The Friends of the Botanic Garden began planning a kitchen garden on the grounds of the Botanic Garden in March 2010. This new theme garden will serve as a display garden for a wide spectrum of crop and ornamental plants and will also be used as a teaching garden for the Green School. The kitchen garden will also help contribute to the conservation of plant diversity by cultivating regional heritage vegetable varieties. Volunteers of the newly founded Bauerngarten-AG (Kitchen Garden Consortium) can gain practical work experience by building flower beds and cultivating plants in the Botanic Garden. Complementary to this, special garden seminars are planned to be held at the Green School.
The kitchen garden has an area of approximately 100 m² and is surrounded by a picket fence made from chestnut wood. The bedded area is subdivided into four smaller beds by a small crossroad that, enclosed by box hedges, features a herb garden in its center. The Botanic Garden had been planning a cottage garden for some time as part of its new focus on "natural and man-made landscapes." As a consequence of the heavy workload of the staff of the Botanic Garden, only recently has it been possible to realize these plans. However, this project has now been made possible due to the commitment of the Friends of the Botanic Garden who will manage and care for the kitchen garden over the long-term. Currently, the Kitchen Garden Consortium consists of about 20 people, who take it in turns to look after the facility, mainly on Friday afternoons.
For further information please contact
Dr. Ute Becker
Tel.: +49 6131 39 25686
E-Mail: beckeru@uni-mainz.de