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Through an initiative between Leroy Merlin and Tecnopolo S.p.A., the Leroy Merlin “do-it-with-us” garden concept, already applied in Turin, has now been taken to Rome’s Tiburtina neighbourhood. With the collaboration of the Agricoltura Capodarco and CEAS social cooperatives, and the company Superelectric srl, the new garden has been created in the Tecnopolo Tiburtino complex, which is home to more than 100 businesses, and it covers an area of 2,500 square metres.
The initiative, officially launched on October 27, also sees the collaboration of the association Bricolage del Cuore, and it aims to involve members of the local community, especially people in particular difficulty.
The land given over to the “do-it-with-us” garden, which measures around 2,500 m2, was provided by the company Tecnopolo SpA, which has always been keen to encourage development through dialogue and cooperation not just with businesses, but also with the local community. A crucial role in the initiative was played by two social cooperatives, Agricoltura Capodarco and CEAS (“Centro educativo di accoglienza e solidarietà”), which, in collaboration with the association Bricolage del Cuore and with the support of Leroy Merlin, have succeeded in creating a vegetable garden that provides a real insight into the complexity and beauty of the zero km supply chain concept.
Just as important was the support of Superelectric, which, as its contribution to the initiative, offered technology and its drones for precision farming, as well as setting up, free of charge, the Agrimap.eu platform, which serves as a means of providing timely updates on the health of the crops.
There are plans to hold gardening workshops aimed at families and schools, as well as a sustainable production experiment where part of the produce (all that coming from the common area as well as a percentage of that produced by project participants) will go to families in financial difficulty.
“The do-it-with-us garden – explains Tiziana Angione, Leroy Merlin Tiburtina store leader – is part of the reciprocity ethic that Leroy Merlin believes in. The purpose of the initiative is to involve citizens in the care and joint management of a garden – an area to be shared and maintained collectively, where they can grow vegetables but also socialise”.
Around twenty families are involved in the project, each of which has its own allotment where earth boxes are provided for growing vegetables and herbs, as well as a shed for storing tools. The rest of the garden is given over to educational and training activities aimed at schools and also involving the families. It has tables and pergolas that make it an ideal meeting place.
The participants in the initiative were selected through a call for applications in July, while Leroy Merlin donated tools, materials and the soil, and volunteers from the company made the boxes in which to grow the vegetables.
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