Digging in the earth, the smell of freshly cut grass in your nose and the sun on your face. That's more or less what it feels like to have your own garden. When I moved to Hamburg, I was very lucky. As soon as I arrived, friends asked me if I wanted to help with their gardens. Of course I was up for it and since then I've spent every free hour of sunshine mowing the lawn, digging up flower beds and trimming hedges. A dream!
I keep realizing that this is not just my dream. People are constantly telling me how much they would love to call a little piece of green their own. And I am constantly told how difficult and time-consuming the search is. I hear stories of endless waiting lists, outrageous transfer fees and it almost sounds as if this dream is unattainable for most people.
The situation is completely different when I drive out to our garden. I drive past several empty plots to my left and right. Many of them are now empty, while others have garden sheds that are falling apart. Where there was once a well-kept lawn, nature is reclaiming the formerly cultivated area. The grass is waist-high, the hedges are losing their shape, and what was once a small garden idyll is slowly but surely turning into a jungle.
But how can that be? If everyone seems to want a garden, how can there even be free plots? I have been looking for answers and I can tell you that the solution is often simpler than you think.
So the first thing I did was ask around in our club: Why can't we rent out all the free plots? The answer was more or less always the same. People were apparently looking for completely finished gardens. With a tool shed, garden house, electricity connection, running water, well-kept lawn and no one really wanted to put any work into it. Anyone who rents a garden today wants it to be turnkey and not have to first lay the water connection with a spade in hand or clear the plot of overgrown undergrowth.
If you are looking for a garden like this, I have to disappoint you. Finding something like this is difficult and, yes, quite expensive. But if you find the idea of transforming a completely overgrown piece of land into your very own dream garden exciting and are prepared to invest sweat, hours of work and, not least, a few euros, I have good news for you: There are gardens out there. Not one or two, but loads. You just have to find them.
So what do you do when you are looking for something? You ask Google. And this is where the Problem. Many clubs don't even have a website. If they do have one, it is often not well maintained. Very few of them have free plots for sale. But how are you supposed to find one? The answer is: the old-fashioned way.
Drive around gardening and allotment associations. Look around for empty spaces. When you find one, try to get in touch with the association. Call, write a short letter or go to one of the meetings (dates and times are often posted on a noticeboard at the clubhouse). You can also search through the association register in your city ( here , for example, the one in Hamburg). Call your way through it, be persistent and keep asking.
Unfortunately, not everyone can have my luck and, like the virgin and the child, get their own little piece of green. But that doesn't mean it's impossible. Your garden happiness is out there somewhere. You just have to look for it.
