Schouwburgstraat Community Garden

In the Schouwburgstraat, LUGO is currently redesigning the back-garden in order to increase biodiversity and make it a more beautiful space. Throughout October 2023 until March 2024, we will be making changes to the garden with our team of volunteers.

Background

The Schouwburgstraat building is located in the Hague. As a very urbanised area, the options for largescale greening and improving biodiversity are limited. However, the building has a backgarden, which consists currently of about 50 square meters of concrete tiles, with a few plant boxes and picnic tables. Currently, it does not look welcoming and appealing, and a lot more could be done to create a nicer space for both students and staff, as well as for our insect and plant friends. 

In partnership with UFB, Real Estate, as well as the Urban Studies and International Studies departments, LUGO was given permission to redesign the garden to make it more biodiverse. We organised a student design competition in July 2023 from which we eventually picked a winner. The winning design will be used as a base for any changes that we make. 

The idea of this garden is that the Schouwburgstraat community maintains the garden. It should be a space that allows those interested in gardening to have a place where they can fulfill their desires. Both staff and students will still want to use the garden, such as during lunch breaks, and thus it becomes an important place to appreciate nature. 

What can you do to help?

We require a lot of help from the whole Leiden University community to get this garden complete! Sign up as a volunteer by clicking the link below, and you can expect to get your hands dirty, be it removing tiles, planting biodiverse species, watering the plants or helping the LUGO Officers with improving the plans. Our first volunteers day is October 18th!