Starting this autumn, a network in Berlin is starting that promotes the knowledge exchange about urban gardening. The new network is targeting experts from garden and agricultural industries, vocational students, vocational school teachers and private individuals. The German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU, Osnabrück/Germany) is funding the project at a cost of 190,000 euros.

The goal of the project is the further professional qualification of prospective gardeners and farmers. With the help of DBU, a total of 12 classes and 30 teachers of a vocational school in Berlin, 330 members of Urban Gardening action groups and associations and over 500 professionals are going to im4plement  different small scale greening projects.

In the area of the former airport Tempelhof residents, neighbors and action groups plan to transform a 5,000 square meter fallow site in a vegetable garden. Together they will examine, which qualifications for the creation of an urban garden are necessary and what legal conditions must be met for farming an urban fallow site. Ultimately, the qualification concept shall empower the citizens to be urban gardeners. Among other things, it is planned, that the vocational students develop an irrigation plan for the urban garden. Apart from the agricultural benefits, the garden should be primarily a place of peace, at which social and intercultural contacts can take place.

In the "princess gardens" in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg, the trainees will study how the city can improve soil quality through the use of biomass. Together with the neighborhood, a compost collection system for households, schools and small business enterprise shall be developed.

In the urban fields of an organic farm trainees and interested families can learn how to grow organic vegetables in city areas.

At the location of an educational institution local residents and young people from neighboring youth clubs shall create and maintain a species-rich wild fruit tree corner.

"The projects shall develop valuable educational concepts on whose basis similar staffed groups at other locations can work together," says project leader Gudrun Laufer of the Society for vocational training (Gesellschaft für berufsbildende Maßnahmen, Berlin). The training programs are evaluated and documented by the Agriculture and Horticulture Faculty of Humboldt University, Berlin. The results will then be disseminated at conferences.

Urban gardening, it turns out, isn't like non-urban gardening. "The most important aspect of this project is that for the first time professionals, trainees and laypersons work together hand in hand and have the opportunity to learn from each other through different experiences", said DBU expert Verena Exner. Even well-trained garden and landscape designers could benefit from the practical experience of private urban gardeners.

"With these projects, we also want to sustainably improve the quality of life of the people living in cities, provide a practical insight into the life and work of the 'green business' and make professions like gardener or farmer more attractive again," says Laufer.

The project starts in September 2011.