Lyudmila Bilodid, the founder of the Beloded Landscaping bureau, a full member of the Society of Garden Designers (SGD) and a member of the board of the Guild of Landscape Architects of Ukraine (GLAU), talks about the traditions of garden volunteerism and the role of voluntary assistants in the development of urban green spaces in our traditional column "Likbez".
Lyudmila Bilodid, landscape designer, director and founder of Beloded Landscaping bureau
On a spring day, residents of upscale complexes in mid- and lower Manhattan put on tattered jeans and T-shirts and head to the popular High Line Park — but not for a morning walk. There, bankers, brokers, journalists, theater critics, gallerists, restaurateurs arm themselves with secateurs and rakes and get to work. The founder of new wave gardening, Pete Udolph, is an opponent of autumn pruning.
Cereals and perennial flowers go into winter with dry stems and inflorescences, but in spring it is necessary to quickly get rid of dryness to make way for young shoots. Since the length of the park strip is almost 2,5 km, it is not such a simple task. And here an army of voluntary helpers comes to the aid of the park staff. The park manager sets the date for the Spring Cutback — and this grand gardening event attracts more and more participants every year. Newspapers and magazines willingly write about him, and in the evening news there are stories whose heroes are garden volunteers.
Volunteers help with spring grass trimming in High Line Park, New York, USA. Photo: Liz Ligon
Every year, the Spring Cutback at the High Line Park attracts more and more volunteers
High Line Park, New York, USA. Photo: Liz Ligon
Like behind a stone wall
In the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, National Volunteer Week is held annually. It usually falls in the spring or early summer, when garden work is in full swing and full-time parks staff are in dire need of additional labor capable of performing simple but time-consuming operations. According to tradition, after several days of work, volunteer teams hold noisy parties.
This year, parties had to be canceled due to the pandemic. And spring seasonal work in the parks was carried out by full-time employees. But already in the summer, with the relaxation of the quarantine, the parks again began to form volunteer teams. Planting, pruning, loosening the soil, weeding, collecting and cataloging seeds can all be done by people without any training or education, of course, under the guidance of an experienced gardener.
Wisley Garden is one of the six gardens of the RHS Royal Horticultural Society and is also a science centre. Photo: wikimedia.org / Tango Mike Bravo
Volunteers can work as guides and animators. Assist visitors with reduced mobility. Work with correspondence, distribute postcards and sell tickets. And at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Garden Wisley, volunteers help scientists conduct experiments and research. And among the volunteers themselves, you can meet retired scientists or gardeners who are happy to return to their usual occupation.
Volunteers not only provide practical help in RHS parks, but also lobby their interests
The Caldwell Gardens transformation project in south London was implemented by local volunteers. Photo source: urbangrowth.london
But that's not all. Right now, volunteers are helping the RHS save much of Wisley Gardens in Surrey from being cut down, protesting strategic plans by the government and Highways England to build a motorway right through the conservation area.
Dozens of age-old sequoias and several particularly valuable Grade II* protected heritage trees are under threat of felling. When green spaces are threatened by unscrupulous developers or unscrupulous politicians, volunteers are a powerful force capable of protection. And this is natural, since the very culture of volunteering is closely related to civic activism.
For everyone, for ever
One of the foundations of the park business in Great Britain is the National Trust. In 2020, the largest charitable organization in Europe dedicated to nature conservation and preservation of historic buildings and landscapes is celebrating its 125th anniversary.
If you go to the website of the National Trust, the first thing you will see are words of thanks to volunteers and patrons: "Without your help, we would not be able to take care of the kilometers of coastline, forests, countryside and hundreds of historic buildings, gardens and valuable collections, which we protect". Honoring its voluntary helpers, the National Foundation released a book "125 portraits" with stories of people who donate their time and money to public causes.
The full collection of 125 portraits of National Trust staff, volunteers and patrons by photographer John Millar is available in Portraiture of the National Trust: 125 stories over 125 years, which can be ordered from the official NT website nationaltrust.org.uk
The full collection of 125 portraits of National Trust staff, volunteers and patrons by photographer John Millar is available in Portraiture of the National Trust: 125 stories over 125 years, which can be ordered from the official NT website nationaltrust.org.uk
Talking about the origins of the volunteer movement in Great Britain, I will allow myself a small historical excursion. The National Fund was founded in 1895 by three prominent individuals. Today we would call them urbanists and urban activists. Social reformer Olivia Hill was concerned with improving the lives of the English proletarians and spent most of her time in urban areas where representatives of the working class lived. At the end of the XNUMXth century the working suburbs of London and other English cities were rather bleak.
