Sustainable CEU

Last Friday we were very happy to continue our activities in the garden at Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg. Its now already the third year that CEU students and volunteers have helped add edible biodiversity to the garden by preparing the area for additional fruit tree planting. In total, the collective efforts have helped plant 30 fruit trees in the publicly accessible garden area which have been thriving and contributing biodiversity value to the local ecosystem. This project is a collaboration between Sustainable CEU, CEU’s Student Services Office, Laaerberg garden team, a local high school HLW10 in cooperation with the LaaerBergBäuerInnen, the Umblick association, the Obststadt Wien association, the Eco-Social Forum as well as the forestry and agricultural enterprise of the City of Vienna and Agenda Favoriten. We look forward to the next chance to work together in the garden!

We were very happy to have the chance to visit GRAND GARTEN with a group of CEU students in the Agroecology and Organic Gardening Systems course. It was a great chance to see agroecology in practice at different scales in agriculture, and to also learn about the wonders of vermicomposting. Thanks to Alfred and the team at Grandfarm for the chance to visit!

We were very happy to have an early start to the gardening season at the Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg in Vienna last Friday. Working in collaboration with the garden team, a group of volunteer students from CEU, and a large group of local high school students we were able to prune the young fruit trees and finish early vegetable bed preparation work in a number of growing areas. We look forward to the next work day in the garden. Thanks to the support from the CEU Student Services Office and OSUN Network.

We were very happy to take part in last week's autumn fest at the Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg in Vienna. We were able to help out with some end of season garden maintenance with the enthusiastic group of volunteers from local schools and also learn about solar cooking techniques. We look forward to the rest of the gardening season and of course are already looking forward to next spring!

We have been active in working to keep our vegetable beds full of life during the autumn at the Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg in Vienna. If you are a CEU community member in Vienna interested in gardening, please make sure to let us know!

The spring has already been busy for the Urban Gardening Team. We were able to sow some of the first seeds of the season in recent weeks in our parcel of the Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg. We look forward to seeing how things develop in the next weeks.

We were also very happy to have the chance to meet Alfred Grand and visit GRAND GARTEN to get the chance to learn about organic market gardening and vermicomposting.

It was another day of great weather at the Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg last Friday. Our team of volunteers were able to complete the primary steps for preparing a space in the garden where we will now be ready to begin growing vegetables just in time for the arrival of Spring. We look forward to seeing all of the parcels, trees, and bushes in the garden come back to life with the arrival of warmer weather and longer days.

Thanks to the CEU volunteer team and members of the Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg who participated in the tree pruning workshop last week in the garden. We were able to learn the basics of fruit tree pruning and help the garden team with some compost preparation. We are looking forward to spring and the start of the gardening season!

Dear Friends in Vienna,

Join us at CEU Vienna on January 26th from 14:30-16:30 for an "Afternoon masterclass on degrowth visions and critiques: an escape hatch from the quarter or mid-life crisis you never wanted?"

More information and register here:
https://events.ceu.edu/2023-01-26/afternoon-masterclass-degrowth-visions-and-critiques

We invite you to this masterclass (a way to avoid saying workshop or inviting you to a lecture on what is wrong with today) where Vincent Liegey and Mladen Domazet will offer their unique introductions to degrowth theory and practice. Following short and peculiar openings inviting you at first to be serious about de-growth (odrast in Slavic rendering, postwachstum in German, nemnövekedés in Hungarian), they will take you through a series of steps illustrating how degrowth research today speaks to most of the obstacles you at first imagine. We'll encourage you how to think without fear about frugal abundance and conviviality, and how to celebrate growing without metastasizing. And finally how to quantify, deliberate and strategize through degrowth doughnut visualizations - connecting what’s good today with the great transformations of tomorrow. If you’re serious about mid-century climate stabilization, biodiversity preservation and social justice, you’ll have to consider degrowth in your research work.

More photos from yesterday's volunteer day at Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg. Thanks again to all of the volunteers!

We were very happy to have the chance to help the team at Gemeinsame Landwirtschaft am Laaerberg, the community garden in Favoriten prepare for a fruit tree planting day in the garden as part of Recharge Week programming at CEU. Thanks to all of the volunteers and the CEU Community Engagement Office Team.

Be on the look out for more opportunities to collaborate in the garden in the future.

Dear Friends,

Here is the final update from the Central European University Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy students who spent a few weeks as interns at Zsámboki Biokert as part of their Mespom internship this summer. The farm team is very thankful for their input throughout the internship!

"For the final MESPOM internship week at Zsámboki Biokert, we set out designing and preparing plans for an educational/ experimental garden. The garden required a lot of clearing and preparing the ground for the herb spiral, tree guilds, and keyhole vegetable bed that will soon be a reality! And of course we also helped with the maintenance and care of the plants already there. Thank you Zsámboki Biokert for hosting us and for teaching us so much! An unforgettable experience!"