Growing city gardens
Tomatoes, veggies and herbs are sprouting from Berlin parks, a shopping mall rooftop and even a former airfield in community gardens that pioneer farmers say add green spice to urban life.
Perhaps the best-known Berlin city gardens are on the former tempelhof airport, almost the size of New York’s Central Park, which hails from the Nazi era. In the shadows of its grand terminals, between cracked runways and disused towers, the green-fingered now lovingly tend to organic rucola, chilli peppers and bean sprouts grown in elevated wooden crates.
In summer, cucumbers, celery and basil grow in the shade of sunflowers in these vast urban community gardens. a beehive set among the plots recently produced the first batch of honey stamped “tempelhof airport”.
During the day, the hobby farmers work with wheelbarrows, shovels and garden hoses. at sunset, their mud-caked hands grasp cool cans of beer to celebrate the collective spirit of their grassroots movement.
the movement has spread far across the once-divided German city. In the district of Wedding, a group is now planning to grow carrots and strawberries on the roof of a supermarket, the latest of the Berlin rooftop gardens.
“the idea is to grow vegetables but also to join in a group project, do something together, it’s a place where everyone takes part,” says Burkhard schaffitzel, one of the founders of “Ruebezahl Garten”. the urban gardeners, he said, “are delighted to produce something for themselves rather than to fill their shopping trolley at the supermarket”.
Plants are grown in aboveground containers because the city does not allow permanent plots, but also because growers want to avoid potentially contaminated city soil and even unexploded ordnance from the war. While rough plywood boxes are standard, other gardeners opt to rear their fruits and vegetables in more unusual settings, including cooking pots, old shoes, a hiking backpack and on an old office chair.
at the garden in tempelhof, a “town square” has sprung up where a bicycle repairman has set up shop in a battered old caravan and gar- deners enjoy their home-grown fare with barbecued sausages.
“the kitchen garden is not just a place for self-subsistence but also to learn about communication with urban planning services and the neighbourhood,” said sociologist Christa mueller, who has edited a book on urban gardening.
Community gardens grew up in big cities, in part, as an anti-poverty tool in blighted neighbourhoods and have swept the globe as the world’s population grows more urban. While the enthusiasm for them is not specific to Berlin, it has mushroomed here since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall blessed the city with scores of derelict spaces and vacant lots.
For many, creating a community garden is also a mission in social responsibility.
“It feels a bit like a little town. It’s about participation and collective decision-making. this small piece of land that I cultivate is a small piece of the city that belongs to me,” said Gerda muennich who, having spent her career in front of computer screens, has opted instead for planting pumpkins and cabbages.
mueller, the sociologist, said the guerrilla gardens are a counterbalance to fast-paced modern society where people “claim public space for the common good”.
at the same time, they show that they want to eat and consume differently and nurture not just veggies but also social, cultural and biological diversity. — aFP