In the past year, the Centre for Ecological Learning’s (Cell) urban gardening project has been inundated with calls for space in the dozen or so community gardens it coordinates.

“The sanitary crisis has made people aware of the fragility of our food system and has increased the number of requests for access to plots,” project manager Karine Paris told Delano. She added that “few gardens have not faced above average requests for membership.”

Financed by the environment ministry, Cell supports community gardens which are mostly located on land owned by the local authority and initiated by members of the public. Different to allotments in which individuals are responsible for their own plots, community gardens tend to be spaces in which decisions, tasks and crops are shared equally. The gardens bring communities together to share knowledge and raise awareness about sustainable agriculture.

Not for profit, the Ligue Luxembourgeoise du Coin de Terre (CTF), a nationwide allotment garden movement, is also receiving more enquiries for garden spaces, “more and more by young families,” Secretary Otmar Hoffmann said. “The individual sections that have gardens have long waiting lists, which have increased considerably over the last two years of the pandemic.”

Meeting expectations

To help ease demand, in some areas allotment plot sizes have been reduced, however, “it does not solve the underlying problem of lack of garden space,” and it has even led to a feeling of injustice among new joiners who have less space and face more rules in how they tend their gardens. “It feels like there's a double standard when you see the big old allotments with beautiful huts and seating areas and fruit trees, all done before the new regulations. We're not allowed to do any of that and we also have smaller plots,” said Sandy, who rents an allotment in the capital.

Demand for community gardens is exacerbated by the housing situation. Statec data shows two thirds of the new homes built from 2010-2018 were apartments, which are less likely to have garden space. Meanwhile, garden space remains important for the third of new homes constructed that are houses.

In 2019, the Luxembourg Institute for Socio-Economic Research’s Housing Observatory published a report that found the average size of land plots for houses had remained constant over time. “It shows the importance of providing garden spaces, still, for those who can afford living in a house rather than in an apartment,” Liser research fellow Julien Licheron told Delano.

Meeting the demand for garden space is about more than just having somewhere to plant seeds. Studies show that spending time in nature benefit physical and mental health, reducing pressure on public health systems.

The business-minded are already seizing this opportunity. In spring 2021, one savvy city garden owner posted on Facebook Market Place pictures of their “charming garden in the city” for rent, at a rate of €50 per hour, plus €10 for maintenance. The owner may not welcome renters digging up their flower beds but it is only a matter of time before the Airbnb model is applied to gardens in Luxembourg. AllotMe, a model doing just that, has already taken the UK by storm, uniting garden owners who have spare space with green-fingered wannabes at a cost of €20-€25 per month. 

Health service providers have also caught on to the healing powers of gardens. The Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg’s child psychiatric day centre is using gardening to treat young people with behavioural difficulties at its therapeutic space in Rollingergrund. “This project aims at allowing the children to acquire a better serenity and a physical and psychological well-being, to increase their self-esteem, improve concentration, as well as to support resistance to stress. We therefore consider our garden as an inexhaustible and indispensable medium in our practice,” it writes on its site of the Gaart an Heem project.

Role of communes

All in all, gardens have been proven to benefit the mind and body and the demand for garden space exists. But, with land at a premium, how can people on an average budget access gardens? Paris says that communes are aware of the need for more space and the CTF is in talks with communes to improve the situation.

For the local authorities, it is not simply a question of assigning a plot of unused land. “Access to water is still a difficult element because the infrastructure does not always exist,” Paris explained, adding: “Thinking about the use and collection of water must be an essential element, because in times of drought as well as in times of flooding, we notice that its management remains delicate.”

Hoffmann mooted that one solution could be to require that garden plots or community gardens be featured in the plans for new development areas.