Creating an urban oasis: how small communities across Europe are greening their cities and why Gibraltar is next

By Annabelle Mor Codali, CEO of the Gibraltar Horticultural Society

In cities across Europe, a quiet revolution is taking place. It is not driven by giant infrastructure projects or sweeping new laws, but by something far simpler and far more powerful: people planting, beautifying, and reclaiming the spaces directly outside their doors. From balconies dripping with colour to shared courtyards transformed into tiny jungles, communities are rediscovering the impact that small-scale greening can have on the health, identity, and resilience of their neighbourhoods.

Gibraltar will join this movement with the launch of the Urban Oasis Award, a new initiative encouraging residents, estates, shops, offices and neighbours to beautify public-facing spaces.

The concept is rooted in a European tradition of community-led greening—one that has proven time and again that a greener neighbourhood is a happier, healthier, and more connected one.

Across Spain, some of the most celebrated examples of community greening can be found far from major capitals. In Andalucia, the famed Patios de Córdoba festival transforms private courtyards into living works of art. Residents spend months cultivating lush displays of geraniums, vines, citrus trees and ferns, opening their homes to visitors and turning entire neighbourhoods into floral labyrinths. What began as a local tradition in 1921 has grown into a civic movement rooted in pride, creativity, and community spirit. The effect goes far beyond visual beauty: the patios cool their surrounding streets, support biodiversity, and strengthen neighbourly bonds.

Similar energy can be seen in places like Malaga’s Calles en Flor, where neighbourhood associations work together to decorate streets with plants and flowers. These initiatives are small in scale but big in impact, showing how residents - when given encouragement and recognition - can transform their urban environment with remarkable ingenuity. In Tudela de Duero, a town of just 8,600 people, the annual flowered balcony and façade competition creates a walking route of colour through the old town, proving that even modest prizes can inspire widespread participation.

Elsewhere in Spain, greening has become a tool for social cohesion. In Barcelona’s Verd Verd programme, residents compete for the city’s best green balconies, façades, and shared spaces. Meanwhile, community gardens in Barcelona and Madrid bring together seniors, families, and schoolchildren to plant vegetables, maintain pollinator gardens, and turn formerly neglected corners into lively hubs of activity. These initiatives don’t merely beautify a street—they build community resilience, reduce isolation, and help residents feel a sense of ownership over their public realm.

Across Europe, this grassroots spirit is echoed in dozens of other small-community competitions. Ireland’s Tidy Towns, Austria’s charming alpine flower-village competitions, and France’s national Villes et Villages Fleuris programme all show how collective greening can become part of a nation’s culture. Meanwhile, the pan-European Entente Florale award demonstrates that even tiny towns can achieve significant environmental and social recognition through planting and nature-based design.

What all these projects share is a simple but transformative belief:
When people green their immediate surroundings, the entire community benefits.

Green streets and façades reduce heat, filter air pollution, support pollinator networks, and create more walkable, welcoming environments. Just as importantly, they lift spirits. Numerous studies across Europe have shown that even small pockets of greenery can reduce stress, improve mental wellbeing, and increase social interaction. Neighbours who garden together stay connected. Children who help plant outside their school feel pride—and learn stewardship of nature.

This is exactly the energy Gibraltar’s new Urban Oasis Award seeks to cultivate.

Densely populated and wonderfully vibrant, Gibraltar is perfectly positioned to become a showcase for how micro-greening can thrive in compact urban environments. From steep stairways to narrow lanes, estate courtyards to shopfronts, there are countless public-facing corners that—once planted—can transform not just how Gibraltar looks, but how it feels.

The award aims to spark friendly competition, creativity, and community involvement. Categories could include green balconies, business-front greening, estate-led beautification, pollinator-friendly projects, school initiatives, or even climate-resilient gardens for hot Mediterranean summers. The potential is limitless - and importantly, the initiative puts residents and local organisations at the centre.

Gibraltar will join this movement with the launch of the Urban Oasis Award, a new initiative encouraging residents, estates, shops, offices, and neighbours to beautify public-facing spaces. The award was brought forward by the Gibraltar Sustainable Building Group (GSBG) and sits perfectly alongside similar initiatives currently taking place across Europe and locally through the development of urban forests. The GSBG believes that by using buildings as a backdrop, we can naturally bring nature into our cities and expand the connection from our Nature Reserve on the Rock to the Mediterranean Sea and the Bay.

Through the creation of green paths connecting key areas such as the Nature Reserve, Commonwealth Park, Campion Park, and the Alameda Botanical Gardens, biodiversity can move freely through our built environment. The initiative demonstrates that micro-greening is not just about aesthetics, it can actively foster ecological corridors, supporting pollinators, wildlife, and climate resilience, while enriching everyday life for residents.

If the examples from Spain and Europe teach us anything, it is that the most impactful environmental changes often start at the smallest scale. A planter on a balcony. A vine on a wall. A shared effort to bring life to a neglected passageway. Each contributes not just to climate resilience and biodiversity, but to civic pride and collective joy.

As Gibraltar prepares to launch its first Urban Oasis Award this spring, it stands on the cusp of joining a much wider continental movement. A movement where communities reclaim their streets with plants. Where creativity blooms in unexpected places. And where greener cities begin with the people who call them home.

For more information please visit our website www.gibraltarhorticulturalsociety.com @Urban.Oasis.Award on Instagram.