According to Olivia, all people need free access to nature, and if so, developers should abandon the desire to use every square meter for profit and leave untouched corners of nature or create a garden near every apartment building for residents to relax. Olivia Hill took an active part in the protests against continuous development. She met the lawyer Robert Hunter, who at the same time was campaigning for the opening of Lincoln's Inn Fields, a large square in the center of London, to the general public.
In the end, Hunter managed to open the park - but for this a separate decision of the English Parliament was needed. Along with Olivia, Robert Hunter championed several urban areas, including Vauxhall Park in South London. Their third like-minded person - the chaplain of the Anglican Church, Canon Hardwick Rawnsley, nicknamed the "Protector of the Lakes" - was an admirer of the radical ideas and philosophy of John Ruskin. He organized workers' rallies and riots to defend their rights and the surrounding landscape.
The full collection of 125 portraits of National Trust staff, volunteers and patrons by photographer John Millar is available in Portraiture of the National Trust: 125 stories over 125 years, which can be ordered from the official NT website nationaltrust.org.uk
At some point, the activists realized that they were not able to be in dozens of places at the same time, and the successes achieved in the fight against developers and industrial magnates had to be consolidated somehow. They founded an organization that was originally called the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, which can be translated as the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.
Hill, Hunter and Rawnsley invested their personal capital in securing the fund and began collecting donations. These funds were used to purchase picturesque meadows, forests and reservoirs, historic estates and abandoned private gardens. They campaigned their acquaintances to hand over the land holdings dear to their hearts to the protection of the fund. Thanks to his considerable knowledge of jurisprudence, Hunter legally enshrined for the National Fund the right "to own property inalienably on behalf of the nation." Today, the National Trust owns 250 hectares of agricultural land, 780 miles of coastline, and 500 historic sites, gardens, and nature reserves.
One of the large volunteer centers is in London's Beckenham Place Park. Photo source: lewishamlocal.com
The traditions of the National Fund grew out of civic activism
Such a sign means that the object is owned and protected by the National Trust. Photo: wikimedia.org / Simon Burchell
As you can see, the traditions of the National Fund grew out of civic activism. Therefore, the participation of communities and volunteers in the preservation of unique natural corners and the care of city gardens is a priority for all leaders and managers of the organization.
Volunteering as creativity
Volunteering has always been in demand in the cultural and educational sphere. Museums often use volunteer assistants as hostesses and guides, and now more and more often volunteers are involved in the implementation of large urban or landscape gardening projects. As an example, I have a very recent story.
Hospitalfield Arts and Ideas Center is a castle in Arbroath, Scotland, surrounded by meadows and gardens. Hospitalfield was founded in the XNUMXth century. by the Benedictines as an abbey and a hospital for leprosy and plague patients. Later, the castle passed into private ownership. In the XNUMXth century its owner, architect Patrick Allan-Fraser, transformed an ascetic medieval castle into a luxurious house with a tower and an art gallery. Architectural critics have nicknamed the Fraser Castle the "House of Five Gables." Hospitalfield has been an art school and residence for Scottish painters for over a century. Moreover, Hospitalfield is the first art college in Great Britain.
Volunteers are involved in the implementation of large landscape and garden projects
Several years ago, the management of the art center commissioned Caruso St John Architects and Nigel Dunnett Studio to develop a renovation project for the Victorian garden around the castle surrounded by a stone wall. The old greenhouses will be restored and used as multi-functional areas. The garden design should be, on the one hand, ultra-modern, and on the other hand, reminiscent of the 800-year history of the abbey.
Well, for Nigel Dunnett (Professor of Design, Landscaping and Urban Horticulture at the University of Sheffield, author of The Diamond Garden at Buckingham Palace, created for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday), nothing is impossible! Moreover, at his service are the hands and creative potential of volunteers, in particular from among the artists, residents of the art center.
