriculture, le maraîchers, where local residents can sign-up to participate in a form of pick-your-own community supported agriculture, and a jardin collectif, managed by local residents. The project also includes a sheep rearing enterprise, Le Bercail, that produces meat and dairy professionally. Le Chant des Cailles is emblematic of the benefits of urban agriculture and community gardening, and also of the struggles these tenuous green spaces face.

 

Le Chant des Cailles Maraîchers (Source: GoodFood)

 

Looking back, the origins of community gardens can be traced to the Industrial Revolution in England, where people began to grow their own food because increasing population left families with few resources. Like today, many city dwellers didn’t have access to private backyards, so community spaces were shared and reworked into gardens. Similarly, in the United States, community gardens gained popularity during the 1893 depression, when the Mayor of Detroit pressured owners of vacant lots to allow the unemployed to garden and grow food on the unused land (Hanna, 2000). Soon, other American cities developed similar policies, although once the depression receded, the interests of real-estate won out and those gardens were demolished (Hanna, 2000). Later, during the World Wars, community gardens flourished. Renamed “Victory Gardens,” they produced over $5 million worth of food (Hanna, 2000). But like the depression era, when the wars ended, the Victory Gardens were once again abandoned. In Belgium, community gardens have a similar origin, laying their roots in the 19th century as allotment gardens rented to workers to improve their quality of life. By the end of the 19th century the allotments became collective, and today you’ll find 651 community gardens in the Brussels Capital Region (Del Suolo, 2017).

 

Interest in community gardens has waxed and waned over the years, often following patterns of crises. No matter their popularity in the given moment – although the looming climate crisis has once again instigated a boom in interest – community gardens provide undeniable benefits to mental and physical health, community building and sense of place, and food sovereignty, not to mention the environmental benefits of greening. Community gardens offer an oasis to develop a relationship with the earth, proven to reduce stress and depression through relaxation and increased self-esteem (Siewell, et al., 2015). Growing food empowers communities by providing the resources and knowledge towards self-sufficiency. Gardens have the capacity to build communities by bringing people together across demographic lines. When community gardens are inclusive, by laying the ground for equitable and diverse participation, working cooperatively, and tailoring tasks to varying abilities, they can increase the social connectedness in a neighborhood (Gray, et al., 2022). When community members have the ability, and opportunity, to have a physical and visible impact on their environment, they develop a stronger sense of connection with their neighborhood.

 

Le Chant des Cailles empowers local residents to work together in collaboration, choosing what to plant and how to organize workload, while providing a space for exchanging knowledge and food. The project also engages a wider audience in sustainability through its Quartiers Durables, subsidized by Brussel.Environnement. The Quartiers Durables organizes public activities like: Les Terrasses de Maurice, a collective garden with a henhouse and compost; Festival des 7 Lieux, festive days with open-air cinema, and workshops; and a participative grocery store, which local residents help manage. The farm also provides environmental benefits, aligning with the collective’s goal to demonstrate the potential of sustainable urban agriculture. To promote biodiversity, the farm cultivates about fifty plants and edible flowers, and organizes participative workshops to share the use and preparation of those plants. As another form of community building, the collective is a place to exchange organic farming methods among the 70 amateur gardeners who work in the potager.

 

Community days at the Chant des Cailles (Source: Le Chant des Cailles)

 

Le Chant des Cailles faces active challenges on numerous fronts. The collective was granted permission to farm on the land through a social housing cooperative, and are only allowed to stay until future construction projects begin. Part of the land is already in the process of being developed to build around a dozen social housing units. Some local politicians support maintaining the green space, with bourgmestre Olivier Deleuze claiming the land should be, “entirely reserved for urban agriculture” (Quynh, 2023). The sheep-rearing project, Le Bercail, has been in conflict with a neighborhood group, Les Riverains du Parc, who mobilized against the projects taking place on the site, despite both groups having similar objectives and ambitions. The Bercail is also currently in legal violation because of a PPAS (plan particulier d’affectation des sols) which prohibits any construction and commercial activity. To be regularized, Le Bercail submitted applications for planning permission to transform and restore the fields.

 

Le Bercail (Source: Le Soir)

 

As Le Chant des Cailles illustrates, community gardens face substantial challenges. Like with Le Bercail, obtaining planning permission to develop a project is often a real administrative battle, and in the context of creating a community garden, it can take years. For the Chant des Cailles, it took four years of procedure before the file could be submitted to a public enquiry! Not to mention that for property developers, getting their hands on a new plot of land is a godsend, especially in a large city like Brussels where property speculation is quickly driving up rents and land prices.

