---
title: GP2 Baštalište – Serbia
description: "# GP2 Title: Baštalište - Citizen-Led Community Gardening and Land Reclamation in Peri-Urban Belgrade **📍 Location:**Slanci, Palilula Municipality, City of Belgrade, Serbia (peri-urban settlement, approx. 8–10 km from Belgrade city centre) **🔗 Main source:**https://www.facebook.com/Bastaliste/ **🔗 Additional sources:** - [https://una.city/nbs/belgrade-fua/organic-community-gardening-belgrade](https://una.city/nbs/belgrade-fua/organic-community-gardening-belgrade) -…"
url: "https://becom4.eu/becomdocs/gp2-bastaliste-serbia/"
updated: "2026-08-19"
category: "Community Gardening / CG - Good practical examples"
---

# GP2 Baštalište – Serbia

# GP2 Title: Baštalište - Citizen-Led Community Gardening and Land Reclamation in Peri-Urban Belgrade

**📍 Location:**Slanci, Palilula Municipality, City of Belgrade, Serbia (peri-urban settlement, approx. 8–10 km from Belgrade city centre)

**🔗 Main source:**https://www.facebook.com/Bastaliste/

**🔗 Additional sources:**

- [https://una.city/nbs/belgrade-fua/organic-community-gardening-belgrade](https://una.city/nbs/belgrade-fua/organic-community-gardening-belgrade)
- [https://prviprvinaskali.com/clanci/gmo/gradoviopstine/bastaliste-slanci-beograd.html](https://prviprvinaskali.com/clanci/gmo/gradoviopstine/bastaliste-slanci-beograd.html)
- [https://www.energetskiportal.com/healthy-energy-is-created-in-bastaliste/](https://www.energetskiportal.com/healthy-energy-is-created-in-bastaliste/)
- [https://www.urbanallotments.eu/case-studies/serbia.html](https://www.urbanallotments.eu/case-studies/serbia.html)
- [https://www.danas.rs/vesti/klimatske-promene/urbane-baste-beograd-gradske-bastenske-zajednice-klimatske-promene-urbanizam/](https://www.danas.rs/vesti/klimatske-promene/urbane-baste-beograd-gradske-bastenske-zajednice-klimatske-promene-urbanizam/)
- [https://www.gradnja.rs/bastenske-zajednice-srbija/](https://www.gradnja.rs/bastenske-zajednice-srbija/)
- [https://www.instagram.com/bastaliste_beograd/](https://www.instagram.com/bastaliste_beograd/)

# Introduction

Baštalište is a citizen-founded community garden established in April 2013 in Slanci, a peri-urban settlement within Belgrade's Palilula municipality, roughly 8–10 km from the city centre. It was created through a partnership between two civil society organisations, Ama – Centre for the Care of People and Nature and the Belgrade Flower Festival, and is widely recognised as the first formal garden community in Belgrade and Serbia, at a time when the very concept of a "community garden" was virtually unknown in the country.

The initiative was led by Katarina Milenković, a communications graduate with no prior agricultural background, who taught herself organic growing techniques through online research, volunteering on organic farms abroad, and conversations with elderly Slanci residents who still remembered pre-industrial farming methods practiced by their grandparents. The garden began modestly, on a small plot in front of Milenković's own house, with just five founding members in its first season.

A defining feature of Baštalište's early development was the direct support it received from local authorities. In its second season, the president of the Slanci local community council (Savet Mesne zajednice) helped the group secure access to a larger plot — a former vineyard that had been abandoned for roughly 30 years and was overgrown with garbage, shrubs, and thorns. This early, informal backing from a local self-government body was decisive: without it, the initiative could not have expanded beyond its original micro-scale pilot. Members then spent three months of intensive volunteer labour clearing the land before it could be subdivided into individual growing plots, today comprising 14 to 22 parcels (sources vary between 40 m² and 50 m² per plot) sharing common infrastructure, including a drip irrigation system and a communal pavilion used for workshops and gatherings.

