Edible Gardens in and around Athens

When “green hands” and pure hearts come together .. The result is just beautiful and everyone can enjoy it.

Fortunately there are quite a few possibilities for people who love gardening and harvesting their own food, even in such a big city like Athens.

Some of them were parking spaces, or spaces in a building where some could not see the possibility, a group of people saw the potential . They came together and put some seeds, and effort, and now we have a number of places to enjoy and for children to play and learn from nature and its processes.

Due to the current situation, lots of them are “sleeping” and waiting to be revitalized by willing green hands, so do have a look on the list here, and do not hesitate to express your interest directly to them.

If you have a space in the back of your house for example that would be a great opportunity to start one more edible garden!

Nature is so majestic!

Parko Navarinou in Exarcheia

is a self managed park, an initiative from locals who protected the park from becoming a parking lot and rejuvenated the area with garden and playground for children.

The photos are from 2019 of the 10 year celebration of the life of the self organized and community loved park.

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Self Organized Social Vegetable Garden of Chaidari

For more info contact directly through the link provided.

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Lampidona Social Center in Vironas

Lampidona is a social space that contains many social community initiatives, like social kitchen, solidarity shop, and the Vegetable Garden. They also exchange seeds. Contact here and check their fb page “ta Sporia” for news and updates.

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Koinsep MiAZo in Chalandri

Koinsep stands for social cooperative. And MiAZo for “One more life” translated from greek. This cooperative is for reusing, upcycling, objects and materials, and providing a space for workshops and services to people that have the time and would like to embrace also a zero waste attitude. They also have a garden and they are looking for people who would like to take over and make it flourish. Read the open call here.

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CoLab House

Is a social enterprise that strives for sharing, solidarity and fruitful interaction and is offering short term residencies, a comfortable co-working space, labs and spaces for learning mobilities. Colab House is designed to work in a collective manner as a collaborative space and a community of creative people. It has common spaces including Video/Sound studio – Co-Working space, Kitchen, recreation areas, meeting rooms and an urban garden that one can participate in different ways. Contact them directly to find out how. There is a current open call through European Solidarity Corps for residents of the EU.

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Taratsokipos 2510

The 2510 roof top vegetable garden collective served well the neighborhood of Exarcheia for a while, is currently closed, but look what a produce they had! They used to meet every Sunday to garden together and take care of the plants. You can have a look at their page and learn a lot of tricks already and try them at your balcony!

Urban Gardening in Athens Online

You can inquire on more information about urban gardening, inspiration, knowledge sharing and practices on this facebook group.

A bit further away from Athens you can find the following

Ktima Arvanitis has being offering a free alternative nature school for children and adults just outside of Athens in Afidnes area. You can learn about natural and biological farming methods in theory and hands on. It functions on Sundays as well, and make sure to contact them before your visit to learn more details about the subject and methods.

Mali Veni in Markopoulo

Near Markopoulo area there is Mali Veni, a large stretch of land who is being now converted with natural farming methods to a more sustainable way of life for all life included. There are free natural farming workshops that take place once in a while through the guidance of Panos Manikis, a student of Masanobu Fukuoka who was the inventor of the clay ball or seed bombs method. The meetings usually happen on Sundays and people bring food to share with each other at the end of the workshop, or during the lunch break. The nature is amazing and you can also shop your organic vegetables on the way home. The place is open also for long term volunteers.

Panos Manikis is now offering online courses that you can watch for free.

You can stay up to date on workshops by following the official and the facebook page.

Nea Guinea

Nea Guinea is a project that is an non-profit organization (NPO) that was initiated in 2009 with the main objective of re-appropriating everyday needs in terms of food, health, energy, shelter and clothing, as tools for increasing self-sufficiency and resilience of people and communities in Greece. Their projects’ aim is to inform, educate, encourage and support people in redefining their basic everyday needs and getting actively involved in different production processes in order to cover these needs, based on their individual or collective knowledge and their local resources. For that they offer workshops, organic farming, and database for learning.

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Axiokersa

A natural and organic farming center named after the Samothracean Goddess of the Earth. It is also part of the Food Collective that delivers a food basket of your choice once a week.

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Calme Garden in Lagonissi

Calme Garden is open for a visit to enjoy the garden, or a music jam, or a workshop, or a walk with the horses, or a stay as a volunteer! It has plenty of space for gardening, and it’s a great idea to visit with children to enjoy the open air and view of mountain and sea! Have a look at their facebook page.

Another special garden is Antholado Dalas in Megara, a lavender paradise, where you can visit, and see how essential oils, natural cosmetics and scented water are made, also other herbal by-products such as mouthwash, and natural hand sanitizers that you can also order online.

A bit further away than Athens, in Trikala of Corinth, there is one more organic herb garden with limited production, that one can visit. It is Gaea Abat for a full on sensory experience smelling and tasting wild organic thyme and oregano.

Open Farm is a great platform – database with farms around Greece that are open to the public for a visit to learn how food is made, or just enjoy their products. You can browse through the website by area or interest and find farms all around the country and combine with a tasting trip.

to be continued..!!!