Pigs and crops where you least expect
Growing food in urban areas is nothing new. However, traditional allotments have been joined by a new wave of urban farming. Guerilla gardeners have popped up in Gothenburg, and another group have turned the space outside the Museum of World Culture into a green oasis.
Allotments and other gardening plots have long been managed by the City of Gothenburg. The Stadsnära odling (Urban growing) initiative is intended to stimulate even more small-scale and local growing. The aim is to create more new growing plots, ideally in unconventional locations. The project is already under way in the neighbourhoods of Biskopsgården, Gamlestaden, Kålltorp, Högsbo, Backa and Angered. It is hoped that Stadsnära odling will spread enjoyment and knowledge and generate contact between different groups of people. It’s growing in schools too. With the Educational cultivation plots project the City of Gothenburg has launched a growing project to bring together multiple generations. First up is Guldheden School, which is undertaking gardening activities at a nearby meeting place for pensioners, and Flatås School, where children, parents and other adults are growing together.
Private initiative Stadsjord (Urban Soil) is also generating many growing projects, collaborating with municipal services, churches and colleges, among others. Stadsjord first appeared in the neighbourhoods of Bergsjön and Högsbo, with allotments and rooting pigs. A more recent location is on vacant demolition sites in Kvillebäcken at Hisingen, where cultivation is taking place while awaiting new construction. More pigs have been brought into other districts like Majorna and Lundby to root and fertilise the soil before new growing plots are established.