Invisible Twinning tree at Hand in Hand

inside the garden house, too much rain outside

rita and thomas busse, the nicest gardeners ever!

gayle installing her apple tree

writing memories on food

paprika

creating an ideal garden

the outcome

giulia giannola, Kochzeiten (Cooking Times), video installation

Kochzeiten (Cooking Times), video installation, Parzelle 3, Hand in Hand

enjoying the installation tree

a german must: kohlrabi!

gayle explaining Invisible Twinning project

Invisible Twinning tree, Parzelle 3, Hand in Hand

Susi Butscher | Ton Steine Gaerten

Gayle going to Ton Steine garden

Susi, Gayle and Giulia

It was like the first summer last year so it was like making our experiences. They started out last year around this time, I think I joined in April. I saw the garden, then in March I asked to participate and they had a little plot for me.  Mine is the one on the corner with the table.

Allotments at Ton Steine garden

Now we are full, there’s no free plots left and but in the beginning it was like whoever came just like they should accept that it is more of a group things than an individual, like ‘Its my land and I will not talk to anybody.’ So it’s a really mixed group, a really mixed group, we didn’t expect it to be like this.

Turkish people, because a lot of Turkish people live here, but like even old Turkish people who do not speak a lot of German, and some, I don’t know where in Africa, but some. The Turkish women always have a Samovar and during the summer time they make like a picnic and serve tea to the others.

There’s one Turkish thing, I dont know the name, because its like kohl, cauliflower, but its only the leaf, not the whole head, that’s something that is typically Turkish and they are happy because that is something that you cannot buy here. But then there’s one of the African guys, then he was really happy too because he knew the same plant.  So they are connecting in some way. They make like what you usually make with vine leaves, but they do not take the vine leaves, but this thing.

Gayle and Susi talking

Different ways of fencing

the Turkish corner

However we didn’t expect it to be like this much, because we had these tomatoes there by the corner of the side walk and they were like phswww, gone, so well the local government did not want us to put fences because they say it’s a public space.  But still we want it for the dogs because the dogs come, you know people walk with their dogs, the dogs run in, so I think we will work on this, so at least we have a little door so that the dogs cannot come in.

Ton Steine overview

   

There’s a Spanish girl who asked to put a recipe on the wall, and its what we did, and we cooked this recipe.  She says that she did this all over the world, especially to make people, when there are ethnic tensions, to make people think, to make people more in contact with other ethnics.  The ingredients were grown from here, but we do not have eggplants.


http://gaerten-am-mariannenplatz.blogspot.com/ 

the recipe

 

Looking for a KGA - Part 4

Bezirksverband der Kleingärtner Schöneberg-Friedenau e.V. 

The office

Giulia waiting

The plan

People from Kleingärtner Schöneberg-Friedenau have been very kind and polite. They seemed to be very interested in our project and they said us: "We call you back!"
We are still waiting for their reply...

It's easy? Just fill the form!

To get a KGA



First step: fill the form!
Second step: wait!
Third step: wait!
Fourth step: wait!
Fifth step: wait!
Sixth step: wait!  
Seventh step: wait! 
Eight step: wait!
Ninth: hope!
Tenth: pray!

Looking for a KGA - Part 2

Bezirksverband der Gartenfreunde Berlin-Treptow e.V. plaque

Bezirksverband der Gartenfreunde Berlin-Treptow e.V. handmade articles in their waiting room

Happy people and pictures from Bezirksverband der Gartenfreunde Berlin-Treptow e.V. in their waiting room

Bezirksverband der Gartenfreunde Berlin-Treptow e.V. waiting room

Giulia waiting

Then we have been to Bezirksverband der Gartenfreunde Berlin-Treptow e.V.
No way to get a KGA if we do not have parents, husbands, relatives or friends that already have one. There is a list of hundreds of people waiting for a KGA. We would probably be number 301 or something. Even if Invisible Twinning is a short term project, there is no way to avoid the queue, to have a small allotment for few months and give it back soon. "No way, at all".

Today, there are still about 1.4 million allotment gardens in Germany covering an area of 470 km2

Allotment gardens are characterised by a concentration in one place of a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families. In allotment gardens, the parcels are cultivated individually, contrary to other community garden types where the entire area is tended collectively by a group of people.

The individual size of a parcel generally ranges between 50 and 400 square meters, and often the plots include a shed for tools and shelter. The individual gardeners are usually organised in an allotment association which leases the land from an owner who may be a public, private or ecclesiastical entity, and who usually stipulates that it is only used for gardening (i.e. growing vegetables, fruits and flowers), but not for residential purposes (this is usually also required by zoning laws).

The aspect of food security provided by allotment gardens became particularly evident during World Wars I and II. The socio-economic situation was very miserable, particularly as regards the nutritional status of urban residents. Many cities were isolated from their rural hinterlands and agricultural products did not reach the city markets anymore or were sold at very high prices at the black markets. Consequently, food production within the city, especially fruit and vegetable production in home gardens and allotment gardens, became essential for survival.

The importance of allotment gardens for food security was so obvious that in 1919, one year after the end of World War I, the first legislation for allotment gardening in Germany was passed. The so-called "Small Garden and Small-Rent Land Law", provided security in land tenure and fixed leasing fees. In 1983, this law was amended by the "Federal Allotment Gardens Act"

Nevertheless, the importance of allotment gardening in Germany has shifted over the years. While in times of crisis and widespread poverty (from 1850 to 1950), allotment gardening was a part time job, and its main importance was to enhance food security and improve food supply, its present functions have to be seen under a different point of view.

In times of busy working days and the hectic urban atmosphere, allotment gardens have turned into recreational areas and locations for social gatherings. As green oases within oceans of asphalt and cement, they are substantially contributing to the conservation of nature within cities.

The Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux, a Luxembourg-based organization representing three million European allotment gardeners since 1926, describes the socio-cultural and economic functions of allotment gardens as follows:

• for the community a better quality of urban life through the reduction of noise, the binding of dust, the establishment of open green spaces in densely populated areas;
• for the environment the conservation of biotopes and the creation of linked biotopes;
• for families a meaningful leisure activity and the personal experience of sowing, growing, cultivating and harvesting healthy vegetables amidst high-rise buildings and the concrete jungle;
• for children and adolescents a place to play, communicate and to discover nature and its wonders;
• for working people relaxation from the stress of work;
• for the unemployed the feeling of being useful and not excluded as well as a supply of fresh vegetables at minimum cost;
• for immigrant families a possibility of communication and better integration in their host country;
• for disabled persons a place enabling them to participate in social life, to establish contacts and overcome loneliness;
• for senior citizens a place of communication with persons having the same interests as well as an opportunity of self-fulfillment during the period of retirement. 

Immigrant families living in Germany can easly have their own KGA?

http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bkleingg/index.html

Do you live in Berlin?