Avant Garden Project

An Agile urban gardening
and wildlife revolution
 

At Bayt al-Andalus, Antwerpen, Belgium, we have been gardening the Sint Hubertusstraat & Vijfhoekstraat crossing since 2005 - well before the street renovation works in 2012 - starting with our now famous fig tree and a bench in front of our door, then a planted pot or two, a small pond, and ever more. After some time, we were joined in this by our neighbours, sharing and exponentially growing our pleasure and enjoyment in creating a small haven for plants and animals in our urban landscape.

We have been encouraged by more neighbours, friends and occasional passers-by. 

Since our relocation in 2021, the street garden project has been in the hands of the local community, living on the Sint Hubertusstraat & Vijfhoekstraat crossing.

Here is our  Avant Garden Manifesto - pasted on an Agile template:

With Avant-Garden, we are practising self-organised introduction of wildlife into our urban public space, by doing it and helping others do it. We are co-creating a street ecosystem in which humans and plants can interact with each other and with a rich diversity of other forms of wildlife, such as insects, birds and bats. 

Through this activity we have come to value:

Engaged citizenship and free-choice community life over processes, paperwork and tools,
Respect for, and listening to nature over human intervention and management,
Community collaboration over negotiation with authorities,
Responding to change over following a plan.

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.