The Roman shared gardens, the guerrilla gardening groups, the associations and citizens last weekend took care of the movable edible garden “ORTO ERRANTE” which has moved ("orto errante" in Italian means wandering garden) from Santa Croce in Gerusalemme to a spot near the ancient CARACALLA BATHS with the Occupy tents.

The ORTO ERRANTE chorally (1) built has a low environmental impact and is reversible since it is made with painted reused wooden market boxes and hemp bags filled with earth and plants brought by the Roman shared gardens.

Originally Zappata Romana was asked by the Rome Occupy to put up an edible garden in the square of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, near the tents. Zappata Romana called the people who take care of the many shared gardens in city and the response was surprising, more than 20 groups joined and came to the appointment. In one afternoon it was built with the enthusiastic help of everyone, passing by citizens included. Zappata Romana built the containers (painted recycled market wooden boxes with hemp bags and colored garden markers for the different contributors) the shared gardens brought earth and plants.

The shared gardens that joined are all mapped on the Zappata Romana map (www.zappataromana.net). There are simple citizens fighting urban sprawl with their garden, others are from a social centre and work with disabled people in the garden, others are guerrila gardeners, others do gardening in an abandoned public area in their neighborhood, others are unemployed who lost their job and work on a garden project together, and much, much more.

The purpose of the ORTO ERRANTE is not only for its nutritional value, it has a symbolic value for the urban community, the encounter of people, the importance of land and nature and last but not least, help the Occupy that not always has a positive image for the media.