SR 
Spring is in full swing, and as nature around us flourishes, it is the perfect time to refresh our gardening knowledge or acquire new skills that will help us create new gardens or enhance old ones. This April, following the annual gardening calendar, the Ekonaut association will organize a practical gardening workshop with Vladimir Milutinović, a landscape architect with extensive experience in growing vegetables according to organic principles. With his assistance, workshop participants will select the appropriate types of vegetables, plant types, and fruit shapes suitable for cultivation this season and hopefully in future ones too. The topics to be covered during the workshop include:
- Fruit vegetables – tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, physalis... We will demonstrate selection, preparation, and sowing of seeds, pricking out young plants, and planting mature seedlings, along with several tips on how to choose quality seedlings when purchasing.
- Root vegetables and onions – carrots, celery, parsnip, radish, beets, onions, and many more root crops that are grown in several sowing periods and are available all year round. Seed sowing is generally done directly in beds, while we will reveal some gardening secrets for growing seedlings.
- Leafy greens and brassicas – cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, lettuces, and Chinese cabbage-like varieties that are so rewarding to grow must be part of your selection. This is the most bountiful group grown in the garden, perhaps a favorite for beginners, and certainly a must for experienced gardeners.
- Vining plants, climbers, and squash – green beans, beans, vigna, zucchini, pumpkins, and similar types represent the later spring vegetables that are extensively grown in the garden. How to save space in the garden while achieving a high yield of fruits? Why is regular picking important, and who is obligated to save seeds, are some of the information we will share.
- Aromatic, spice, and medicinal herbs in the garden – refers to all plants that contain quality substances in their parts, which will be spices in the kitchen, protect our garden from pests, heal us with teas and creams, and can even be a remedy for plants and soil...
The workshop will take place on Sunday, April 28th, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Arboretum of the Faculty of Forestry at Kneza Višeslava 1. To become a participant, it is essential to register through the ONLINE FORMSpace is limited, and registrations are accepted until April 26th. Participation in the workshop is free of charge.
Workshop participants will receive seed material that they can use in their future gardens, as well as a publication by Ekonaut designed for gardening beginners.
Through experiences in forming informal garden communities over the past several decades, as well as local studies, we have realized that there is a need but not the resources for utilizing public and private land as spaces for garden communities in Belgrade, as well as an urgent need to green schoolyards and kindergartens.
The workshop is part of the educational activities that the Ekonaut association conducts within the project “Public Spaces as Shared and Educational Gardens.” Through this project, we aim to influence the inclusion of the concepts of educational gardens and gardening communities into the appropriate urban planning and strategic documents of the city of Belgrade, in order to combat climate change, achieve social cohesion, and protect green spaces from developer-driven urbanism. We hope to empower local communities through various forms of education to participate in improving open urban and peri-urban areas as well as greening local schools and kindergartens with the integration of ecological education into daily teaching.
The project is supported by the Secretariat for Environmental Protection of the City of Belgrade and is implemented in partnership with the associations Kidhub, the creative hub Nova Iskra, the informal group "Outdoor Games," and others.
The project is implemented with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of the United Kingdom under the Advocacy Support Program "Explore - Empower," implemented by the Trag Foundation..
