As people are growing more and more fond of sustainability and organic products, in Liguria community gardens and local farming are becoming a thing.
One vegetable garden that is not so commonly found is the one only scuba divers can visit you can find here in Liguria.
A fully patented underwater vegetable garden has in fact been set right in front of the village town of Noli in Liguria.
It allows to grow basil and lettuce underwater and it is exploring new avenues for the agriculture of the future.
Off the coast of the municipality of Noli, there's in fact the Orto di Nemo (Nemo’s garden its name), where basil and lettuce grow 6 to 8 meters below the sea surface.
It's an all-Italian experiment, which is bearing fruit and has thrilled reporters from newspapers even abroad.
It is a sort of biosphere which started with the work of a family-run company specializing in equipment and services for divers. The company realized that underwater conditions are very favorable for agriculture: the temperature is constant, the humidity is sufficiently high and, furthermore, insects and parasites cannot reach sprouts and seedlings, so pesticide use can be avoided. The next step is to build biospheres made of clear plastic structures anchored to the seabed and filled with air and where the idea can be put into practice.
It seems that, after a couple of years of experimentation and the loss of some crops, Nemo's Garden has taken on its current form: five biospheres that guarantee a constant temperature of around 26 degrees Celsius, a humidity level of around 80% and high concentrations of carbon dioxide, which promotes plant growth.
Now Nemo's Garden produces a crop that is not yet commercialized.
Crabs and octopuses have visited the crops, but without touching the plants at all, while seahorses have found a favorable environment beneath the biospheres for reproduction and raising their young. In short, it appears that the idea will have no negative impact on the marine ecosystem, quite the opposite.
Ocean Reef Group, which holds the patent for Nemo's Garden, intends to continue the experimentation to refine the project in every aspect. In the meantime, it is expanding its cultivation to include strawberries, peas, and perhaps even mushrooms.

Speaking of vegetable gardens…
In Liguria there are many initiatives run by municipalities to grant community gardens to its residents.
The municipalities of small towns along the coast as well as in the hinterland of Liguria are indeed promoting the redevelopment of rural areas, returning them to the community as community gardens. The project has a dual purpose: on the one hand, it redevelops the landscape and environment, making it once again a usable and cultivable agricultural area; on the other, it implements inclusive interventions, with the aim of improving the quality of life of vulnerable individuals and their families through physical and recreational activities, encouraging sharing and participation in community life.
I have personally visited a few.
One in particular caught my attention because they are experimenting with synergistic agriculture. This natural cultivation technique, which requires no tillage or the use of pesticides or fertilizers, is practiced on a 300-square-meter plot within a park that houses a reception facility that has been transformed into a synergistic garden. This innovative idea allows for abundant harvests of organic vegetables, thanks to intercropping, while saving time, energy, and water. This is the basis of a start-up project for the development of a business that could become a future resource for the local area.