People need Parks and Gardens and the Parks and Gardens need care.

I continue to be humbled, surprised, and inspired by what I learn in visiting gardens.

This past year, Rich and I signed up for a Danube River Cruise, attempting to travel on someone else’s itinerary.  The itinerary had all manner of interesting destinations, Kalosca, Passau, Bratislava, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.  I needed a map (perhaps you do too).  Romania borders Ukraine.It has been a long time since world geography in high school.

The humbling part of the journey is realizing how little I knew of this part of the world.  It is a complex territory with extensive history reaching back to the Ottoman Empire, and I knew nothing about it.  The more I learned, the more surprised I am history’s patterns so clearly repeat themselves, and it is happening today in our country. Exploring the world inspires me to continue sharing stories of my garden travels.

All that to say, I explored gardens in Bucharest, Romania, and the gardens and parks need care.

Gardens that began in 1799 as a way to protect the public’s health from foul water and resulting plagues. Creating a pond with a fountain to manage the sludge overflow solved a problem and created a public green space.  30,000 trees were planted, and a landscape design was made for the Cismigiu Gardens. This is a story of the government rulers helping their people. 

Today, Cismigiu is an old garden, trees have grown, and so have the weeds.  The gardens are overrun with weeds, invasive plants, broken benches, and overflowing, dented trash containers.

The Botanical Garden developed in 1944 is in need of funding. The Romanian rulers stopped helping their people.  Most famously, Nicolae Ceaușescu, who ruled for 40 years, 1965-1989.

Here’s a list of some of his greatest hits:

• He tore down  3 Square miles (8 square kilometers) of historical buildings to begin his Palace of Parliament, a building so large that the country to this day can only afford to heat/light, or cool 30% of the building.
• He admired North Korea & China’s leaders and the deference given by all citizens of the countries to the singular ruler. So he created a secret police force, arresting 80,000 peasants and confiscating all their land. He arrested protestors for disturbing the peace and claiming they had bad moral character.
• He exported all food produced in the country, leaving his own citizens to starve.
• He banned birth control, abortion, and made divorce harder to obtain. Creating orphanages and an “experiment” of abuse unmatched in the world.
• He rationed food, electricity, and fuel for central heating.
• He plunged the country into debt.

I could go on and on.

In 1989, amid massive citizen protests, the army turned against Ceaușescu, and he was tried and executed on Christmas Day.

Today, Romania is an emerging democracy.  The internal governance systems, their infrastructure, and public services are still struggling, which is why the gardens and parks need care.

All people need gardens and parks, to enjoy a stroll under an Allée of trees, and sit on a slatted bench for a time. Children need space to explore, to find butterflies, bugs, and worms. Young people need a spot to first reach out to hold hands, look closely at another person and think beyond themselves to the happiness of another. This is supported by our own experience but also by science. 

The garden still has lots of rules.

Palace of the Parliament 70% of the building remains empty.

The building has eight underground levels, the deepest housing a nuclear bunker, linked to main state institutions by 20 km (12.4 mi) of tunnels.[30] Nicolae Ceaușescu feared nuclear war. The bunker is a room with 1.5-metre-thick (4.9 ft) concrete walls said to be impervious to radiation. The shelter is composed of a main hall – headquarters which would have had telephone connections with all military units in Romania – and several residential apartments for state leadership, to be used in the event of war.  The building is so heavy it is sinking 1/4” each year.

Romania the country is roughly the size of Oregon.

The conservatories holding plant collections are rusted and locked.

The lake is rarely used.

There are beautiful spaces in Bucharest, but not easily accessible to everyone.

We humans have great need for nature, for green space.  When politicians know the cost of everything and the value of nothing policies for the health of the citizens’s soul are ignored.  We the people must protest, we must prevail.