Gardens of Warsaw & Berlin

Both forms of urban gardening – community gardening with its liquid form, and allotment gardens where space is strictly limited and defined, are platforms for urban practicing where community is continuously performed through daily practices related to very broadly understand concept of soil as a horizontal surface for horticulture: planting, composting, growing and leisure. Soil is one of the most important resources, giving a habitat for organisms and serves as a medium for plant growth. At the first sight, its material composition is quite simple, contains minerals, soil organic matter (plants and animals at various stage of decomposition), living organism, gas and water. Soil is also recognized as a highly valuable asset – especially in times when everything can be counted, measured, bought or sold, soil gets a new dimension in the market as limited good and commodity which use, and redistribution becomes strictly regulated.

In our research, we want to focus on urban gardens in two European capitals – Berlin and Warsaw and look closer at the status of gardens within urban realm, their characteristics and reasons why their number is decreasing every year. Both cities are characterized by continuous dynamic growth (Amt fur Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, GUS, 2018), strong position of national science, culture and grassroots activities. Berlin and Warsaw have relatively similar size (Berlin 3.7 million inhabitants with 82 million of population, Warsaw 1.7 million with 38 million of the whole population) and both have gained the status of a metropolis late, located in sparsely populated regions with a lower than average level of economic development in the country. This was one of the main reasons of establishing allotments, orchards and temporary food farms in these cities at the beginning of the 20th century and the popularity of community-based gardens at the turn of the 20th/ 21st century and today.

The new challenges faced by green space and urban gardens with all its variants – community gardens, allotments, city farms, guerrilla gardens, baumscheibenbegrünung etc., are particularly relevant now with new spatial development plans influenced by neo-liberal city policies, climate crisis, and increasing population. We want particularly to look on two typologies in Warsaw and Berlin: allotments where modern assumption of this type of urban garden has existed for more than 100 years and community gardens with different stage of development and various influence on local politics in both cities. A possible resulting will help to identify whether allotment gardens can survive dynamic changes and if community gardens can contribute to strengthening position of greenery in the city through the activism of gardeners as well as to reveal a broad awareness of the variety of social and ecological functions provided by gardens.

In our project we are conducting research in 9 gardens – 4 allotment colonies and 5 community gardens in both cities:

WARSAW

Allotment Gardens:

1. Pratulińska (ROD Pratulińska) in Targówek
2. Sigma-Bartycka (ROD Sigma-Bartycka) in Siekierki

Community Gardens:

3. Fort Bema in Bemowo
4. Modraszka in Bielany
5. Motyka i Słońce in Jazdów

BERLIN

Allotment Gardens:

6. Am Stadtpark I (KGA Am Stadtpark I) in Wilmersdorf
7. Tempelhoferberg (KGA Tempelhoferberg) in Tempelhof

Community gardens:

8. himmelbeet in Wedding
9. Peace of Land in Prenzlauer Berg

References

• Berliner Senatsverwaltung (2016) Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg 2016
• GUS (2017) Ludność. Stan i struktura w przekroju terytorialnym