“Let the Children See That the Paradise Apple Doesn’t Grow in the Store,” Says Natalia Ellis from Ukraine
An international team of volunteers ventured into the overgrown areas of the neglected Botanical Garden today to clear trash, prune overgrown shoots, and lay out a path towards a future oasis with flowers, greenhouses, and a children’s area.
This initiative is part of a campaign that began a year ago, started by the Agricultural University and the foreign IT company “Speedflow,” which does business in Bulgaria.
“We came in October 2015, and I first asked where the Botanical Garden was,” recalled Natalia Ellis, the wife of the company’s manager. She was told that while there used to be a garden, it now resembled more of a dump and impassable terrain between the Izgrev and Trakia neighborhoods. Natalia began to lobby her colleagues to work together to make our garden resemble its botanical sister in Odessa.
“Our idea is to clean up the green spaces and create areas for family time, seating, watering and growing flowers, handmade activities, festivals, and artist exhibitions,” Natalia described. Her personal vision for the Botanical Garden includes greenhouses for cacti, citrus fruits, flowers, and tropical plants. “Let the children see that the paradise apple doesn’t grow in the store,” she insisted. Natalia, a collector of cacti with around 50,000 species at home, expressed a desire to donate some of her plants to the garden. She envisions having a Japanese garden, a small artificial pond, a rose garden, benches, paths, and a fountain. “For beautiful photos, aromatherapy, children’s education, yoga, and tranquility,” she enumerated enthusiastically.
Despite skeptics who argue that this will be costly and difficult, Natalia has already found like-minded individuals, and the series of cleanups began in October of the previous year. Volunteers have already improved a large “spot” on the left side of the path, which was previously impassable. Initially, only employees of the company – Ukrainians, English, Spaniards, and Bulgarians – participated. Later, students from the Agricultural University joined, followed by ordinary citizens. “It’s nice that they want change. We invite Plovdiv residents to participate because we are doing this not for ourselves but for everyone,” Natalia said.
It is very important for her that children are involved in the improvement and activation of the space. “Every botanical garden in the world has a children’s area,” she explained, noting that she always visits these places during her travels. Children could have their own plots to care for. Today’s volunteers began by planting bulbs, which will bloom as blue crocuses in the spring. Men carried out larger branches, while women cleared ivy and small shoots choking the plants.
Petya Topalova learned about the event from Facebook and came with her two children. Six-year-old Ivaila grabbed a garden trowel to make holes for the crocuses, while eight-year-old Niki started trimming wild blackberries. “It’s not developed. I can’t bring my kids here now. But when I was little, I came here on visits from kindergarten,” Petya recalled. Her teacher had mentioned that unique plant species could be seen here, and Petya once found a peculiar pine cone that she never saw again.
Petya, a sales specialist, has participated in other cleanup actions. “To live in a cleaner place and set an example for the children,” she described her motivation. During a cleanup of the Maritsa River, she stumbled upon a very different find – a bag with two automatic rifles and a pistol, apparently thrown from above and snagged on bushes in the riverbed. She and other volunteers called the police and later had to provide statements. “We went to clean, and ended up in a criminal case,” Petya joked.
Today also involved police, but this time they came on their own – the local officer from the 5th Police Department stopped by around noon to commend the volunteers. “Once it’s cleaned up, drug dealers and pimps won’t come because there will be no place to hide,” he assessed.
“It’s sad to have such a park and not use it. There’s only a pile of condoms and a path leading to it,” commented Gergina Karagenska, who participated in the cleanup with her 5-year-old daughter, Gergana. She finds it strange that people of different nationalities who currently live here, despite it not being their hometown, are working to restore the Botanical Garden, while those living in Trakia do not participate. Only one family came by randomly and helped, as well as a few teenagers, Gergina recounted about the previous cleanup, where they built birdhouses and painted them.
Today also had an artistic element – artist Figen Demireva brought a board, sheets, and pencils. “Children have a unique ability to develop such ideas because they are unburdened,” she said. She hopes the future revamped Botanical Garden will include a hobby area.
Vladimir Ellis, the manager of the international company, took on the task of feeding the volunteers – grilling sausages on a barbecue in the middle of the field and serving them in bread rolls with homemade tomato juice.
There were also some complaints – a man came to protest that after the cleanup, piles of branches were left by the path and he scratched his car. The volunteers promised to insist to the district mayor that the branches be promptly removed.
Source : Marica.bg