Hospitalfield Arts and Ideas Center is an art school and creative center in Scotland. Photo: wikimedia.org / Ray Oaks
Friends and fans of Nigel Dunnett, like any of you, can follow the progress of the Hospitalfield Gardens project by posting on his Facebook page. Just the other day, he wrote that the result of a week of work together with the Wonderful Group of Volunteers was the laying of the central axis of the garden leading to the castle - from Irish yews framed by an array of meadow flowers and grasses.
By the way, Nigel Dunnett reminds us that today's popular urban meadows are nothing more than a modern version of the medieval flowery mead. This picturesque mead lawn is familiar to anyone who has studied art and paid attention to the old tapestries of unicorns grazing among flowery mead. So there are many parallels between the modern and the medieval garden, which is the task of the garden designer.
For artists in the UK, gardening comes as naturally as creativity
Despite the fact that the project to revive Hospitalfield Gardens "costs" about a billion pounds (most of the amount has already been raised), the management of the center expects that the main part of the work of caring for the new gardens will fall on the shoulders of voluntary helpers. After all, for many English artists, gardening was as natural as creativity.
Also, many young designers and gardeners consider it an honor to help in the implementation of the project in such a historic place and to work under the guidance of such a meter as Nigel Dunnett. Hospitalfield Arts and Ideas Center managers include an engagement and volunteering program manager who takes applications from volunteers.
Hospitalfield artists-in-residence are inspired by the beauty of the garden and park. Photo credit: Hospitalfield Arts and Ideas Centre
Although it is free and often hard physical work, the center manager has no problems with personnel. We even have to hold a competition sooner. "Is this famous arts center running out of funds to hire enough full-time gardeners?" someone asks. I think there is no shortage of funds here. It's just that the very culture of voluntary participation in public projects in Great Britain is not even tens, but hundreds of years old.
Volunteers as providers of sustainable development
Garden volunteering is often an integral part of social and educational programs. Urban farms are part of Detroit's global renewal and development program, helping the city and its residents overcome the effects of the depression of the late XNUMXth and early XNUMXst centuries. Given the fact of municipal bankruptcy, residents cannot count on the fact that parks, squares and city gardens will be generously subsidized from the city treasury.
However, the authorities have the ability to allocate plots of land to public organizations for pocket parks and farming within the city limits. Volunteers are trained in farming skills and the harvest goes to the Gleaners Food Bank, a food bank that distributes thousands of food kits to those in need every day.
Lafayette Greens is a public garden in downtown Detroit, on the site of a demolished historic building. Photo: Beth Hagenbuch BLA
One of Detroit's most iconic farms is Lafayette Greens, located in the heart of Detroit and both a reminder of economic collapse and a symbol of rebirth. In 2012, Lafayette Greens received an Honorable Mention from the ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) Jury.
The urban garden-garden with raised flower beds, designed by the Kenneth Weikal Landscape Architecture studio, is located on the site where one of Detroit's landmarks, the Lafayette Building, stood from 1923 to 2010. This historic building fell victim to the crisis and, despite massive protests by residents and a truly heroic struggle for its preservation, was demolished.
Urban farms are part of Detroit's renewal and development program
Over $10 worth of harvest is harvested from Lafayette Greens beds per season. Photo: Beth Hagenbuch BLA
In search of ways to reconcile with the community, the mayor of Detroit proposed to use the place as a public garden until a responsible investor could be found who could propose the construction of a really important object for the city, for example, social housing. Lafayette Greens is designed with the use of technologies and methods of ecologically clean intensive horticulture and horticulture - it includes rainwater collection systems for irrigation, and sewage treatment, and the use of waste for composting, etc.
Although the raised beds can yield more than $10 worth of vegetables and fruits, far more important is the role of this urban garden in community consolidation and its educational function. It is here that parents bring their children to show them what a sustainable landscape is, to familiarize them with more than 200 species of plants, to tell them who the volunteers are and what they do.
Lafayette Greens. Detroit. Photo: Beth Hagenbuch BLA
Not only in Detroit, which survived the Great Depression, but also in San Francisco, the main financial center of the West Coast, garden volunteers are a powerful creative force. They not only help keep the city's numerous parks in perfect order, but also promote sustainable plant growing methods to the masses.
The Garden for the Environment educational and demonstration garden, created on a former wasteland, is dedicated to demonstrating to adults and children how to grow healthy and attractive plants in the arid California climate without much labor and resource costs.
