The allotment school

Some schools and various kinds of associations began contacting the Manoteras allotment to ask for tours of the urban garden for the children and not-so-young children. Several people offered —and continue to offer— themselves voluntarily to organise workshops with children both during school hours and outside them.

City children are not usually in touch with nature daily. Some don´t know where the vegetables we eat come from, whereas others think they come from the supermarket. At the allotment many of them find out that plants provide food, that they grow slowly and that there are different plants in different seasons. They carefully examine the crops, the insects, the soil and the tools we use for horticulture.

After spending the morning at the allotment, the children leave full of excitement and satisfaction, and the teachers full of gratitude. They take home some baby lettuces, tomatoes and aubergines and some seeds for planting next season. But more than this, they take away the seed of curiosity and the experience of having been a bit closer to nature.

Many of the gardeners from the Manoteras neighbourhood bring their children to the allotment. From an early age, they help enthusiastically, watering the seedlings, sowing seeds, re-bedding… they alternate between playing and working on the plots, it’s a joy to watch them.