Green Berlin – Green makes you creative, productive and relaxes the soul
Green makes you creative, productive and relaxes the soul. A garden promises time out from the hectic office and day-to-day stress. No wonder that the trend of urban gardening, the horticultural use of city spaces, shows no sign of letting up.
A garden promises time out from the hectic office and day-to-day stress
Oases of regeneration create – and at best, reap – what has been sown. Radishes on the roof, marigolds on the traffic island, or tomatoes in the park – gardening can happen everywhere. Year by year, ever more initiatives and projects are springing up in Berlin, ensuring a bit more green in the concrete jungle.
In this way, for example, the Horstwirtschaft e.V. is doing its best to renature the rooftop of a Neukölln parking building. The Klunker Garten is an inner-city haven for collective gardeners above the rooftops of Berlin. Terra Preta, a technique derived from the peoples of the Amazon, as well as the notion of companion planting, are the guiding principles bringing together concrete and blooming flora.
The various projects, initiatives and collaborations brought together on this rooftop are also engaged in topics such as biodiversity, sustainability, permaculture, as well as urban and social design. Apart from gardening on the roof, it is also a place to celebrate, and guests’ culinary needs are met by the roof’s own cafeteria. The Open Gardening Days take place every Wednesday and Sunday from 12 noon until sunset. Here you can get to know various partner projects and participate as well. No registration is necessary – just drop by and ask for the ‘Gardening Guru’. All further details about current events are available on the website.
-> KLUNKERGARTEN in Klunkerkranich
Where: Karl-Marx-Straße 66, 12043 Berlin
Contact: www.klunkerkranich.de
In the Prinzessinnengarten in Kreuzberg, a former wasteland has been cultivated into a blooming oasis. In 2009, residents began to transform the vacant site at Moritzplatz into a kitchen garden for urban agriculture. Over 500 different types of vegetables and herbs are now grown on the almost 6,000 square metre plot in the middle of the city. At the garden café and kitchen, open daily from April to October when the weather is fine, you can quench your thirst with coffee and local beer, or satisfy your stomach with organic, locally-sourced vegetarian food. The garden also hosts a flea market every second Sunday.
The Prinzessinnengarten is more than just a place to grow vegetables in the city. It is a space for diverse activities. You can join in the gardening activities, participate in open workshops, enjoy a meal at the garden café or engage in a variety of cultural events. Whatever you fancy, the Prinzessinnengarten has become a lively meeting place with appeal far beyond the neighbourhood.
-> PRINZESSINNENGARTEN
Where: Prinzenstraße 35-38, 10969 Berlin
Contact: www.prinzessinnengarten.net
As both projects show, urban gardens are not just places where vegetables, flowers & co. grow. These initiatives place value on creating a community. As the English saying goes: There is more growing in the garden than that which was planted.
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