At Lafayette Greens, volunteers grow vegetables for residents of city shelters
In the beds, volunteers grow crops for residents of the local shelter, and landscapers have the opportunity to explore the flower beds to select an assortment of plants for drought-tolerant gardens.
Garden for the Environment is an educational community park in San Francisco created to promote the ideas of sustainability and volunteerism. Photo source: www.gardenfortheenvironment.org
Garden for the Environment hosts more than 100 educational workshops a year and regular "volunteer days." The coronavirus pandemic did not become an obstacle. Indeed, keeping a distance in the garden is much easier than indoors. And it is enough to treat garden tools and hands with sanitizer.
Why work for free?
"Our gardens need the help of volunteers all year round!" — so the great British charity English Heritage calls for volunteers to help preserve historical monuments, castles, manors and parks. Gardeners, rangers, tour guides, archaeologists - every year, thousands of Britons give their free time to unpaid work for the preservation of heritage.
Photo: Arya Praditya on Unsplash
Many of them leave their comments on the sites, telling about the experience and skills they gained while volunteering in the gardens of the Kingdom. For example, volunteer Karen Hickey talks about how she helped create a new organic vegetable garden at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens: “Having completed a certificate in horticulture at Hadlow College, I thought volunteering would be a great way to improve my knowledge. With the help of volunteers, the harvest in the castle garden increased from 3,3 to 6 tons in the first two years! We also planted more than 1 fruit trees, including apples, pears and cherries."
For graduates of colleges and universities, where they study horticulture, garden and landscape design and architecture, such practice is a natural and mandatory stage. This is an introduction to the profession. But for the vast majority of English volunteers, their free employment in gardens and parks is not related to their profession. This is a unique opportunity to look behind the walls of gardens closed to the public. And, of course, a way of relaxation, an opportunity to get away from the daily routine.
Volunteering is an introduction to the profession for garden designers and landscape architects
RHS Young School Gardener graduates with their mentor. Photo: Julie Howden / RHS
When in the state of Wisconsin (USA) in 2007, the question "Do you volunteer in the garden?" was added to the questionnaire of the annual social survey, after processing the questionnaires it became clear that the volunteers suffer less from high pressure, Alzheimer's disease and are generally more satisfied with life. It can hardly be considered a serious scientific study, but certainly doing physical work in the fresh air is beneficial.
In Great Britain and the United States, municipal authorities encourage voluntary garden helpers in every way. A special uniform is not just a souvenir, it allows volunteers to stand out and gives a sense of belonging to the park community. Parks often offer volunteer access hours before or after they close to regular visitors, host indoor volunteer events, and provide discounted tickets to popular garden shows.
Work in the park or a marathon?
In Ukraine, with its huge number of open problems, a call to volunteers to help more actively in the care of city parks and squares will probably not sound entirely appropriate. Our activists help soldiers, sick children, homeless animals, sort and clean garbage, clean rivers, try to protect rare corners of untouched nature from illegal construction.
And at the same time, their actions are often not only not encouraged by officials, but also met with open opposition. Being an activist in Ukraine is difficult, sometimes even dangerous. But still, managers of city parks and communal services could safely turn to volunteers for help and solve a huge number of urgent tasks with their help.
Communal services could solve many tasks with the help of volunteers
All that is necessary for the formation of volunteer groups is to organize the process, provide assistants with tools and allocate an instructor. This is not much different from the organization of the Sabbath. In the Kyiv Botanical Garden named after Grishka has been recruiting such volunteer groups for several years in a row. Volunteers can help in compiling registers of urban green spaces. Provide care for young saplings planted on the streets of the city.
Arborist assistant teams could be formed from volunteers. It is better to entrust sanitary pruning to caring freelance assistants than to hire marginals for pennies who only disfigure valuable trees. I suspect that the manager of ZHEK will find a dozen reasons why this is impossible, such as: "And who will be responsible for the tools?", "And what if someone gets injured?". These are organizational issues, and the Law of Ukraine "On Volunteering" helps everyone here.
Summer Fair is an annual summer event for the volunteers of London's Friends of Vauxhall Park. Photo source: ovalpartnership.org.uk
Of course, this movement needs PR, advertising, media assistance, and the willingness of garden and landscape design and architecture professionals to curate events like Spring Cutback and National Volunteer Week. And I am sure that in a few years, the people of Kyiv will take care of and develop their favorite parks as willingly and en masse as they participate in marathons and bicycle races today.
