In the scorching spring, a "Flower of Ancient Beauty" planting activity was carried out at the same time in the ancient 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th residential areas (i.e., Gumei Community) in Hongmei Street, Xuhui District. A few days ago, residents planted their own "ancient flowers" - Yueji, and moved the "Flower Expo" to their doorstep, so that they could have a flower walk comparable to a park without leaving the community. Looking at such a vivid picture of spring planting, who would have thought that a year ago, it was still a cluttered green space.
Located in the southwest of Xuhui District, Hongmei Street Gumei Community, as a demolition and resettlement community in the 90s of the 20th century, old houses, barren green spaces, and weak properties were once pain points for community residents. How to explore a sustainable road of environmental renewal in the context of stock renewal? Gumei community uses "horticulture" to open up new ideas for community governance.
Planting: The farming tradition of Hongqiao Township
The residents of Gumei Community often have a wonderful tacit understanding when introducing themselves, and they will invariably mention a key word - peasant origin, and their birthplace is the current Hongmei Caohejing Development Zone, the former Hongqiao Township.
Hongqiao Township was once a traditional vegetable planting area in Shanghai due to its connection to the urban area, and has become an important non-staple food production base in Shanghai since the 50s of the 20th century. With the passage of time, Hongqiao farmers after "going upstairs" have preserved and developed the farming tradition in the form of gardening in the new era, and spontaneously transformed 28 miniature gardens at the door of their homes, which have become the landscape of the Gumei community.
Sprout: The birth of a resident gardening club
In 2023, Hongmei Street will join hands with East China University of Science and Technology to actively explore a participatory governance path that combines hardware renovation and soft law governance in old communities. In the first phase of the project, the project team carried out six "series of horticultural activities" in the community with "community gardening" as the main line, and through the multi-dimensional mobilization model of "activity absorption, mobilization of neighborhood committees, and capable people taking the lead", a total of more than 10 residents were discovered in the early stage of the project. With the gradual deepening of the empowerment course, with the residents as the core, gardening enthusiasts have gradually gathered, and the resident horticulture club of Gumei Community has begun to take shape.
Nursery: Create a community garden that "won't be abandoned".
How to realize the normal management of the community garden and create a community garden that will not be abandoned is the focus of the second phase of the project. In this regard, Hongmei Street has carried out active exploration from three levels: team, capital and mechanism.
Through the first stage of in-depth mobilization and curriculum empowerment, the first, second, third and fourth residential areas have successfully formed a team of resident volunteers with gardening experts as the core, and their circle of friends is still expanding. Some horticultural volunteer teams follow the strategy of matching young and old, with young and middle-aged gardeners responsible for planning and design, and elderly residents responsible for daily maintenance, some horticultural volunteer teams continue to attract fresh blood and call on young residents to join in, and some horticultural volunteer teams are committed to discovering more community gardening experts and inviting them out through autonomous projects to serve the community together.
Financial support is also an important help for the project to continue. The community foundation has completed the hardware renovation of the garden, the community self-government fund has ensured the daily maintenance of the garden, and the Starbucks community charity fund has created a special garden...... The community continues to broaden funding channels and link up with surrounding high-quality resources, forming a diversified fundraising model of "foundation venture capital, self-government fund support, and enterprise participation in the park".
At the level of mechanism, it is tailored to local conditions according to the actual situation of each neighborhood committee. The Guyi team took the community garden as the center to continuously radiate the surrounding buildings to carry out the transformation of the green space in front of the door, and gradually formed a scenic belt. With the goal of "upgrading the main road", the team mainly planted turf, hedges and flowers to ensure that both sides of the main road have scenery in all seasons while maintaining low maintenance. The Gusan team gave full play to the advantages of its horticultural talents, flowered more and changed the scenery step by step.
At present, the operation and maintenance of the community garden is on the right track. More than 100 square meters of garden renovation has been completed by residents who have spontaneously designed, turned, purchased and planted, realizing the closed-loop transformation of the whole chain of environmental renewal.
Mature Trees: The Road to Breaking the Circle of Gumei Gardening
At the beginning of 2024, through democratic discussions, residents agreed that on the basis of the current community garden, gardening activities need to further "break the circle" and attract more young and middle-aged people to join the volunteer team. In order to further expand the participation of residents and extend the scope of the project, the third phase of the project will focus on large-scale activities such as the selection of "Ancient Beauty Flowers", public welfare venture capital for horticultural projects, standardized construction of small gardens at the doorstep, and Gumei Community Gardening Festival for all residents.
After preliminary publicity and consultation, a total of more than 400 residents participated in the online voting of the "2024 Ancient Beauty Flower", and selected the moon season as the "Ancient Beauty Flower" according to the voting results, and simultaneously determined the planting site. Representatives of resident volunteers, neighborhood committees, and third-party social organizations went to the flower and bird market to purchase, and the monthly season of each pot was selected by the residents themselves.
The relevant person in charge of Hongmei Street said that in order to stimulate the enthusiasm of residents to participate, the vote also increased the incentive mechanism, according to the number of votes of the neighborhood committees to set up different gradients of the number of flowers and renovation funds, by the resident volunteers to decide the use of flowers and funds, the neighborhood committee, the third party from the side to assist in supervision, truly let residents from passive participants into the active subject of community governance, the implementation of the whole process of people's democracy.
Text: Hongmei Street
Reporter: Yang Yixiu, Xiao Lexin, Shi Yuchen
Editor: Chen Haixiao
Reviewer: Wei Li