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The city creates a garden “for lazy people” in order to “change practices”

Several already tall sunflowers, tomatoes, cabbages here and there… This plot no. 7704 really does not look like the other family gardens of the Ameisenkoepfel, in the Robertsau district, in Strasbourg. That’s good, that’s the goal!

Here, over a hundred square meters, the city has been trying an experiment for a few months. A show garden, deliberately called “TO-COME”, has been installed in this former parking area. The goal ? “To stir up curiosity in order to support the transition that we want”, answers the deputy to the ecologist mayor of Strasbourg, Hervé Polesi. “It requires less effort, less maintenance, less water, is more resilient etc. It’s a garden for lazy people, ”laughs the chosen one.

“Gardening is a good plant in the right place and it works”

Its occupant confirms. Marie Schwartz has already harvested zucchini, strawberries, potatoes, salads, all without much effort. “I come for an hour or so every two days,” she says, without considering herself green-fingered. “Anyway, there is no such thing as a green thumb. Gardening is a good plant in the right place and it works”, cuts Phlippe Ludwig, who intervenes for the Eurometropolis.

Philippe Ludwig shows this heap of gravel and sand, where thyme grows in particular. “It’s an island for pollinators,” explains the specialist. – T. Gagnepain / 20 Minutes

It was he, with Emeline Baal, who designed this witness space. What can we see there? From the entrance, a thick pile of gravel and sand on which thrives thyme, carnations, thyme, hyssop etc. “It’s an island to attract pollinators. They will come here and then move on to tomatoes or zucchini for example. It’s a bit of an insect restaurant, ”explains the specialist, before moving on.

“We let the auxiliaries do their thing”

Here, a cabbage grows in different layers of organic matter. “It’s green waste, even if I don’t like the term, which we put in using the so-called lasagna technique,” he explains. There, a “permaculture mound” has been installed, with buried dead wood. Again here, a small dug pond, without forgetting these nettles left or these barely mown areas… Unthinkable in a more traditional garden where the slightest crooked grass deemed useless is removed.

“On many subjects, we let the auxiliaries, in particular insects, do their thing and we do as little as possible with them”, sums up Hervé Polesi. “There are plenty of things in nature that are well done and self-regulating,” continues Phlippe Ludwig, hoping that his methods will inspire neighbors.

To hear the curious yesterday, it is not won! “We try to distill advice gently and this place is precisely made to prove that it works. Two others will follow in other housing estates in Strasbourg, ”promises the deputy head of the almost 5,000 allotment gardens in the Alsatian capital. Without having too many illusions about the immediate impact of these test plots. “Gardening is done over a long period of time. Changes in practice are part of the same time frame. »

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