Despite this local-level support, Baštalište has never received a formal land grant or legal status from the City of Belgrade itself. Katarina Milenković and later advocates, including Sabina Kerić of the association Ekonaut, have campaigned since 2014 for the City to formally recognise and regulate garden communities — an initiative that generated public visibility but, as of 2025, had still not produced binding municipal policy. A City Planning Institute study has nonetheless identified 70 potential sites across Belgrade for future urban gardens, and researchers estimate around 100 hectares of city land is already informally used for gardening without legal status.

**Context:**

Baštalište combines organic food production, land reclamation, and civic self-organisation into a single grassroots model. Its non-commercial, membership-funded structure and its reliance on early, informal local-government cooperation make it a distinctive counterpoint to corporate- or donor-funded green projects, and a strong illustration of circular economy principles applied to land, food, and community resource loops, directly relevant to New European Bauhaus and Quintuple Helix Model frameworks.

**Learning Objectives:**

- Understand how derelict urban and peri-urban land can be reclaimed for organic food production through citizen action
- Analyse the role of informal local-government support in enabling grassroots green initiatives to scale
- Explore the governance and land-tenure challenges facing community gardens without formal municipal recognition
- Develop strategies for building citizen-led circular food and land-use models transferable to other communities

**Session Plan:**

- Introduction to community gardening as a circular land-use and food-resilience strategy (15 min)
- Case study analysis: Baštalište – Slanci, Belgrade (30 min)
- Workshop: designing a community garden model for your own locality, including local-authority engagement strategy (45 min)
- Reflection and feedback (30 min)

# NEB Principles Identified in the Example

**Sustainability**

Sustainability underpins the entire Baštalište model. The garden reclaims previously derelict, weed-and-waste-covered land and returns it to productive organic use, applying a strict ban on synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides for all members. Composting of organic waste and the use of natural, macerate-based sprays replace chemical inputs, while members have discussed future additions of rainwater harvesting for irrigation and renewable energy, since the site is not connected to the electricity grid. A professional organic-agriculture association visits monthly to inspect plots and advise members, embedding continuous ecological improvement into the garden's operating culture.

**Inclusion**

Inclusion is expressed through Baštalište's open, non-commercial membership model. New members are admitted annually through a public call, an open-house day, and an interview process run by an admissions committee of experienced members, ensuring accessibility to newcomers regardless of background. The garden draws in a mixed group of city dwellers, WWOOF volunteers, Slanci villagers, and local schoolchildren from the "Ivan Milutinović" primary school, bridging urban and rural participants around a shared, low-cost activity that builds food security and social connection.

**Aesthetics**

Aesthetics at Baštalište is expressed through the transformation of an abandoned, thorn-covered vineyard into an ordered, cared-for productive landscape, and through the communal pavilion and shared spaces that give the garden a distinct sense of place. Public events such as "Delicatessen Monday", held at the Cultural Centre "Grad" for World Food Day, showcase dishes made entirely from the garden's own harvest, turning the aesthetics of home-grown food into a public celebration of craft, care, and seasonal produce.

**✅ What the Sectors Can Learn: Community Gardening (QHM-Oriented)**

# 🌍 Environment

Baštalište demonstrates that neglected peri-urban land can be ecologically restored and made productive through citizen labour alone, without large capital investment or industrial inputs.

### Derelict land can be reclaimed into productive organic ecosystems

***Lesson:***A 30-year-abandoned vineyard, overrun with garbage and thorns, was cleared and converted into a fully functioning organic growing site within three months of volunteer labour.

**→ Adaptation:**Cities and communities should map derelict or abandoned plots as latent green infrastructure, rather than treating them only as waste-management liabilities.

**→ Example Implementation:**Municipalities can create inventories of unused or informally used land (Belgrade's own Planning Institute identified 70 potential garden sites) and open them to citizen-led reclamation initiatives.

**→ Practical Step:**Conduct a local audit of abandoned or underused plots; assess soil condition and accessibility before opening a call for citizen-led garden proposals.

### A strict organic-only rule keeps ecological integrity central without heavy enforcement cost

***Lesson:***The garden's single binding rule for all members — no synthetic fertilisers or chemical pesticides — is simple to communicate and monitor, yet ensures consistent ecological outcomes across many independently managed plots.

