Co-management/Joint management

Along the 'Green Belt' (Grünen Band) in Bielefeld, which connects several urban grave lands with a continuous path, the organisation of Transition Town Bielefeld created a community garden to replace the permaculture garden in Bleichstrasse. (8) Thanks to its location, apart from the food production, the garden increases the environmental quality of the site serving as a green transition between the grey areas and the city. This function is in line with the overarching mission of Transition Town Bielefeld to promote energy and cultural transition in the city through different initiatives. (7) The community garden initiative was started in 2013 and welcome citizens to take part in the maintenance, planting and other gardening work of the garden or simply to enjoy its beauty since its launch in 2015. The project has a bigger goal towards sustainable development of urban infrastructures and social equity (1,2).

The botanical garden of Athens was reconstructed in 2004 to protect and maintain the biodiversity of the area. Covering a land of 1,860 sq.m., this Botanical Garden hosts over 2,500 different kinds of plants from all over the world and a rich variety of flora. All the plants and trees are protected in the park. The community also sends seeds all over the country to spread and maintain biodiversity throughout the region and hold agroecological events to increase the concern and educate the locals (Ref 1,3). The park also has a lake and a library inside it. (Ref 2)

Restructuring a public derelict land into few private vegetable and fruit gardens. The gardeners practice organic gardening making it more sustainable. This provides foods as well as increasing the soil fertility, and reduction of the soil erosion. This also creates some extra vegetable and fruit market in the city. 20 % of the food produced is donated to the food bank. The project is a community project which also helps to bring people together. Started in April 2012 (Ref 1,4). The project is one of the initiatives by the Greek municipalities allotting land to local citizens with the purpose of increasing food security for the underprivileged, educating the younger generation, and providing their citizens with a retreat from city life (Ref 3).

Since it's founding in 2005, the association "Ermekeilinitiative e. V." has been aiming at the transformation of the Ermekeil quarter, a former military base to a communal, generation-wide and intercultural space with diverse ecological and sustainable use. Since the Federal Office for Defense Administration moved out in 2013, the territory was released for interim use. Together with residents and communities, the association turned the territory into a lively, green and mixed neighbourhood with several initiatives taking place in parallel. The community garden project was one of them (1).
The interim use of the area ended in 2016, some of the buildings of the former military base have been sold on the real estate market. This resulted in the termination of most of the Association's initiatives in the area including the removal of the 100 raised beds of the community garden. Parts of the community garden was relocated to a different part of the quarter, however, since 2018 there is no information on the current working and management of the community garden (2,6).

"Micro-flowering are participative urban gardening projects that allow the vegetation of streets by small plantations of annuals and perennials, vegetable and ornamental, in the municipal public space. Generally, it is a matter of developing a mineral surface on the municipal surface of the city by planting pockets. These are then maintained by the inhabitants who requested micro-flowering. Micro-flowering is a place of sharing and conviviality that allows the inhabitants to be actors of their neighborhood" (Ref. 1). In 2018, formalized 'greening permits' were launched. In this system, micro-flowering permits are requested by residents and "The municipal agents come to drill the concrete of the sidewalks and the City provides the plants" (Ref. 9 and 11).

The program aims to change gray urban courtyards into friendly places - the green oasis for neighborhood meetings and resting areas. Small project proposals developed by the housing associations for the revitalization/transformation of courtyards from all over the city compete for co-funding (up to 75%) from the city council. Many projects (over 86 by the year 2015) have been funded and implemented since the beginning of the initiative in 2008.(1)(2)

Larkhill Gardens Lake improvement is a collaborative project between the City Council, the Environment Agency and the local community. It is part of the long-term project, Liverpool Park Lakes Project, whose aim is to tackle many problems faced by shallow park lakes. Larkhill Gardens Lake (4936m2) a circular shaped, steep, vertical hard-banked lake, situated in a small estates garden in the city. Like many lakes, Larkhill Gardens Lake experienced problems linked to structural decline, lack of water, poor water quality, poor habitat quality, loss of management of the user and lack of proactive management by the City Council. The improvement of the lake included changing its structure to create a deep-water fishing area, shallow water area and wetland.
The project was funded by a partnership between Liverpool City Council and the Environment Agency (Reference 1).

The rooftop garden of Nádor 15 was implemented as part of the sustainable campus development strategy of the Central European University. It contains a community garden that is managed by the CEU community, intensive green roofs and green walls as well. The rooftop garden also collects water for it's automatic irrigation system and supports biodiversity with bat shelters, bee hotels and birdhouses. (Reference 1)

The project refers to the development of a vacant plot to create a social garden. Activities and plans implemented included: planting greenery, creating flower meadows and flowerbeds, common flowers planting by citizens, common vegetable growing area and a greenhouse, recreational area (hammock, trampolines, field games, sun loungers and sofas for recreation), cultural zone (outdoor cinema, exhibition space), workshop area (for artistic, ecological and sports workshops), canteen area (open-air kitchen, outdoor bar, communal dining space). The garden was open for the public between 2016 and 2018.(1)(4)

In 2014, the Bielefeld Botanical Garden was expanded with a 2,700 land, previously owned by the local municipality. The extension area and the “old” part of the Botanical Garden were visually and functionally separated by the dense, sometimes gloomy woody vegetation of the "new" area where the watercourse and the small reservoirs were barely noticeable. The aim of the redevelopment is to integrate the entire extension area into the old botanical garden using pathways between the old and the new areas of the botanical garden, the improvements of water body and vegetation areas. The redevelopment also includes the renovation of buildings in the "old" area of the botanical garden, the installation of new recreation facilities and the building of a pharmacy garden. The planning and implementation process is lead by the Friends of the Botanical Garden Bielefeld Association (Verein Freunde DesBotanischen Gartens Bielefeld e.V) in close cooperation with the Environmental Agency of the local municipality (1,2, 7,10,11)