The not-so-secret-garden

In September 2020, our Wola Park opened the doors of its Everyday Garden (“Ogród Codzienny”), a green area nestled in the nearby Ulrich’s Park (“Ogrody Ulricha”) where everyone is welcome to help cultivating fruits, herbs and vegetables.

The Everyday Garden is more than just a project. Framed in our wider ambition to enable people to live a healthier and more sustainable life, it aims to inspire the local community with ideas of self-sustainable food production, teach everyone how to generate less waste and how to preserve water in ways that everyone can implement at home too. The idea came from the current needs of the world around us, but also from the very spirit of the location. Ulrich’s Park has always been a unique place on the map of Warsaw – back in the XIX century the local glasshouses were home to tropical plants such as pineapple. Today, it’s still a place where local people, Wola Park customers and others come for a breath of fresh air and to detox from the rush of the city. Our concept highlights the special quality of this place, while making it exciting and fitting for the local community.

A focus area of the garden is the pavilion ran in cooperation with “Owoce & Warzywa”, where people can find affordable products that range from organically produced vegetables and bread, to bio cosmetics, eco bags and other sustainable items. People can also get tips and recipes, as well as swap ideas, inspiration and experience.

Other important touchpoints of the garden are the educational spots, such as a guide to the city birds, our very own composter (that’s where the earthworms live!), a mushroom nursery hut, and more. Urban farming areas allow us to grow herbs and vegetables, which are nourished with water collected by the special rainwater station. Visitors can observe the vegetables grow and also use them during the exciting workshops that take place in the nearby shed.

Everything about our Everyday Garden is sustainable – even the advertisement campaign. The Wola Park team gave away 3000 flower seed packs to promote the opening, gifted the first 1000 customers with a reusable shopping bag, and invited expert gardeners, bloggers and influencers to visit the garden.