Germany: An urban commons in the heart of Düsseldorf
The urban gardening project, which is organized as an open initiative, has been active since 2014 and focuses on growing vegetables, learning about seasonality and nutrition, and raising awareness for these topics, green spaces in the city, and community engagement in urban planning.
By Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse|
Shareable
June 18, 2020
Excerpt:
“The most important point for a community-based garden is to find an appropriate location – which means a safe, long-lasting, and accessible space where the project can develop. Finding such a place and negotiating with the City of Düsseldorf about how we want to use it commonly was a big challenge. But above and beyond that, it was a logistical challenge. How do you move a garden of raised beds, which weigh tons, when almost all of the members only have bicycles?
What about the soil? The area we were moving to had been an industrial area. How are we going to get the quantity of soil that we need in the middle of the city? And that’s where our cooperations were really important – an organic farm from the local region helped us with tractors and donated soil. You don’t have to own everything yourself. Sometimes it’s enough to know someone who has the necessary tools or know-how.”
