Benidorm awards an urban vegetable garden to all the people and entities that requested it

All the people and entities that requested one of the new urban vegetable gardens created by the Department of Environment next to the ‘Pepita Esperanza Llinares Llorca’ center, in La Cala, will have a plot. This has been announced today by the councilor of the area, Monica Gomez, who explained that 52 plots have finally been enabled, "as many as requests have been received." Gómez has detailed that "initially there were more applications than plots, but seeing that there were few people who were not going to have a garden, we have restructured the land to meet all requests." Specifically, during the application period, which was open throughout the month of September, "a total of 52 requests were received: 46 by individuals and 6 by associations."

Of these last six, “one is from a neighborhood association and the other five correspond to social entities that have their headquarters in‘ Pepita Esperanza Llinares Llorca ’ centre and that have filed their petition through the Department of Social Welfare”. These are AFA Marina Baixa (Association of Relatives, Patients and Alzheimer's Collaborators), AFEM (Association of Relatives and Mentally Ill of the Marina Baixa), Asofiben (Fibromyalgia Association of Benidorm), Asmibe (Association of Disabled People of Benidorm) and Apesobe (Association of Deaf People of Benidorm).

The 46 private beneficiaries will have simple plots, between 10 and 12 square meters; and while the social and neighborhood entities will be assigned 6 double plots. The allocation of plots will be done by lottery and will be communicated to the beneficiaries.

The Councilor for the Environment has informed that the beneficiaries and entities "will receive a training session by the municipal agronomist on organic farming, which will be held on December 10 at 5:00 pm in the City Hall." In this talk, she has detailed, “they will be explained what the philosophy of urban vegetable gardens is, basic principles of organic farming - such as the non-use of synthetic phytosanitary products - and the fundamental notions for the cultivation they carry out in these plots resemble as much as possible the traditional of the area ”.

The councillor stressed that in these orchards “a system has been installed to prevent water losses, and an urban space has been set up with shady areas and pool paths, thus recovering a municipal plot that was in disuse and that did not present an optimal image. "

On the other hand, she commented that "in this second phase of urban gardens it has been found that there are more and more young people interested in this initiative and in being able to have a space in which to develop organic farming and for self-consumption." In this regard, she recalled that to be a beneficiary of an urban vegetable garden, one had to be registered in Benidorm for a minimum of one year or be an association registered in the Register of Associations of the City Council; and be physically trained for agricultural work. Within these requirements, retired, unemployed or with functional diversity were preferred.

With these 52 new orchards, Benidorm already has 74 plots spread between La Cala and Italia street.