**→ Adaptation:**Community garden governance models elsewhere can adopt minimal, clearly enforceable ecological rules rather than complex regulatory frameworks that are hard for volunteer-run initiatives to sustain.

**→ Example Implementation:**New garden communities can require organic-only cultivation as a condition of membership, verified through periodic peer or expert inspection rather than costly certification schemes.

**→ Practical Step:**Draft a one-page organic cultivation code for new garden communities; pair it with a volunteer or NGO-led inspection visit schedule.

### Off-grid and water-scarce conditions can drive future circular innovation

***Lesson:***Because the site lacks electricity grid connection, members have identified rainwater harvesting and renewable energy as necessary next steps for garden resilience.

**→ Adaptation:**Off-grid garden sites should be treated as opportunities to pilot decentralised water and energy solutions rather than as pure constraints.

**→ Example Implementation:**Install low-cost rainwater collection barrels connected to shared drip irrigation, and explore small solar installations for shared pavilion lighting and tool charging.

**→ Practical Step:**Apply for small-scale green infrastructure grants (municipal or EU-funded) specifically to fund rainwater harvesting and solar pilot installations at community garden sites.

# 👥 Society

Baštalište shows that community gardening builds durable social bonds and knowledge transfer across generations and between urban and rural residents, functioning as a genuine civic commons.

### Open, transparent membership processes build legitimacy and trust

***Lesson:***Baštalište's annual public call, open-house day, and peer-review admissions committee create a fair, transparent path to membership that avoids the perception of insider control.

**→ Adaptation:**Other community gardens should formalise open, documented admissions processes rather than informal or closed-circle membership, to build broader legitimacy and community trust.

**→ Example Implementation:**New initiatives can publish an annual open call via social media and mailing lists, followed by a public open-house day and a simple written questionnaire before final selection.

**→ Practical Step:**Draft a one-page annual membership call template, including eligibility criteria, application questions, and a transparent selection timeline.

### Intergenerational and urban-rural knowledge exchange strengthens resilience

***Lesson:***Elderly Slanci residents shared traditional farming knowledge with urban newcomers, while local schoolchildren and WWOOF volunteers also participate, creating a rich mix of local, traditional, and international knowledge.

**→ Adaptation:**Community gardens should actively recruit across age groups and backgrounds, treating older local residents as knowledge-holders rather than passive neighbours.

**→ Example Implementation:**Organise seasonal knowledge-exchange sessions where elder residents teach traditional techniques to newer or younger members, formally documented for future members.

**→ Practical Step:**Schedule at least two intergenerational knowledge-sharing sessions per growing season; record key techniques in a simple shared handbook.

### Public food events turn private practice into shared civic culture

***Lesson:***Baštalište's public "Delicatessen Monday" event for World Food Day showcased dishes made entirely from the garden's harvest, extending the initiative's social value beyond its own membership.

**→ Adaptation:**Community gardens should plan periodic public-facing events that connect the wider community to the garden's output and story, building broader civic support for its continuation.

**→ Example Implementation:**Partner with local cultural centres to host seasonal harvest dinners, cooking demonstrations, or open garden days.

**→ Practical Step:**Plan one public harvest-showcase event per season, in partnership with a local cultural venue or NGO.

# 🏛️ Politics

Baštalište illustrates both the enabling power and the limits of local-government engagement — early, informal support from a local community council was decisive for the garden's growth, yet the absence of formal city-level policy has left the initiative structurally vulnerable.

### Early informal support from local self-government can be the decisive factor enabling scale-up

***Lesson:***The president of the Slanci local community council personally helped Baštalište secure access to the larger, abandoned vineyard plot in its second season — without this local-level intervention, the garden could not have grown beyond its original five-member pilot on a private residential plot.

**→ Adaptation:**Grassroots gardening initiatives should proactively engage the lowest tier of local government (community councils, local boards, ward representatives) early on, since these bodies are often more accessible and responsive than city-level authorities.

**→ Example Implementation:**New initiatives can request an introductory meeting with the local community council president or equivalent, presenting a simple one-page proposal for land access support.

**→ Practical Step:**Identify and contact the relevant local community council within the first month of planning; document any land or resource support offered in a simple written agreement, even if informal.

