InvestigationSites put landowners in touch with amateur gardeners in need of land. In the city, the pooling of the vegetable garden is branching out.
One picks the last tomatoes, fixing the branches that are still producing to the stakes. The other removes the stalks of squash that will no longer give, before planting the beans. The hands are busy, the words fly from one end of the vegetable garden to the other. ” What do you think about it ? Shall we tear it up? »« We left it too long, this zucchini! ” Since March, Maria and Julie have been cultivating together the abundant south-facing plot that spreads out in front of Maria’s house, in Fontenay-sous-Bois (Val-de-Marne). Seven months ago, they didn’t know each other.
This is an ad posted on the garden sharing website Do you know how to plant with us who brought together around beans and strawberries these two women of different generations, not even neighbors. Graphic designer by profession, Julie Lucas, 39, translucent blue eyes and blond hair gathered in a bun, lives in an apartment in Maisons-Alfort (Val-de-Marne). Retired from the city ministry, 64-year-old Maria Do Ceu Mendes Cunha now opens her door to her twice a week to co-gardener, wearing bright pink clogs, before distributing the fruit of common work fairly on this land which has become a bit too much. big and way too tiring.
“I only half believed it, at the beginning, admits the one who was a specialist in social policies. I don’t know if it works for romantic encounters, these platforms… But there, frankly, it produces very interesting things, well beyond vegetables… ” From his childhood in Portugal this image has remained in his head, of a gardener who never struggles alone and willingly offers the surpluses to neighbors. “With Julie, she assures, we give each other courage, in a kind of emulation. ” Together, they decide on the plantations, obtain the seeds, share a growing knowledge of permaculture, welcome the 780g tomato or lament the radishes that do not grow.
Confidence reigns
In Maria’s garden, Julie s’“Ventilate the head”. She is amazed at the size of the zucchini and cucumbers (“Nothing to do with those of Carrefour! “). Above all, she knows what she eats: seasonal vegetables without pesticides. “Then we became friends, can we say that? “, asks Maria, lifting her head from the zucchini. A smile responds to him, across the central aisle. Between the two women who live alone, trust reigns. Julie has the keys, since Maria is often absent. Thus, the garden is never neglected.
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