Terni, Italy
Kilos of waste diverted
Kilos of CO2 impact
Number of gardens involved
Terni LCN, Italy
The Terni LCN is formed by a community garden, an organic farm and a high school. The organic farm is called Il Cerchio della Vita, which means the circle of life. It is designed on permaculture principles and is entirely run by a young couple and one hired hand. The community garden is called Orto in Città Terni and has plots for a heterogenous group, which includes schools, a project with the mentally challenged and senior citizens. The high school Casagrande Cesi, named after a Alessandro Casagrande, a famous composer and pianist and Federico Cesi nobleman and founder of a Scientific institution called Accademia dei Lincei, is a technical school for the education of the future generations of experts in the food and hotel trade.
The lead node for the Terni LCN is the organic farm “Il Cerchio della Vita” with 2666 kilos of co-composted biochar and a carbon impact of 53 320 kilos of CO2 (equivalent to 65 acres of US forests in one year)
This project is sponsored by CoGEN, a biochar producer based in central Italy. Would you like to sponsor a project? Ask us how
Hubs of the Terni LCN:
The Terni LCN focuses on permaculture, work with schools, and work with the more vulnerable members of the community such as the elderly and people with psychiatric challenges.
Il Cerchio della Vita – Is run by Matteo, his partner Martina and their farmhand Saturday. It was started a year ago on some land owned by Martina’s grandparents. It is a fully organic farm and the permaculture design was done by one of the top permaculture designers in the county, Giusseppe Sannicandro.
They have a drive-in purchase area which is convenient as the farm is just a 15 minute drive from the city center, they also do deliveries and CSA boxes.
Their plan is to plant a food forest next year and create an ecovillage over the next 5 years.
Orti in Città Terni – The community garden is divided into 32 plots of 100 yards each, each individually fenced and rented to the locals. What is remarkable about the garden is the heterogeneous population that comes in at various hours of the day to tend to their plants; there are young professionals, families, single moms and retired men and women from all sectors.
The community garden also works with some local schools and an association for people with psychiatric challenges. It is run by Mr Osvaldo Facciolo, a schoolteacher who had a learning farm in a nearby village called Toano Alto that was destroyed by the earthquakes in 2016, thankfully he had a relative with land and so in 2017 the community garden was started.
On the land there is a greenhouse for everyone to use, there are ducks, peacocks and chickens, and most importantly there are two soccer posts for the youngsters .. because it’s Italy after all!
The Casagrande Cesi High School – is a technical school where young people acquire the skills to work in the hotel and restaurant trade as well as study all the basic high school academic courses.
The collaboration started in 2019 when LCN was called to participate in the school project by the Environmental Activist Association “Pensare il Domani” (thinking about tomorrow) that was headed by the ex-mayor Mr Giacomo Porrazzini and was creating a Circulare VEggie Garden at the school.
Four hundred students gathered twice in plenary sessions in which carbon drawdown solutions were presented. A local sponsor funded the construction of two compost tumblers and the students were taught how to compost the kitchen scraps they produced in class. The following autumn two raised beds were built in the school yard and were planted.
The future plan is to add 6 more beds to the vegetable garden, add a herb garden and a food forest, as well as increase the compost production.