About

The history of "Urban Gardening - Sofia" started in the distant year of 2012. Then two enthusiasts who had not met or heard so far, thanks to a two-hour facebook conversation, gathered in front of an inter-block space in the Nadejda neighborhood. After another 30 minutes of talks, it was decided that there would be the first communal garden in our town. And because we do not just like to talk, we prefer to act - a few months later, a blot of about 45 square feet, never before worked, turned into a small communal vegetable garden. With the help of dozens of volunteers and participants, we were able to clear, roll over, loosen and sow soil that had never before been encountered with vegetables and spices. Unfortunately, the first shared urban vegetable garden in Sofia managed to last only one season, after which employees of the district administration in Nadezhda neighborhood politely asked us to free the land so that they could build a municipal garden there. A few years later, in 2018, it turned out that the Sofia Municipality had never done anything on the terrain we cleared on our own initiative, and then released them on their insistence.

In 2014, together with our friends and supporters from the Adelante Social Center, we built a second shared vegetable garden in the same neighborhood. That same year, together with our friends from Hrankoop and supporters of Slowfood Bulgaria, we also made several other small demonstration vegetable gardens in the center of Sofia. One of them was in front of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, another in front of the former confectionery in Budapest, the third in the chunk of Lisbon, there were a few more places.

In 2015, Nikki Genov and Ralitsa Kasimova from Hrankoop gladly glad that the Southwestern Municipal Company has a huge, free terrain available ... and they do not know what to do. Of course, Hrancoop offered us to Market South as the only caring owners willing to make use of the terrain for social, communal and public purposes and needs. So, in 2015, the "Garden forDruzhba" adventure began!

We are now 2020 years old. We have a beautiful garden, extending to the huge, even for European standards, 6 decares. We have a water source, and for a cover - from South Market we provide security on the terrain! For the past four seasons we built a communal garden consisting of more than 50 separate gardens of varying sizes, and directly involved around fifty gardeners. We met hundreds and hundreds of people who understand the importance of sharing space like Garden forDruzhba - some have stayed, others have gone to the edges of Bulgaria to build other private, shared or communal gardens, others are still drinking tea or chatting under the shadow of the girls.

For the last five years, dozens of familiar and unknown people with great desire and passion have been helping out as partners of Garden forDruzhba. Through the idea of ​​involving people of all kinds of philosophies, views, ideals, political specters and values, we have succeeded in creating a society that works for itself. Without the need of superiors, state or religions. We have succeeded in bringing together hundreds of people around the opportunity to solve their fate by direct democracy and voting on all the problems or opportunities that the garden gives us. We have succeeded without any lender's external funding to provide everything we need at Garden for Sale to function normally and happily. We managed only with friends. And they are everywhere!