So, the answer for Southern European countries (and others as well, Finland may well be the exception and not the rule out there) is to invest in EDUCATION. Making educational programs and workshops, creating events for the broader community. Programs to educate children (who then share with older siblings and parents) to care for the public space. It is not just about keeping an orchard, but how to change the mindsets on the use of the public space, sharing and enjoying it together.
Once back in Lisbon, it was time to get some more work done and conclude the elaboration of the project plan. We were trying to get meetings with the municipality for several weeks already, to discuss the implementation and to stress the importance of education, not only at a technical level (how to plant, prune, harvest...) , but also cultural, to increase citizenship and the awareness of the existence of the project and to create a community of urban orchardists. We had no luck there (August is a dead month here) but we had many meetings to draw the final project. We met with a professor of fruit production from the Superior Institute of Agronomy (ISA), who was delighted to help out, and assist us in the implementation of the orchard, with the possibility for a post-graduate student from ISA to do a thesis on the project! She also provided good information regarding fruit varieties and their specific needs. Then we had a meeting with a Permaculture specialist who gave some feed-back on our preliminary project and suggested some minor changes.
Once back in Lisbon, it was time to get some more work done and conclude the elaboration of the project plan. We were trying to get meetings with the municipality for several weeks already, to discuss the implementation and to stress the importance of education, not only at a technical level (how to plant, prune, harvest...) , but also cultural, to increase citizenship and the awareness of the existence of the project and to create a community of urban orchardists. We had no luck there (August is a dead month here) but we had many meetings to draw the final project. We met with a professor of fruit production from the Superior Institute of Agronomy (ISA), who was delighted to help out, and assist us in the implementation of the orchard, with the possibility for a post-graduate student from ISA to do a thesis on the project! She also provided good information regarding fruit varieties and their specific needs. Then we had a meeting with a Permaculture specialist who gave some feed-back on our preliminary project and suggested some minor changes.
There was a good meeting with the President of the parish council, who, once again, proposed a joint meeting with the heads of all the schools of the area, from nurseries to universities, public and private. He invited us to teach a course on Orchards at the Senior University, a good way to get seniors involved in the project. (unfortunately we are still waiting for that group meeting, despite emails and phone calls and what not). He offered the information panels and magazine of the parish council to share information on the project, advertise workshops and so on.
As this project is being developed in a park that has been recovered with a project by a team of landscape architects, we decided we needed to meet with them and listen to their reading of the park and their view of our project. We felt we couldn't just make a new plan without considering the work developed by others. We had a very long meeting with the team leader and he was truly enthusiastic with our plan. He gave us access to the previous design, all the drawings and materials in order to be able to make a proposal taking advantage of what is there already. He suggested us to expand the orchard throughout the park and not just limit it to a plot (which was our intention from the beginning, but that wasn't so well received by the municipality department with which we need to work with). We spoke about the desire of part of the community to have tropical fruits besides the heirlooms, and then, together we thought that as the lake in the park is supposed to represent S. Tomé and Principe, it would be a nice place to introduce tropical fruits, they will probably not be that sweet (if they do succeed to grow there), but