Projects in the Alumni Göttingen Student Garden

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Looks like a great harvest!
Taking care for the fruit trees

“The garden has become quite a part of my life, as I have been lucky enough to be a part of it since the beginning and one can see how it changes and also how it has helped change me. I’ve met a lot of amazing people there, and by working in teams, meeting a lot of people with different backgrounds and their experiences, I have learned so much from them. I have become more conscious about planting the soil to grow something, which is one of the most amazing feelings, kind of a success and also satisfaction and joy. I have become more conscious about how much effort, time and work go into the food that we eat and have grown more aware of how different macro and micro ecosystems work with each other perfectly and how one thing affects the other. I think, when I am done with my studies and if I leave Göttingen, the garden will be one of the things I’ll miss the most.”

… says Elif Yurt (Team Foyer International), active participant of the Alumni Göttingen Student Garden

An allotment garden in Göttingen becomes a place of encounter and learning

The association of the former students of Göttingen University, Alumni Göttingen e. V., has been given an allotment garden for use by a sponsor. By funding the project “Planting futures!” (“Zukunft pflanzen!”), Stiftung WissenWecken supports the activities of Alumni Göttingen and enables student projects on urban gardening, food and small-scale farming. The “Alumni Göttingen Student Garden” has become a lively space for intercultural encounter and a nucleus of ideas for futurable land use. Four student groups are currently running their projects in the garden:

  • The Foyer International, who realize a wide variety of formats for the intercultural dialogue and exchange of students, organizes sustainability workshops in the garden, and they are cultivating plots using the method of permaculture.

  • The university’s Student group of Environmental Sciences is investigating how crops for our kitchen can be grown with few resources. In particular, they are testing plants with low water consumption, and they cultivate and taste rather unknown edible arable herbs, which are good for salads and as a spice.

  • The student group of the Göttingen Nutrition Council has created a project for food and nutritional education for schoolchildren: They grow their own vegetables and use them to prepare dishes. In this way, they experience the entire process from cultivation of the soil to sowing and harvesting. They hence get to know the colorful variety of vegetables and the value of food.

  • The student group of the Master’s program Sustainable International Agriculture is running a project on the diversity of cultivated plants. They examine how different types of vegetables benefit each other when cultivated in a common area. In addition, they investigate the question of how valuable humus and natural fertilizers can be obtained even in the smallest of spaces, for example for the balcony garden. Here’s more information on this diverse project: Project Report SIA 2021