Earlier this week, we were on an exploratory trip to Berlin. Monday through Wednesday, we were hunting for our new apartment (and found one we adore) and looking into the areas we could end up living. The apartment we like does have a small balcony which we’ll likely fill up with herbs and a few tomato plants. I might even manage to get the jean butts up there.
But something which seems to be extremely popular in Berlin is guerilla gardening within the tiny spaces between your front door and the street. And I love it!
Just down the street from us, one of the nearby tenants has put up a small fence (so people can’t park their bike in there) and created a little garden of wild strawberries and flowers. While I’m not certain I would actually be brave enough to eat something which was just growing out in the open to be tampered with by everyone, I love the idea of turning these otherwise dead, brown spaces into thriving green areas.
Most of the spaces we saw only had some sort of flowers growing in them, but a few of them herbs as well. And I also saw many a balcony loaded up with tomato plants, strawberries and the like. So all of this is extremely encouraging for our upcoming move. I even have a few ideas of place we may be able to invade to grow some actual edibles – with or without the permission of others. 🙂
In fact, there is a courtyard garden that our new apartment overlooks which I have to wonder about. It would be perfect for a family plot….the question is really just how one goes about gaining access to it.
I can already tell that although gardening takes on a rather different form in Berlin, it’s going to be quite adventurous and a lot of fun.
A few other Berliners have started an initiative called Gemüsekorb (“vegetable basket”) to use abandoned shopping carts as mobile gardens. They’ve planted everything from flowers to tomatoes to potatoes in them — and they can be wheeled around from time to time so they don’t become a nuisance or get reported. Yes, one major risk with guerrilla gardening is that your stuff will get stolen — but I guess that’s all just part of the game. Last year, a course on how to set up your own baskets was run and everyone got to take home a basket with them. Pretty slick really.
In Templehof, you can visit the gardens in Schillerkiez which are set up at the old Templehof airport which was closed several years ago.
In Kreuzberg, check out the community garden, Garden Rosa Rose. Or the 6,000 sq meter Prinzessingarten (Princess Garden), built entirely in crates so that it can be moved on short notice — since the lease is on a year-to-year basis.
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Congrats on finding an apartment! I can’t wait to see pictures!! 🙂 And see what your new garden will look like as well. I haven’t posted about our garden in a while, but we’ve been eating fresh strawberries, raspberries, and tomatoes, our Brussels sprouts are going CRAZY, and I’m using more fresh herbs than I ever have (basil, sage, and parsley), and they much a difference in recipes. No more dried for me (if I can help it)! 🙂 By the way, I keep meaning to send you an email – if you’re still looking for a guest post, let me know.
Good for you! Not bad at all considering you weren’t going to garden at all 🙂
Sent you a message about the guest posting!
I love those shopping carts-turned-portable gardens! So glad you’ve found a place where you won’t have to give up gardening. But with that courtyard you’re trying to figure out how to access? I now have an image of you abseiling down the side of your building, dressed all in black, to do Ninja Gardening!
LOL! I might have to resort to that. Once we get moved in next month I’m definitely going to research it further. It’s just overgrown with weeds at the moment so it could be interesting.
They do this in Chicago too! We have a community garden that is part of the school across the street. We aren’t participating but it looks beautiful and it’s a peaceful spot! We can pick the bush berries. I had a yummy raspberry this week.
The portable gardens are really interesting.
I think community gardens are a fantastic idea — and it’s a great way to use up otherwise dead and unfriendly looking spaces.
Berlin is not really one of those cities that has a lot of pretty green areas. There are trees in a lot of the areas, but for the most part, they don’t go to a ton of trouble to do landscaping or anything like that. So I think that is also part of the reason why people do some of these guerrilla gardening practices in the little plots of dirt in front of their door. Otherwise they tend to just be bare dirt or weeds, which isn’t so nice to look at year round!
That really sounds interesting. I guess if your balcony gets lots of sun, you can even hang containers on the wall…I saw something once on Pinterest…but I cannot remember what they used as containers now? I should’ve pinned it! BTW, I nominated (and awarded you) the Versatile Blogger Award…thought it would be fun http://lifelessonsmilitarywife.com/?p=2810.