This threat of construction and eviction is paralyzing and slows down initiatives on a city-wide scale. Often cities are faced with an impossible decision – to maintain rare and vital green space, or develop much needed social housing, a choice that feels like picking for scraps at the feet of real-estate interests. Since the onset of the community gardening movement, these green spaces have been threatened by insecurity, preventing projects like Le Chant de Cailles from reaching their full potential. While there is no shortage of opportunities to launch gardening projects, the predation of property developers, conflicts with local residents, and administrative procedures, prevent initiatives from becoming a reality. Appropriate legal frameworks need to be created by making planning permission for shared gardens easier to obtain, and developing a system similar to a Community Land Trust, with land acquired by and managed for the good of the community, capped in value and reserved for a defined use (in this case, as a community garden).

However, there are many hopeful initiatives and calls for projects financed by the city. For example, the Sustainable Neighbourhood Contracts for the creation of green spaces and socio-economic actions, and calls for projects from Brussels Environment, such as Inspirons le Quartier, which provides funding (3,000€ per project for 5 projects) and practical tools for setting-up a garden. The GoodFood project promotes the creation of new urban agriculture sites, along with networks of initiatives and toolkits. Finally, the King Baudouin Foundation provides funding for initiatives promoting neighborhood transition and biodiversity. In Antwerp, SAMMO has carried out projects for the homeless including shared gardens with positive and optimistic results!

It is our hope that after reading about some amazing projects and the potential of gardening that you have the tools and feel inspired to get your hands in the soil!

 

 

References

 

Blanchet-Cohen, N. (2014) Igniting citizen participation in creating healthy built environments: the role of community organizations. Community Development Journal, 50(2). doi:10.1093/cdj/bsu031.

 

Comment cà marche ? CLTB. https://www.cltb.be/comment-ca-marche/.

 

Contrats de Quartiers Durables: Cinq Types d’Actions. Urban.Brussels. https://quartiers.brussels/1/page/definition/cinq-types-dactions.

 

Del Suolo, A. (2017, December 16). Map of community gardens in Brussels (Belgium). Gruppo Suolo Europa. https://angelidelsuolo.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/map-of-community-gardens-in-brussels-belgium/#:~:text=In%20Brussels%2C%20a%20map%20indicates,those%20in%20the%20Wallonia%20region.

 

Enquête publique pour la transformation de la bergerie et la restauration d’une annexe au Couvent Sainte Anne. La Ferme du Chant des Cailles. http://www.chantdescailles.be/enquete-publique-pour-la-transformation-de-la-bergerie-et-la-restauration-dune-annexe-au-couvent-sainte-anne/.

 

Guides Potager : réseaux et formations. Environment.Brussels. https://environnement.brussels/citoyen/services-et-demandes/conseils-et-accompagnement/guides-potager-reseaux-et-formations.

 

Hanna, A.K. (2000) Rethinking Urban Poverty: A Look at Community Gardens. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 20(3), 207-216.

 

Mise en Réseau des Projects Collectifs Citoyens Good Food. Inspirons Le Quartier. https://inspironslequartier.brussels/mise-en-reseau-des-projets-collectifs-citoyens-good-food/.

 

Project Sustainable Neighborhood. SAAMO Antwerpen. https://www.saamo.be/antwerpen/project/project-duurzaam-buurzaam/.

 

Quynh, C.T., Bahram S., Scheenaerts, N., & De Beul, C. (February 2023) Watermael-Boitsfort : la bergerie du Bercail à l’enquête publique. BX1. https://bx1.be/categories/news/watermael-boitsfort-la-bergerie-du-bercail-a-lenquete-publique

 

Siewell, N., Aguirre, S., & Thomas, M. (2015) Building Sustainable Neighborhoods through Community Gardens: Enhancing Residents’ Well-being through University-Community Engagement Initiative. Metropolitan Universities, 26(1), 173-190.

 

Truong, S., Gray, T., & Ward, K. (2022) Enhancing urban nature and place-making in social housing through community gardening. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 72, 1-8.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127586

 

Twiss, J., Dickinson, J., Duma, S., Kleinman, T., Paulsen, H., & Rilveria, L. (2003) Community Gardens: Lessons Learned from California Healthy Cities and Communities. American Journal of Public Health, 93(9), 1435-1438.

 

Warsztacki, S. (2012, September 19) Les potagers collectifs poussent comme de la bonne herbe. Alter échos. https://www.alterechos.be/les-potagers-collectifs-poussent-comme-de-la-bonne-herbe-2/.