ESC: Organic Vegetable Gardens

The cooperative Siedlungsgenossenschaft Ökodorf e.G. (SiGe) is one of the main pillars of Sieben Linden Ecovillage situated in Northern Germany. The Ecovillage Sieben Linden, situated in the Altmark region in Saxony-Anhalt, was established in 1997. It aims at implementing collaborative and holistic sustainable lifestyles, that connect a small ecological footprint with a high quality of life. Currently more than one hundred adults and forty children are living in several straw-bale houses and about fourty well insulated trailers. The vision of Sieben Linden is a sustainable way of life where the social, ecological, economical and cultural aspects are intertwined into a holistic approach that offers space for diversity, creativity and the different needs of people. The Ecovillage Sieben Linden is an open minded and hospitable village. We welcome people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, age groups, with and without disabilities. SiGe is the owner and steward of our 100 ha of land and engages in regenerating the ecosystems in and around the village which goes hand in hand with supplying the ecovillagers with produce from the garden and firewood for heating as well as other commodities. Ecological features of the village include organic gardening, sustainable woodland management, agroforestry, ecological building, reed bed water purification and compost toilets, solar and wood heating, photovoltaics, conscious consumption and sharing of resources. The core of the village is an old ecologically restored farmhouse that accommodates the community centre with dining rooms, library, kids play room and meeting spaces. The community at the ecovillage has created a participatory governance structure for joint decision making and facilitation of social processes. The education centre runs trainings on a variety of sustainability issues year round and many guests pass through the village. SiGe runs a collectively owned organic garden producing 45-55 different types of vegetables, fruit and herbs for the ecovillagers and guests. Ecological principles are applied to the design of the garden and it is surrounded by hedges of mixed species of shrubs and trees that support wildlife. Aiming at integrating not only an unusual variety of crops but also as many different stages of the growing cycle as possible, seedlings are propagated in a small greenhouse. Two unheated greenhouses of 350m² allow growing popular summer vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in sufficient quantities for all, and some winter greens. As a consequence, the major part of our fresh produce (ca. 75%) is local and seasonal. Creating healthy fertile soil is an important part of the gardeners work, and large quantities of compost are made from cuttings and kitchen waste. The food supply system at Sieben Linden is based on solidarity principles and the team of gardeners are employees of the cooperative which means all inhabitants share the economic risks associated with poor harvests. Ecological principles are often favoured over cost effectiveness which results in production costs somewhat above retail prices, a conscious decision that allows the ecovillagers to enjoy lots of locally grown food produced in a truly ecological way and with very little outsourcing. Each year, several long-term and large numbers of short-term volunteers join the garden team for varying lengths of time to learn from this unique garden and support with their contribution. Our more than 80 ha of forest were essentially pine tree monocultures when we bought them, and in many places still are. Our approach to sustainable woodland management means we use a large part of the trees we cut as fire wood to heat our ecologically built and well insulated houses. We also produce timber for constructions, where the wood incorporated into new houses serves as a long-term carbon sink. Cutting enough trees to make space for new saplings among the pines, we plant a large variety of indiginous species, slowly converting the land back to the original mixed forest with both decidious and coniferous trees that originally covered large parts of Germany, contributing to creating an ecosystem that supports a large variety of animal and plant species. In both the garden and forest we work with machinery but also with horses, minimizing soil compaction. From 2018, SiGe has started to implement several dynamic agroforestry demonstration and experimentation sites. In and near the village, SiGe has created habitats for many species like ponds, insect hotels, mixed hedges, nest boxes for birds and bats and many more. Sieben Linden shows how the presence of humans in an ecosystem and catering for our needs can be combined with creating healthy ecosystems. Today, after more than 20 years, we transformed both arable and pine monocultures into a diverse ecosystem that we share with many other species, plants and animals alike.