ONLY 10 days after the Krasniansky Zelovoc (Krasňany Grocery) community garden in Bratislava was officially opened, vandals levelled it. They rooted out all the vegetable seedlings and herbs and broke bushes, leaving complete devastation behind them.
“It is a huge loss, especially from the viewpoint of the time, energy, efforts and the great pleasure we all had from this garden,” Lenka Antalová Plavuchová from the community family centre Ráčik said, as quoted by the TASR agency.
Antalová Plavuchová, along with other gardeners, plans to file a criminal complaint. The police arrived at the site on the morning of June 3 to obtain evidence.
“Citizens of Krasňany district believe that this was not accidental vandalism but an organised criminal offence,” said Eva Mikláková, a spokesperson for the Bratislava municipality of Rača. “They think that vandals deliberately waited until the plants were grown enough to cause as much damage as possible.”
Gardeners will again try to plant the seedlings which the vandals uprooted completely, but many of them were destroyed, said Mikláková.
The idea to create a community garden came from Miroslav Dudlák who, along with his family, did not have a garden after moving into the city. Last May he approached the Ráčik centre and, together with it, presented the idea to Rača’s mayor. The Rača municipal office liked the idea and their joint efforts resulted in the creation of a community garden on previously unused land covering about 650 square metres, rented for a symbolic sum for five years. Twenty-seven families have their own piece of garden there and were growing radishes, onions, strawberries and other plants.
“We show our children that a carrot does not grow on the shelter in a supermarket and teach them consideration towards their neighbours, nature and themselves,” Dudlák said, during the official opening on May 22.
Bratislava City Council supported the project with €2,600 and the SPP Nadácia foundation contributed over €8,000.
The community garden was one of 43 projects from across Slovakia which the foundation supports within its project Together We Will Make Slovakia Better.
