On 1st May Gorka and Karmele launched their allotment project in Bakio on a central piece of land they have rented out. Almost six months later and all the raised beds have been rented out and as can be seen from the pictures are a sea of colour. Not surprising as Gorka and Karmele are experienced gardeners who are regularly on hand to show how things should be done. In fact, right from the start they prepared their own raised bed to show what a successful raised bed should look like.
Last Sunday 10th October BBT members and friends were invited along to have a look at the raised beds and share food and drink after visiting the allotment and hearing explanations on how the project has evolved. The first thing that strikes you are the number of flowers in and around the raised beds and the many bees and butterflies enjoying the nectar. In any organic garden flowers are essential for these insects that will then pollinate the plants. And indeed now people can now buy bouquets of flowers here. And of course in this organic allotment pesticides and herbicides are strictly forbidden.
It would seem that there is nothing left to do but this couple is too enterprising to stop there. They have already been involved in guerrilla gardening, that is to say, planting flowers in open urban spaces and it looks as if Bakio could end up being the floweriest town in Bizkaia as the association Bizilore has also been doing a bit of guerrilla gardening at the entrance to the town.
Karmele also mentioned that they would love to involve immigrants in their project so hopefully they will be able to expand their project and find a way of doing this and other things. Once again the slogan is as Aritz Gamboa tells us every evening on “Biba Zuek” on ETB 1, “Lotu lurrari eta eutsi herriari!” (“Keep close to the earth and be in contact with your people!”)
And here Gorka explains in his own words the philosophy behind their proyect.
