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Garden Initiatives for Children

Practice starts early for those who want to become urban gardeners!

There are a few initiatives, made especially for children, which provide the opportunity for hands-on learning in the garden.

There are other opportunities for children too, such as ““Eule Wien” (Owl Vienna) or “Schule am Bauernhof” (School on the Farm) and coodiated by “Bio Austria”.

Please select a district

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NASCH – Natur als Schule (Nature as School)

Two trained educators come to children in schools, kindergartens and to families to create garden areas and garden together.
Nature experience areas for children made by children themselves

  • Examples of offerings:
    • Building raised beds, creating and planting soil beds – doing crafts and gardening.
    • Depending on age, listening to interesting facts, songs and stories, being self-active and learning through research
    • Considering, sketching and creating garden areas
    • Create a habitat for native animals as well as plants and, of course, for children
  • Contact persons:
    • DIin Johanna Biesenbender, landscape planner and kindergarten teacher
    • Mag.a Silvia Schachinger, pedagogue and mathematician
  • Contact:

Acker Austria

School teachers and kindergarten teachers are trained over four years to grow vegetables together with their pupils or kindergarten children. The program for schools is called GemüseAckerdemie; the one for kindergartens is called AckerRacker. The children experience where the vegetables on their plates come from on the school’s or kindergarten’s own farmland. This helps them develop a greater appreciation for nature and food. Since 2013, more than 230,000 children and their teachers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland have successfully participated in the Acker educational programs.

City Farm Augarten

After 5 successful years in Schönbrunn, the City Farm was terminated at its location. As an alternative, they have been offered buildings and garden areas in Vienna’s Augarten in the 2nd district. More than 4,000 m² of  urban open space offer all the prerequisites for a unique urban living and learning garden, managed according to the principles of organic farming. Children’s and theme beds are linked by the path of vegetable diversity, where countless species and varieties grow, that can not be bought in any supermarket. There is a wide spectrum of garden programs for children, teenagers, and adults year-round.

  • Address: Obere Augartenstraße 1/8, 1020 Wien
  • Sponsorship:City Farm Augarten – Verein zur Förderung von Urban Gardening, Gartenpädagogik und ökologischer Bildung (Association for the Promotion of Urban Gardening, Garden Education, and Ecological Education)
  • Target Groups: Adults, children, families, school classes, kindergartens, and teachers
  • Gardening Season: year-round
  • Events, offers, and other info:
    • Programs for adults, children, families, school classes, kindergartens, and teachers
    • Raritätenbörse (“Treasure Fair“)
  • Contact Information:

Kinder-Garten!  Pädagogikgarten (Education Garden)

Practice starts early for those who want to become urban gardeners! In this garden program, kids learn that plants need time and care to grow into ripe, delicious food. But the highlight for these little gardeners is always the harvest: when the vegetables can be tasted, herbs gathered, and berries picked, patience is finally rewarded!

The Pädagogikgarten (educational garden) is an ideal opportunity for children of the city to see where fruit and vegetables come from, and to learn how they arrive on our table. Come visit the garden and enjoy the flourishing garden beds!

  • Address: Schütte-Lihotzky-Park, 1050 Wien
  • Size: 5 children’s raised beds
  • Sponsorship: GB*East, Bezirksvorstehung, MA 42
  • Established: 2015
  • Participants: Childrens groups from KIWI, Kleiner Stern Abendstern
  • Plants:
    • Vegetable, herb, and flower beds
  • Offers:
    • Spring festival
  • Contact Information:

Naschgarten – Vom Samenkorn bis zur fertigen Mahlzeit (Snack garden – From seed to ready meal)

If tomatoes don’t come from a can and spinach doesn’t come from the freezer, where does it come from? The Naschgarten is dedicated to hands-on nature and health education and offers regular gardening and nature education adventures for children ages 2-14. By sowing, planting, harvesting, cooking and enjoying together, children experience ecological connections and learn where the food on their plates comes from.

  • Offers:
    • Regular gardening and cooking for school class and kindergarten groups over the course of a year in the mornings
    • Gardening and cooking classes for children in the afternoons
    • Children’s birthday parties
    • Vacation camps
    • Seasonal festivals
  • Address: Rosiwalgasse 37, next to the Zukunftshof, 1100 Vienna
  • Sponsorship: Naschgarten – Association for practically oriented nature and health education
  • Contact:
    • Web: www.naschgarten.org
    • Email: hallo@naschgarten.org
    • Phone: 0670 357 1180

Cobenzl Biodiversity Educational Trail

The new Cobenzl Educational Trail is situated very close to the Landgut Wien Cobenzl children’s farm. Cobenzl mountain lies within the Wienerwald Biosphere Reserve and is one of Vienna’s most species-rich areas – a true natural wonder. The new educational trail, which was conceived as part of the SYM:BIO Interreg project, provides information to children and grown-ups about the importance of biodiversity in the natural and cultural landscape.

Feel free to visit and learn about small-scale landscape structures, deadwood and stone walls that foster diversity across eight exciting stations, and find out why wild bees and butterflies need wildflower meadows to survive.

Garten der Vielfalt (Garden of Diversity) of BIO FORSCHUNG AUSTRIA

What do plants eat? How deep do roots reach into the soil? What does “organic” mean?

In “Garten der Vielfalt” (Garden of Diversity), pupils and students learn about the amazing wealth of edible plants. Depending on the season and program, children an youths can plant or harvest peas, smell culinary herbs, taste tomatoes, or dig up potatoes to take home. There are about 200 different species of plants to admire.

A healthy variety of vegetables needs a rich soil life: educational stations show the movement of earthworms, microscopic microbial communities, and the secret underground life of plants in the “Wurzelschaugarten” (Root Garden).

Experience the foundations of our diet in the organic garden!

AgriNatur Visiting Areas and Ecological Educational Trail

Bordering the Lobau forest, not far from the Bio Forschung Austria office, a trail leads across the four Fields of Diversity visiting areas where you can learn about the history of the regional landscape and the significance of biodiversity in a diversified agricultural landscape. Open for visitors year-round, the Field View, Panoramic View, Bird’s Nest, and Insect Oasis areas offer opportunities to rest and discover from early spring when queen bumblebees go looking for nesting sites to autumn when countless apple trees offer their fruit near the trail’s resting spots. Learn more about the Fields of Diversity at the Interreg website.