By Luo Jia
Do you dream of a natural garden nearby? The first Shanghai Citizen Community Garden Festival opened recently. The opening event is divided into online webcasting and offline venue. The offline venue is located at KIC Farm Park, Wujiaochang Sub-district, Yangpu District.
Liu Yuelai, Co-founder and Chairman of the Four-Leaf Cottage, attended offline event that day and said, "On one hand, it has been 6 years since the inception of KIC Farm, and it gets increasingly matured, providing reference for other community gardens. On the other hand, KIC Farm is a typical example of social cooperation and a very unique garden built by enterprise, operated by social organization, guided by government and co-created by community neighbors."
On that day, as the first part of opening ceremony, amidst lush green grasses, a discussion of "zero-waste floral art" was held. All materials for onsite flower arrangement came from the waste flowers and grasses of garden. Regarding its setting, Liu Yuelai said, "The plants grow exuberantly in summer, and there are some weeds. We hope to lead people to weed and perform floral art by the way, allowing people to appreciate the beauty of nature inadvertently and understand that floral art is possible even without buying flowers."
Additionally, Flying Flower Ceremony and Community Garden Talk Show are also a part of the opening ceremony. "Flying Flower Ceremony" is to put the seeds collected in nature back into the nature, and Community Garden Talk Show enables participating volunteers to share their insights. "From nature, back to nature", small public space delivers more opportunities for experiment and practice, and creates a deeper public spirit. "In the future people's city, every family must start from their doorstep." According to introduction, as a city-wide event, Shanghai Citizen Community Garden Festival will last until mid-October, and diverse activities will roll out at sub-venues.