How it started

During the construction of building Z on Campus Groenenborger, a plot of land of 600 square meters was digged up behind building Z. The contractor was obliged to rebuild this after the works. The garden that was made of it had a hard time: a number of trees died quickly and what remained was not very attractive.

Maggy Goossens, professor in the study field Electronics ICT Engineering Technology, has always had a heart for nature. She took the lead in applying for subsidies from the City of Antwerp to rebuild the garden. The subsidies were approved in January 2020.

Climate-friendly

The garden is mainly focused on organic gardening. Fruit trees as well as vegetables and herbs will be cultivated. And there will be hives. You can find the plan here. Wherever possible, we will work with recuperation materials. All this is closely in line with the climate action strategy of the University of Antwerp.

Community oriented

About 20 volunteers from different faculties have already applied to help with the construction and maintenance of the garden. There is also enthousiastic collaboration with the residents of the care company DC Oosterveld, located next to building Z.

Furthermore, the kindergarten Pius X was invited to come and see and we expect the toddlers to return regularly to the garden to learn about vegetables and fruit and, of course, to help pick fruit.

Finally, the garden is being built with the help of VZW Posthof, an organisation that works with people who are difficult to employ and an urban school for part-time education with the students of the training for gardener.

Most of the planting materials will be sown in trays so that everyone's back can be spared. The trays will also serve as partitions and seats. The garden will be free and wheelchair accessible. It will be a meeting place for everyone: toddlers, the elderly, students, teachers, ...

Community service learning

It is also the intention to have our future engineers carry out research projects there. Concrete thought is now being given to developing a system that monitors the drought in the containers so that smartphones can indicate when they need to be watered. This should then be linked to an irrigation system based on rainwater. There will also be solar powered compost bins as a research project.

Planning 2020

• January - removal dead trees
• February - delivery of horse manure
• March - delivery of compost, digging plant holes and mixing soil, construction of plant containers and seats
• April - planting the containers with organic planting materials
• November - planting new trees and shrubs

Climate plans

Are you also interested in nature? Feel free to contact Maggy Goossens for more information or have yourself added to her mailing list to stay informed about the progress. 

Do you also want to contribute to the climate? Take a look at the climate action strategy of the University of Antwerp or our GreenOffice.