SEED SAVING IN BERLIN

I have heard a lot about Princessinnengarten, a community garden in Berlin and their approach to seed-saving. This week I was in Berlin and so I dropped the garden organisers and lucky me, Hanna Burckhardt kindly offered to introduce me to the Saat gut seed cart.

The Saat gut is essentially a pedal-powered seed library comprising of a custom-built cargo bicycle. The nifty design includes a concertina-like box that opens up to reveal four boxes filled with a diverse seeds saved from growing sites around Berlin including Princessgarten.

From tomatoes to tagetes, beans to brassicas, the bike contains a range of crops. The Saat gut seed team cycle around the city distributing this saved seed to aspiring growers stopping off at community gardens and allotments. Hanna explains the idea of the seed cart is based on distributing locally saved seed to support urban biodiversity, urban pollinators and urban seed-saving skills.

The team also links with local seed saving organisations as well as the national heritage seed-saving organisation Arche Noah. They have also received a range of heirloom seeds from a German archive of rare crops.

Saat gut is a great way of distributing locally saved and supporting seed-saving skills. Wouldn’t it be great to get one for Cardiff?

Princessinnengarten

Princessgarten is a community garden located in Kreuzberg, Berlin. The garden is based on a site that was previously a department store. Demolished during partition, the soil is contaminated so crops are grown in crates and shopping trolleys. Alongside growing space there is a cafe, wood-working site and impressive wooden tower for meetings. Hanna explains the garden is about providing a space for growing food, learning, socialising and reclaiming urban space.