### Without formal city-level recognition, grassroots gardens remain structurally vulnerable

***Lesson:***Despite a decade of advocacy since 2014, Belgrade has still not created a legal framework or formal land allocation policy for community gardens; a sister initiative in Šabac, which did receive a full hectare of public land, later collapsed due to persistent vandalism and theft, showing that informal or partial support alone is not sufficient for long-term security.

**→ Adaptation:**Cities should move from informal, personality-dependent support toward institutionalised policy frameworks — replicating models such as Zagreb's, which converted informal gardens into a regulated municipal system with legal protections.

**→ Example Implementation:**City governments can commission planning studies (as Belgrade's City Planning Institute did, identifying 70 potential garden sites) and translate findings into a formal municipal ordinance recognising and protecting garden communities.

**→ Practical Step:**Advocate for a municipal working group, including representatives of existing garden communities, tasked with drafting a formal community-garden policy within a defined timeframe.

### Grassroots advocacy can generate policy visibility even without binding outcomes

***Lesson:***Baštalište's founders launched Serbia's first "Initiative for Formalisation of Garden Communities" in 2014, generating sustained public and media interest even though it did not yet produce binding city policy.

**→ Adaptation:**Sustained, well-documented citizen advocacy should be treated as a long-term policy-building tool, valuable even when immediate legislative results are not achieved.

**→ Example Implementation:**Community garden coalitions can maintain a shared public campaign (petitions, media appearances, conference participation) to keep the policy issue visible across multiple election and budget cycles.

**→ Practical Step:**Establish a recurring annual advocacy touchpoint (e.g., a public petition renewal or press event) to sustain policy pressure over multiple years.

# 💶 Economy

Baštalište operates on a minimal-cost, membership-funded model that generates food security and shared resource value without relying on commercial revenue or corporate sponsorship.

### Membership-fee funding enables independence from corporate or donor control

***Lesson:***Baštalište is financed purely through member fees covering shared infrastructure (irrigation, tools, the communal pavilion), rather than corporate sponsorship or public grants, giving members full control over the garden's rules and direction.

**→ Adaptation:**Community gardens seeking independence from external funding conditions should design low-cost, member-funded models focused on shared infrastructure rather than large capital projects.

**→ Example Implementation:**New gardens can set an annual per-plot membership fee calibrated to cover only shared infrastructure maintenance and communal tools, keeping barriers to entry low.

**→ Practical Step:**Draft a simple annual budget covering shared irrigation, tools, and pavilion maintenance; divide costs transparently across members via a fixed per-plot fee.

### Reclaiming idle land turns a liability into a productive local food asset

***Lesson:***The abandoned vineyard plot, previously a neglected liability attracting waste dumping, was converted into a source of food production and shared value for dozens of households at negligible land cost.

**→ Adaptation:**Local economies should identify similarly idle land parcels as low-cost opportunities for food-security and local economic value creation, rather than accepting them as permanent liabilities.

**→ Example Implementation:**Municipalities or landowners can offer long-term, low-cost leases on idle land to citizen groups in exchange for maintenance and productive use.

**→ Practical Step:**Approach private or municipal landowners of visibly neglected plots with a simple land-use partnership proposal covering maintenance in exchange for gardening rights.

### Scaling requires stronger institutional and financial backing than membership fees alone provide

***Lesson:***The Šabac sister-garden's collapse despite receiving a full hectare of public land shows that land access alone is insufficient; without further institutional, security, and possibly financial support, even well-resourced replications can fail.

**→ Adaptation:**Community gardens aiming to scale beyond a single pilot site should combine membership funding with targeted municipal or donor support for security, fencing, or basic infrastructure, rather than relying on member fees alone.

**→ Example Implementation:**Pair any future public land grants to garden communities with modest co-financing for basic site security (fencing, lighting, on-site presence) to protect the investment.

**→ Practical Step:**When negotiating public land access, request minimal co-financing commitments for site security as a standard condition, not an optional extra.

# 🎓 Education

Baštalište operates as an experiential learning site where organic growing knowledge is transmitted through direct practice, mentorship, and intergenerational and international exchange, rather than formal instruction.

