Germany's dead suburban gardens and front yards

Not dead in the sense of unwatered patches of brown dirt in a south western US summer, but dead in the sense of plants, fruit and vegetables you can use in the kitchen or eat right of a bush or tree.

Urban or suburban US front yards were the closest image that came to mind when we first noticed the kinds of plants and the type of landscaping dominating modern Germany. The sort of green uniformity of residential areas in Houston, Texas. With fences or walls in older areas of German towns and villages, and more open US style front yards in recent developments.

Rhododendrons, azaleas, an thujas are everywhere, interspersed are Japanese maple trees and a few lilacs every now and then. Hazelnut stands and lots of varieties of fir and spruce trees take up much of the space out in rural communities.

What about yards and gardens overflowing with flowers, carefully timed to provide colors for humans, pollen for bees, and nourishment for butterflies throughout the growing season, we wanted to know. Isn't Germany supposed to be an ecologically advanced country, where people care not only about the big issues but contribute in small ways to a healthy environment?

It's complicated, the locals explained.

First, at the larger scale, there was progress. Progress meant, for example, cutting down all the trees along roads and streets because they were a safety hazard. West German drivers in the late 1950 and 1960s wanted to enjoy their new found automotive freedom, which included not crashing into roadside trees.

Farmers also wanted to use every last bit of soil to help pay for the shiny tractors and harvesters they could now buy.

Urban and suburban families wanted to take vacations in Italy, Spain and other far away places and not return to an overgrown garden.

Gardens that were not useful were a sign of prosperity. They meant, you did not have to extract food from the ground. You went and bought it.

Like white bread.

Germany was and still is a country where more people live in rentals than in many other countries. The priority of landlords was greenery that took as little time as possible to maintain.
Working five and a half or six days a week well into the 1960s did not leave much time if you wanted to enjoy the new stuff you could purchase. While women were often housewives, many or them had better things to do than tend a vegetable garden.

The environmental movement slowed some of the decline in variety and stopped bulldozers. Communities began to plant new trees along streets and roads. Ironically, by 2010 or 2015, some of those very trees were all grown up - causing residents to complain about leaves in fall, about potential damage to sewers. The screeching of chainsaws followed.

These days, the demographics of the country are taking their toll. The German population is ageing, and even the holdouts of traditional gardening, the little old ladies, are giving up, are turning their labor intensive ground into lawns with a couple of easily cared for ornamental trees.

I decided to keep the pear tree, the 94 year old widow explained. The pears are just so good, I could not have it removed like the apple trees.

Then there is benign neglect, which is positive unless you have a neighbor who complains to town hall about every dandelion in your garden. Where the blogster lives, some older folks simply don't have the money for sustained landscaping. They may be able to afford having the lawn mowed a couple of times, or they are lucky to know a neighbor who has a nephew who will do some work.

Biological diversity has been declining in Germany for decades, and the loss of vibrant traditional gardening is but one possible reason. A steep decline in butterfly species is one of the more visible losses. For the impact of farming on butterfly populations through earlier mowing of grass, see this earlier post.

Yet, seeing handmade small "insect hotels" in yards that look much like small scale versions of agricultural monoculture is saddening.

[Update 5/27] Typos, commas, a couple of refinements. Link to effect of silage on butterfly populations.