My friend Iona has now harvested her own tomatoes! However, not in a pot on the windowsill, but in a community garden in Neukölln. She shares this with a whole group of neighbors. Last week she sent me photos: tomatoes, chard, even a few strawberries. Everything from a raised bed that doesn’t belong to her alone, but to everyone who pitches in. Since she started doing this, I’ve had this feeling again: I would really like to have a garden in the city. Or at least something that feels like it. (By the way, you can find more about my everyday life in Berlin in my Berlin blog.)
Garden in the city: What urban gardening actually means in Berlin
Iona is with hers Community garden not alone. Berlin is full of places like this, and to be honest, I think it’s pretty nice that gardening doesn’t just happen on balconies and window sills, but also on waste land, former cemetery areas, parking decks and Tempelhofer Feld. In Berlin, urban gardening means: you share space, work, soil, harvest and sometimes probably a bit of chaos.
Well-known examples are: Princess Gardenswhich were originally created on Moritzplatz and are now continued at the New St. Jacobi Cemetery in Neukölln, the Allmende-Kontor on Tempelhofer Feld or the himmelbeet in Wedding. I think the principle is nice because it is so typical of Berlin: a bit improvised, social, ecological and never quite perfect.
The difference to the classic allotment garden – and the long waiting lists in Berlin
Things are completely different with the classic allotment garden or allotment garden: Here you rent your own fixed plot of land in an allotment garden association, usually with your own arbor. It really only belongs to you or your own family.
That’s exactly what makes it so sought after, and that’s exactly why the waiting lists are long.
In Berlin, depending on the association and district, it can take several years until you get an allotment plot. Sometimes there is talk of a waiting time of five to ten years. It’s no wonder that it’s no longer just pensioners on the list, but also young families and people from my generation who at some point realize how much they miss their own piece of land. Iona’s way over the Community garden is the more pragmatic one: no waiting for years, but you share space and work with others. For me personally, having my own plot would still be the dream at some point, if only because I would like to sit alone in my bed, without a program and without having to ask anyone.
My childhood in the garden: ladybugs, wet grass and endless time
I totally understand this run. As a child, I loved my parents’ garden. I still remember the tickling of ladybugs on my hand, the wet grass under my feet in the early morning and that slightly musty smell of soil after watering. I spent hours following ant trails or digging up earthworms or watching grasshoppers. I really miss this calm and patience today.
What I wish for my daughter – and why we go into the forest so often
That’s exactly what I want for our daughter. And that’s exactly what’s in one Berlin city apartment hard to get right, as much as I love our two balconies. That’s why we go out into the forest very often. We live very close to a small forest that I love very much. It’s only a stone’s throw from Wuhlheide.
A few years ago I compiled the most beautiful green corners in and around Berlin for the blog, and that’s exactly where we’re heading to with our children. It’s not the same as having your own garden in front of your door that you can just step out to for ten minutes. But it’s our compromise, and it seems to be enough for my daughter when I carry her back into the car after three hours in the woods, completely dirty and with a stick that she absolutely wants to take home with her.
The dream of owning your own house with a garden
The bigger dream is still there, and we talk about it honestly: one day a house, maybe just outside of Berlin, with a garden where our daughter can run around like I used to. When I imagine it, a small garden shed is also part of it for me. Not as a plastic shed in which only old flower pots and broken garden tools end up, but as a permanent place in the garden. For cushions, bicycles, soil, children’s things, but maybe also for a small table where I can write in the summer while everything is green outside.
Maybe that sounds very adult, but I understand such side rooms much more today than before. You don’t always need more living space. Sometimes all it takes is a place where things have their place and everyday life seems a little less busy.
How I’m still getting more green into my everyday life
Until the dream of having my own garden becomes more realistic at some point, I’ll try to bring greenery into my everyday life in a different way. Sometimes it’s just a few plants at home, sometimes a walk through our little forest or an afternoon in the Wuhlheide. Especially with a child and a dog, I notice even more how good these places are. Not much has to happen outside. A stick, a few leaves, mud on your shoes, and the day is somehow better.
I also like to visit friends who are already closer to this garden feeling, like Iona with her community garden. This isn’t my own garden, of course. But it reminds me that you don’t always have to own nature in the city to experience it. Maybe that’s our path right now: a bit of forest, a bit of a balcony, a few green corners in Berlin and the thought that at some point we might have our own plot of land or a house with a garden.
Until that happens, our garden in the city will remain what we make it: the balconies, the forest on the weekends, the Wuhlheide and all the green corners that Berlin still has. And to be honest, we’re doing well with it right now.
What does it look like for you: Do you have a garden, a plot of land or do you live with this little longing for more green? Feel free to write it to me in the comments. I’m curious to know how many of you are city dwellers and still sometimes dream of earth under your fingers.
