Seminar on Community Gardening Presents the People’s Garden Initiative

October 16, 2012

Agriculture Specialist Jana Mikulášová presents the "People's Garden" iniciative at the seminar.

Zdenek Kiesenbauer of the Dendrological Garden takes care of the Embassy's People's Garden.

On World Food Day, on October 16, the Embassy’s Agriculture Department organized a seminar on community gardening that brought together representatives of local NGOs running two community gardens in Prague, officials of Prague’s municipalities, professional gardeners, the public interested in community gardening, and the media.

Embassy Agriculture Specialist Jana Mikulášová presented the U.S. Department of Agriculture's initiative "People's Garden" and the Embassy garden that was set up in 2010. Matej Petranek of Prazelenina NGO and Kristina Resetakova of KoKoZa NGO shared their experiences with founding community gardens in Prague and answered many questions from the audience.

The seminar showed that Czechs are very interested in concept of growing their own vegetables in the community gardens and the Embassy will continue to promote this idea at future events.

The Embassy’s People’s Garden

The Foreign Agricultural Service office in Prague joined the People's Garden initiative in the summer of 2009. In summer 2010, the first Czech People's Garden was planted at the U.S. Embassy compound in Prague in cooperation with local partner organizations.  In 2011, the People's Garden was relocated to Pruhonice Dendrological Park, a 73-hectare botanic garden on the outskirts of Prague open to the public. The relocation resulted in even broader publicity for the People's Garden, generating increased interest among local organizations and schools.