### Self-taught, practice-based learning can substitute for formal agricultural training

***Lesson:***Founder Katarina Milenković had no agricultural background and instead learned through online research, volunteering abroad, and direct conversations with elderly local residents — demonstrating that formal credentials are not a prerequisite for launching a successful learning-centred initiative.

**→ Adaptation:**Community garden education programmes should be designed around accessible, informal learning pathways (peer mentorship, local knowledge-holders, open-source resources) rather than assuming formal agricultural training is required to participate or lead.

**→ Example Implementation:**New initiatives can create simple onboarding guides compiling organic growing basics, sourced from existing members and freely available resources, for new members with no prior experience.

**→ Practical Step:**Compile a short onboarding handbook of organic growing basics before each new season, updated with lessons learned from the previous year.

### International volunteer networks bring fresh practical knowledge into local communities

***Lesson:***Baštalište's connection to Ama Centre's WWOOF Serbia network brings international volunteers with varied organic-farming experience directly into the garden, creating a continuous inflow of practical technique exchange.

**→ Adaptation:**Community gardens can formally connect with volunteer exchange networks (such as WWOOF) to access diverse, low-cost expertise while offering volunteers hands-on learning experiences.

**→ Example Implementation:**Register the garden with relevant volunteer-exchange platforms and set up a simple hosting protocol for short-term volunteers.

**→ Practical Step:**Draft a one-page volunteer hosting protocol covering expectations, tasks, and learning opportunities; register with at least one recognised volunteer exchange network.

### School partnerships embed circular food literacy in the next generation

***Lesson:***Students from the local "Ivan Milutinović" primary school participate directly in garden maintenance, giving children first-hand exposure to organic food production and land stewardship.

**→ Adaptation:**Community gardens should proactively build partnerships with nearby schools to embed hands-on sustainability education directly into children's routine learning.

**→ Example Implementation:**Establish a recurring seasonal school visit programme where classes participate in planting, harvesting, or composting activities on-site.

**→ Practical Step:**Contact one local school to pilot a single-season gardening visit programme, then formalise it into a recurring annual partnership if successful.

# 🔧 Practical Steps for Implementation

- Identify a founding core group: start small, even with as few as five members, on a modest available plot before scaling
- Engage the local community council or lowest tier of self-government early, requesting introductory support for land access
- Map nearby derelict or abandoned land (vacant lots, former agricultural plots) as candidate sites for reclamation
- Organise a volunteer land-clearing phase, budgeting realistically for several months of labour on heavily neglected sites
- Subdivide reclaimed land into individual member plots sharing common infrastructure (irrigation, tools, communal pavilion)
- Establish a simple, enforceable organic-only cultivation rule, supported by periodic expert or peer inspection
- Design a transparent annual membership process: public call, open-house day, written application, and a peer admissions committee
- Set a modest annual membership fee calibrated only to cover shared infrastructure costs
- Build partnerships with local schools, volunteer exchange networks (e.g., WWOOF), and cultural centres for education and outreach
- Advocate consistently for formal municipal recognition and legal land-use protection, learning from both enabling and failed replication cases
- Document and communicate impact (plots cultivated, members involved, events held) to strengthen the case for institutional support

**✅ Transferability**

This model is transferable to:

- Municipalities and local communities with derelict or underused peri-urban or urban land
- Citizen groups and NGOs seeking low-cost, non-commercial food-security initiatives
- Local self-government bodies (community councils, ward boards) seeking low-cost civic engagement projects
- Schools and volunteer exchange networks seeking hands-on sustainability education partnerships
- Cities developing municipal community-garden policy frameworks, using both Baštalište's successes and the Šabac collapse as evidence
- Regional community-gardening networks seeking to document and scale grassroots land-reclamation models

# Disclaimer / Copyright Notice

Parts of this material were created and structured with the support of AI research tools. The content was created to support analysis and reporting and was adapted and reviewed by the project team. Research was conducted using publicly available information from the official Elbauenpark Magdeburg website.

The photographs used in this document were provided by the project team and show a study visit to the Millennium Tower in Magdeburg. All trademarks and product names mentioned are acknowledged and remain the property of their respective owners.

04.08.2026 BeCom Project Team