On the weekend of 13-15 May, 2011, the 2nd Growin’ – training took place at M.A. Center Germany.
It was the second year that a group of AYUDH youngsters took charge of part of the certified organic garden at the Center, planting lettuce, celery, herbs, beets, chard and flowers.
As a new thing this year we also planted in a style according to the Native American tradition, combining maize, beans and zucchini in one bed.

The project “Growin ‘- one seed at a time” is a green initiative by the youth movement AYUDH to encourage young people to grow their own vegetables, in whatever space available. The goal is to inspire more and more young people to cultivate their own healthy food.
For its efforts in ecological, social, cultural, and economic sustainability the project recently was awarded a prize by the competition, “ideas, initiative, future”, a joint initiative of the UNESCO and the drugstore dm.

On the first day of the “Green Weekend” a few of us started to prepare the bed for planting. After about an hour of hard work I looked around and saw four Scouts passing by the garden. “Perhaps they like to help us so?” I said to the others. At first we were not so sure wether we should ask them, but then we remembered that Scouts have the intention to do one good deed every day. So we tried our luck, ran over to them and asked: “Have you already done your good deed today?” We told them about our garden project, and that we would really appreciate their support. Fully motivated they agreed and helped us to get the bed in shape for planting.

In the afternoon, more participants of the Youth IAM meditation class, which took place as a paralell workshop, joined us in the gardening, we were now 13 people. Using a planting plan, I explained the procedure and we formed small teams, of wich each took care of a small part of the 25 square meter-bed. Everyone was highly motivated and the planting and watering was quickly done. At the end we all gathered around the field, placed our hands onto the soil and prayed the Sanskrit mantra “Lokah Samastah Sokinuh Bavantu” several time, praying for peace and happiness in the world.

It was a nice experience for us to meet the scouts, to exchange views and discover many similar values. Eventually they decided to stay overnight and provided us with a cozy campfire – done in professional scout style! Even though we all had never met each other and we completely surprised them with our request to join us in the work, they remarked that they never had such a beautiful day out! A good deed a day can really bring people together!

On Sunday, everyone had the opportunity to learn more about small-scale gardening. We sowed vegetables, herbs and flowers in small pots, which each participant could take back home. There the plants can sprout on our windowsills, balconies and in our gardens.

We hope that the fruits of our work may grow well, both on our AYUDH – bed and inside all of us as an inspiration for a more sustainable lifestyle. We are delighted to spread the idea of GrowIn’ and create new small balcony and garden projects.