You like the idea of Urban Gardening here in Germany? Grow your own fruits & veggies?
You like the idea of a private little haven? Away from the city, yet so near? Your balcony is too small?
Look no further, because Datschlandia will help you getting regular access to your own dream. Organically of course.
Meet the German Kleingarten
There is a quite unique thing in Germany called "Kleingarten", also known as Schrebergarten or Datsche [ˈdatʃə] - hence the name Datschlandia.
The deal is that one gets a subsidized piece of land for rent, but the string attached is rules. Many rules. After all we are in Germany. Rules do vary, common ones tell you how high the grass has to be, what kind of plants you can grow, that you need a certain amount of veggies in order not to loose your garden.
On top of that often there is a long waiting list for your own Kleingarten, it's really a long term commitment and the fixture and fittings fee is substantial, since you need to pay off your predecessor for the little house he put on and all those beautiful plants.
Then often officials from the garden association decide weather you qualify as a member not too different from a job-interview.
Plus there is an additional sign up fee in order to become a member.
Sounds too complicated all for some organically grown fruits and veggies? We think so too.
Let Datschlandia help you
This is where Datschlandia comes to help:
Often those long term gardeners cannot fulfil their duties anymore, because they are getting older or because their health simply doesn't allow this anymore.
So they either have to pay professionals to do this, pressure their relatives or sons in law (I can speak of experience) or most sadly having to give up their long built paradise.
This is where you come in to help:
The gardener fills out our questionaire what kind of help he needs, we match him to you and you help him. What's in it for me you might ask yourself: Neither money nor a grateful German person.
It's one day weekly (either Saturday or Sunday for your employer's convenience) for one season for you or your folks, where you can use that Kleingarten while helping the leaseholder mowing the lawn, picking his trees, growing his plants. You get the idea.
It's not going to be hard manual labor like constructing stuff, but rather stuff you would like to do in your own garden anyway.
Your road to become a Garten-Freund
- Fill out our search-form: We would like to know about your wishes. It's completely non-binding, you commit yourself to nothing at this point. Then we try to match your preferences with those of the leaseholders in our database.
- When we find a match, we will send your profile to the leaseholder. If he likes what he sees, he will contact you for a meet up.
- If after the meeting you both think, that this could work, you are discussing the details. If you hear "you" and not "we" correctly, you are right. The two of you come to an agreement. I'm not getting any money from neither of you, so I'm not your councelor or your lawyer. Of course we at Datschlandia will do our best to help, if any questions might arise.
- You will discuss, weather he has a specific concept of his garden layout or if he's open to new ideas from your side.
- He will also tell you the main rules of this particular garden association, so you don't get into conflict with your fellow gardeners.
And this is the beginning of your second life as a German gardener. While ideally getting a better understanding of and making friends with a person from a different age-group and culture.
