“German Small Garden Regulations: Inspections and Fines in Marquardt Village”

A small colony of gardeners southwest of the German capital Berlin, in a village called Marquardt, is experiencing major upheavals this week. The gardens will be inspected by a special commission, and those whose lawn takes up a percentage of more space than gardeners’ furrows and flower beds may have to pay a large fine. That is why, in the last few days, Marquart’s small-scale gardeners are hurrying to plow part of the lawn and at least look after planting potatoes. German tourism journalist and book author Ulrike Wiebrecht, who has had a small garden here for eight years, is not too worried, hoping that the commission will count her many fruit trees as useful vegetation and she will not have to pay a fine.

Laws and Regulations

Germans would not be Germans if every sphere of life was not “supervised” by strict laws. The first law regulating small gardeners in Germany was passed in 1919, but the current “Bundeskleingartengesetz” or Federal Small Garden Act has been in force since 1983 and regulates the system of small gardens throughout Germany.

The law contains 20 articles and several subsections, which, for example, stipulate that a small garden is intended for “non-commercial horticultural use, in particular for the production of horticultural products for personal use”. The land allocated to the small gardener may not be larger than 400 square meters, while the new small gardener may not build a gazebo or garden shed larger than 24 square meters. Also, a garden house should not be suitable