Travelling with Lend and Tend: How do people share gardens globally?

What do Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, The Netherlands and Belgium have in common?

All of these cities and many more could benefit from Garden Sharing and getting Patch-Matched of course!

Japan, celebrated for its manicured tranquil gardens, also has something a little more familiar when it comes to urban farming. In Japanese; shimin nōen translates to ‘citizen farms’ and they’re much like our beloved rambling allotments here in the U.K. Like London, Tokyo is a hugely populated dense metropolis (albeit much bigger), and similarly has long waiting lists for users to tend to allotment space. A study conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in 2017, counted 4223  allotment gardens nationwide, covering 1,371 hectares, dividing into 188,000 different plots of land. So that’s a 200+ strong community of growers at each allotment. That means a long waiting list for would-be growers!

Beauty and tranquility away from the centre of Tokyo

The popularity of these shimin nōen gardens in Tokyo are usually found in the outer suburbs and are growing more popular, as they are here in the UK, too. It seems there is no slowing of the upward trend to for city dwellers wanting to deepen an understanding of agriculture, connect with nature, spend leisure time with our fingers in the dirt and preserve a very real connection with the wild world.

They call them kliengartens (small gardens), but they’re actually rather large!

In Germany, citizens similarly have access to sign up to tend to suburban ‘community’ gardens called kleingartens, ‘small gardens’. The great thing about kliengartens is, that they usually have modest dwellings with electricity and plumbing, so it’s not uncommon during warmer months, to spend every light hour “living” at ones kleingarten. Dreamy.

This year, we’ve been consulting on international projects wanting to learn about Lend and Tend and how it could work in other countries like Belgium and The Netherlands and furthermore I’ve been so fortuitous to visit both, Tokyo and Frankfurt on my travels to experience garden sharing globally. I really am so grateful to have had the privilege of visiting these countries this year. However, the one factor that unites every country I visit: Kliengartens, shimin nōen and community gardens around the world, is that they seem to be very popular with city dwellers wanting a rural escape close to home, but they come with tough competition or very long waiting lists.

In Japan there are even lotteries to ‘win’ allotment space, that or hold your breath in the wait for a space to become available.

When city dwellers face most of their lives either commuting or indoors and fixated on on screens, who wouldn’t want to get back to nature, get some mental clarity and try harvesting home grown crops?

So, with the ever increasing demand for ‘The Good Life’, the answer is definitely closer than we think.

How close? Our neighbours. Well, our neighbours gardens. Gardening in our neighbours gardens!? It’s a wild concept, but why not ask to use someone else’s garden, particularly if they can no longer, or don’t want to use it.

Haven’t you ever coveted your next-door neighbours garden? Perhaps you live in a high rise and from your vertiginous perspective, although you may have a marvellous view of the tree tops, what you may wish for is a little closer to ground level?

In Tokyo and Frankfurt, it seems that there is the ‘if-you’re-lucky’ scant opportunity to share Kliengartens, or shimin nōen unless you’ve a friend in the know, or have contacts but

…maybe there’s someone a little closer to home with a few patio pots, or a portion of front or side yard for you to get started with?

Currently Lend and Tend is aiming to expand it's user base in London, but new members have joined in the USA, Canada and Australia, so if you’re not based in the UK, you can still register, just make sure you tell your friends and let’s see where sharing can take us?

Around the world? One small muddy (carbon conscious) footprint at a time.

If you or someone you know of are sharing a garden somewhere around the world, we’d love to hear from you!

Please email lendandtend@gmail.com