Discover Our Community Garden
In Montseny, Catalonia

One of the community processes that generates more bonding and sense of belonging is a vegetable garden. Both for the processes that are necessary to make it happen, and therefore the cooperation between the people in charge, as well as for the very essence of a garden: a process of gestation of life. This is one of the main reasons, apart from the more “material” one, that is, to be able to have organic products to have more food self-sufficiency, which has led Kalart to start a community garden in Montseny.

One of the essential characteristics of Kalart is its link with nature, its immediate environment. We are located at the foot of the Montseny Natural Park, which is a UNESCO Biosphere. We are surrounded by fields of crops. Kalart was founded in a “casa de pagés”, a farmhouse, that is to say, the typical country house of rural Catalonia. And one of our rooms that we refurbished as a multipurpose space for workshops and events is a stable where cows used to eat.

In that sense, Kalart’s view of the land continues to be that of recognizing that this is where the sustenance of life comes from. And of course, we created a community garden. The garden is an important project of the community, which meets weekly in a garden committee to coordinate all issues related to it.

The committee decided to make conventional cultivation compatible with permaculture practices, in order to respect the nature of the process, that is, sustainable and organic production. We are learning about the theory and processes of permaculture in different areas: from the creation of compost, the design of the terraces or the cultivation of aromatic plants.

The garden is open to people outside Kalart, to members of the nearby community who want to collaborate selflessly to exchange practices and knowledge. The cultivation has also led some members of the community to visit neighboring projects to learn about other forms of cultivation, such as biodynamic cultivation in Salicrú, organic producers in Llinars or Cardedeu, the production of artisanal honey in the Montseny valley or remotely follow practices such as that of Josep Pàmies in Lleida.

The community garden is undoubtedly a synergistic meeting point for the members of Kalart, and therefore we will continue to nurture this process so nourishing in every way.

Contact Kalart if you want to collaborate with our community garden project: kalartcommunity@gmail.com.