I’m back from a wonderful fact finding tour of Germany where I continued my quest to rediscover how urban living is balanced by glorious growing spaces.
Munich: a proud city packed with history and people, dedicates as it has for generations, green and growing spaces for its people. You’ll see thousands of ‘weekend houses’ dotted along waste-land parallel to railway tracks, and more impressively, prime land in the city.
Gob smacked to find a hive of activity in the city, we backtracked through a Munich ring road to stop and visit a perfect example, a city block ring fenced and dedicate to growing. History, castles, architecture and the Olympic stadium had to wait momentarily. We had urban growing to explore (much to our confused and slightly amused local guide) after all, we weren’t a ‘typical tourist’ on this trip.
It was such an inspiration. A mini community block developed and nurtured to ‘grow’ it can be interpreted from a productive vegetable patch to fruit trees to flowers; to sustainable composting producing lots. The spaces cut through a high intensified city. Absolutely delightful.
A far cry from the a traditional English allotment, inner city Munich allotments were divided with hedges and fences, walkways and ‘streets’ complete with street signs. Looking like miniature suburban homes, these weekend gardening pads are affordable, leased annually, with enough land to get your hands dirty and enjoy the last of the summer wine on a deck chair. And yes, there is a waiting list!
Given we visited in April (Europe’s spring) growing spaces were springing into action.
As we traveled through Germany by train, these ‘weekend’ plots were prolific. Around one million allotments can be found in growing clusters throughout the landscape, dotted within prime inner cities too. At 280km per hour train journeys it was hard to capture them all in stills, rather ‘blurs’ but they were admirable on the outskirts of every township.
These allotments aren’t just for the semi retired. Paddling pools and trampolines adorn growing spaces, a safe place to enjoy and embrace nature that has been diluted in urban growth.
No longer seen as ‘provincial for the poor’, tacky is replaced with trendy as urbanites embrace nature: an essential food source for many, a place to relax, impress and even to party for apartment dwellers.
Germany has got this right. A brilliant use of unwanted land, nurtured and loved, by those who yearn for dirt between their toes and home grown vegetables.
Reflect back on the main centres of New Zealand with high intensification and the absence of growing space….the inspiration is mindbogglingly dull. Yes we have green belts, nice-to-have green spaces for jogging in the park or tramping in the bush —- but let’s look the other basic joys of living.
We are human. Surely we can’t grow, nurture and harvest from empty blocks and railway tracks! I’m teasing. Of course we can. Now, who’s going to put this into action?
November 20, 2020
Yours is a very informative post. Thank you from the heart