The Women’s Community Urban Garden project, jointly run by the Municipality’s Department of Women’s Policies and Department of Rural Services, continues at the Department of Rural Services’ site in Talaytepe, in the Kayapınar district. After planting, tending and harvesting summer crops across the 18-decare plot, the women have come together again for the winter growing season in response to their own requests.

Winter Crops Planted

Vegetable seedlings grown by the Department of Rural Services to preserve and promote local seeds have been planted in the garden. Özden Gürbüz Sümer, Head of the Department of Women’s Policies, also joined the women in planting the seedlings.

White cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, radishes, spinach, beetroot and spring onions have been planted. The women will continue to tend and harvest the crops through their collective efforts.

Decisions Made Collectively by Women

Speaking about the initiative, which aims to strengthen women’s labour and solidarity, Özden Gürbüz Sümer said that the 14 women had formed a production group. She explained that the women collectively made decisions on a range of issues, from the crops to be planted to how the garden would be used.

Describing the garden as a collective space created by women coming together, Sümer said the municipality provided technical assistance, materials and seedlings. She added: “The women themselves are putting in the most work: planting the crops, helping them grow and looking after them. That is why it is so important to us that they are involved in the decision-making processes throughout this project.”

Sümer noted that the women had received training on various subjects, from producing and storing seeds to soil and plant knowledge. She added that, alongside agricultural production, awareness-raising activities were being carried out on gender equality, solidarity and violence.

Produce Used at Home and Sold Locally

During the summer, some of the produce grown in the garden was used to meet the women’s household needs, while some was used to make pickles and prepare food for the winter. Some of the produce was also sold within the women’s local networks.

Sümer said the aim was to establish permanent market spaces as production increased. She explained that there were plans to display and sell products made by women’s production groups at the Hamravat Social Facility, which is due to open in the near future.

Alongside vegetables grown in the garden, the facility will also offer medicinal and aromatic plants, dried herbs, pickles and products made by other women’s production groups to the public, Sümer said.

Gülistan Filiz, coordinator of the Women’s Community Urban Garden, said she had been working with the women to grow produce for around four and a half months. She added that the garden was also an important social and psychological space for them.

‘A Communal Space Has Been Created’

Filiz said the women were able to make time for themselves at the garden, adding: “A space has been created where women foster a communal way of life among themselves.”

She explained that the transition to winter growing had been made in response to the women’s requests. Crops to be planted during this season include sugar beet, radishes, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, white cabbage, basil, garlic and onions.

‘This Place Has Been Really Good for Us Women’

Melek Acemoğlu, one of the women growing produce at the garden, said that working together had enabled them to build solidarity and share their experiences. She added that harvesting the crops they had planted and tended, and taking them home, made them happy.

Acemoğlu said that some of the vegetables grown at the garden had been used to prepare food for the winter. Describing the financial and emotional benefits of the initiative, she said: “When we came here to tend the crops, we would get a little tired, but when we took the produce home and put it on our table, we forgot how tired we had been. This place has been really good for us women, both financially and emotionally.”