Dear allotment gardeners!
As I begin to write these lines, I am marvelling at how quickly this year has gone by. It has been a year with a lot of work, both in the garden and professionally, and now that at least the gardening season is slowly coming to an end and a quieter time is beginning, I would like to give you a brief insight into what has been happening in the international allotment family.
There were two meetings of all members of the Fédération Internationale in 2024.
In March, the delegates met for the statutory General Assembly in Luxembourg. In addition to the necessary resolutions, the time was primarily used to share experiences. It is always great to see the enthusiasm and positive spirit with which the participants share their knowledge and take on board the ideas of others.
Finally, in August, the international allotment garden family took part in a congress in Berlin organised by the Federation of German Allotment Garden Associations. The theme "Allotment gardens in Europe: Green for all" captured the spirit of the times and the excellent expert presentations provided the participants with many valuable ideas on how to deal with the many challenges that lie ahead.
But it also turned out again how great our allotment gardens already are:
• Allotment gardens are places of diversity, as the environmentally friendly, pesticide-free and sustainable cultivation of our gardens provides animals and plants with a healthy habitat, which is becoming increasingly scarce in the cities.
• Allotment gardens are climate oases that can make an invaluable contribution, especially in times of extreme events such as heat or heavy rainfall. Be it by providing cooling in the cities through their planting or by absorbing water through unsealed soil.
• Allotment gardens are places of togetherness, where people look after each other, help each other and work together to realise ideas.
All this and so much more characterises our allotment gardens and their associations. We have every right to be proud of this. Nevertheless, we should not rest on our laurels. It is our task to keep reminding those responsible at national and international level of the important contribution allotment gardens make to environment, climate and society.
With a voice that represents more than two million allotment garden families, we must make ourselves heard by the political representatives in the individual countries and of course also at European level. Together we can achieve so much more than alone, together we give the allotment gardeners a loud voice that is difficult to ignore, together we will continue to work to ensure that allotment gardens are perceived positively in the future.
Finally, may I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and all the best and good health for the New Year 2025.
Sylvia Wohatschek
Secretary General, Fédération Internationale des Jardins Familiaux
In 2013, December 5 was declared World Soil Day by the United Nations General Assembly.
The soil is alive! Around 5 billion soil organisms live in a handful of healthy soil. Preserving this diversity means securing the basis of human life on this planet.
In 2020, the Fédération Internationale des Jardins Familiaux published the brochure "Soil is alive! Protecting soil in allotment garden". This should be read by the allotment garden family in order to protect the patch of soil entrusted to them.
Over the last four years, another aspect of soil protection has become increasingly important. Increasing weather extremes show how important it is not only to look after the quality of the existing soil, but also to ensure that sufficient unsealed soil is available.
Soil unsealing in the allotment garden
A sealed soil cannot fulfill its tasks. Water, oxygen and light cannot be stored in the soil and fertility is lost. Pollutants are no longer filtered by the plants and there is no cooling effect.
Allotment gardens are of great importance for the urban climate and water storage as, in addition to the cooling green spaces, they promote a high level of biodiversity in otherwise built-up areas. But even on this small scale, a minimum of sealed surfaces is essential. We would therefore like to call for a conscious approach to sealed areas in your garden. As small as these may seem in proportion, it is important to implement unsealing measures wherever possible.
Alternatives to sealed surfaces
Ideally, as many infiltration-capable areas as possible should be used right from the initial garden planning stage. However, it is never too late to make subsequent optimizations.
The most common alternatives to sealed surfaces in the garden include:
• Gravel lawn or overgrown grass pavers
• a hard-wearing herbal lawn
• Wooden decking with drainage layer
• Laying recycled materials such as old bricks
• Paving stones for small paths in the garden ...
The aim is to use water-permeable paving wherever possible. If you identify rarely used sealed areas in your garden, you should convert them into green spaces. This not only creates living space but also has a cooling effect. However, in addition to this complete unsealing, partial unsealing can also make an important contribution.
Partial unsealing involves removing the top impermeable layer and loosening the layer below to improve infiltration.
At this point, we would like to refer you to an article by "Die Umweltberatung". In its article "Types of soil unsealing", it refers to a variety of partial unsealing options.
