School Garden Info Board: an Eye-Catching Tool for Biodiversity Communication
Author: The Centre for Experiments in Urban Studies (CEUS)
Primary School “Miroslav Antić” is one of the rare Belgrade schools with a gardening tradition and subjects that incorporate gardening into the curriculum. The Centre for Experiments in Urban Studies (CEUS) has been working with this school for the last two years to establish and nurture the Urban Living Lab principles through its own initiatives and other Horizon projects (such as NBS EduWorld).
As part of its UNP+ Communication Plan, CEUS added a final touch to the unique “Mika’s Mini Botanical Garden” by designing and installing a school garden info board that illustrates the work done in the garden over the past years.
The board is divided into four sections. The first quadrant tells the garden’s origin story; it is a tribute to the collective efforts of the school community that founded it on the initiative of the history teacher, Milena Radović. Rather than focusing on particular plant species, the remaining quadrants focus on micro-habitats and the ecological niches and services of the school garden. The “Wild Zone” tells the story of the garden’s biodiversity - wild inhabitants and the interventions that support them. “The Shrub World” underscores the often-forgotten environmental and landscaping value of shrubs, here planted to provide food and shelter for birds and insects. “The Pollinator Corner” reflects on the importance of pollinating insects for our ecosystems and well-being, while also mentioning good practices that help them survive in a garden.
This atypical botanical garden info approach stems from the need to educate the school community not just about the beauty of plants and their flowers, but also about the value of the garden as a habitat and part of the local urban ecosystem. It also serves as a blueprint for future garden maintenance, reminding the community of environmentally friendly, biophilic gardening approaches.
We hope that the info board will continue to provide a colourful and telling overview of the garden’s natural delights, serving as a testament to the values and urban biodiversity vision of Urban Nature Plans Plus.
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