The new garden areas created in this way offer the opportunity to create diversity for plants and animals. For example, the joints can no longer be neatly scraped out, but deliberately planted. When laying paths, use a sand-humus mixture and enjoy the growing wild herbs.
These unsealed areas can be more costly to maintain and preserve, but the reward is healthy soil for the allotment gardener and an important contribution for their fellow human beings in dealing with the changing climate conditions.
Even if it goes without saying that soil is essential for us allotment gardeners, today's World Soil Day must not go unnoticed by the allotment garden family.
It is true that without soil we could not fulfil our passion - gardening - but soil is of such fundamental importance to our ecosystem that it is worth a closer look.
Soil is a storehouse of nutrients, the foundation for food production, a place of biodiversity, carbon storage and protection of our drinking water resources. Due to these diverse and (vital) properties, it is obvious that our soil needs special protection.
We allotment gardeners have been making an invaluable contribution in this area for a long time. By working, planting and caring for the soil, we ensure that it can fulfil its many functions. In times of climate change, in times of extreme events such as heavy rain, storms and heat, it is more important than ever that it can do this.
Let us therefore be particularly aware today that unsealed, pesticide-free soil is not only a benefit for the individual allotment gardener but is also of crucial importance with regard to climate change.
As allotment garden families, let us do our bit to ensure that the soil continues to nourish and protect us in the future.
The International Federation wishes you a happy World Kindness Day!
Some of you may wonder why this greeting is coming from the international allotment gardeners. Well, the answer to this question is simple:
Kindness concerns us all, because we are all happy when we experience kindness.
Moreover, kindness can take many forms, whether it's giving a smile to your fellow human beings and treating them with respect, or actively or passively helping others.
But kindness does not stop at the interpersonal level but extends to our entire environment.
Therefore, it is fair to say that we allotment gardeners are particularly friendly.
In our allotments, we cultivate and protect nature, provide valuable living space for all forms of life and plants, and are part of a community that helps and supports each other.
So, on this World Kindness Day, we would like to remind you:
Smile at those around you, enjoy your allotment and savour the kindness that comes back to you.
On 27.08.2024, the Bundesverband der Kleingartenvereine Deutschlands e. V. (BKD), umbrella organisation of around 900,000 allotment gardeners in Germany, opened its new federal centre with the permanent exhibition "City | Nature | People" with invited guests from the allotment garden movement, the local authorities, science and European partner organisations from 9 countries.
https://stadt-natur-mensch.de/
Opening ceremony for the Federal Centre
BKD Association President Dirk Sielmann welcomed over 150 guests to the grand evening ceremony. He thanked the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB) for funding the Federal Centre on the basis of a resolution passed by the German Bundestag, which made the building with its environmentally friendly timber construction possible in the first place.
https://kleingarten-bund.de/bundeszentrum/
International congress "Allotment gardens in Europe: Green for all"
At the international specialist congress "Allotment gardens in Europe: Green for all", the federation and the international umbrella organisation of the European allotment garden movement, the Fédération Internationale des Jardins Familiaux, showed that they are facing up to social and climatic challenges and are proactively seeking solutions for the allotment garden movement. Topics such as the sponge city, new garden forms, biodiversity and the opening of the colonies as allotment garden parks - not only for members - were discussed scientifically in lectures.
The guests from other European countries and from all over Germany, who met at the federal centre during the European symposium "Allotment gardens in Europe: Green for all", were delighted with the successful event and wished the BKD and the allotment garden movement every success with the launch of the federal centre.
Two associations under one roof
The BKD presents itself in a spirit of optimism, to which not least the German allotment youth federation contributes with its commitment. Two federations under one roof that convey a modern, open-minded image of allotment garden culture and show that they no longer stand for a retreat into the private sphere of the allotment. The "Green Classroom" in the outdoor area will also be a new contact point for education for sustainable development for school classes and other interested parties from spring 2025.
The BKD and the Deutsche Schreberjugend are looking forward to many visits from the allotment garden associations and all friends of allotment gardening!
Author: BKD, Sandra von Rekowski and Eva Foos
Source: BKD
