Otmar Halfmann is anything but what you would expect from the top allotment gardener. He was a development worker in Africa. His language is reminiscent of a North German seaman because of his previous activity on ships. Halfmann is from the Rhineland, he comes from Wuppertal. At the time of the interview, he appears in an ironed shirt.
He has lived in Switzerland for over 30 years and has been tending an allotment garden in Lyss BE with his wife since 2015.
The garden shed has been in existence since 1978. Halfmann took it over a little more than four years ago. The tenant stayed on the lot until his end, he had a heart attack at a general meeting of the association. The tulips are almost faded. Marigolds were sown, potatoes were buried. Last year Halfmann had berries from the garden in his muesli every day from August to March. That is quality of life for Halfmann, who welcomes us with suspenders and a green gilet.
Mr. Halfmann, why do you have an allotment garden?
Otmar Halfmann: When our children were young, we always tried to rent a house where you could put a swing on a cherry tree. During puberty, we moved closer to a train station. When our children were out of the house, we looked for a small apartment for ourselves. Then the grandchildren came and we noticed that the grandchildren also need to be introduced to nature. They should be outside and get dirty.
What has changed in allotment gardening in recent years?
A trend has been going on for two decades. We have an increasing proportion of people who do not have a clear Swiss background. We have about two Kurdish families, one Vietnamese and three Macedonian families. It is precisely in this communal coexistence that friction arises; one has to find a common denominator. We promote the coexistence of different cultures. That’s nice, but also complicated.
Why?
Fatma, for example, is from Kurdistan. She learned her first gardening from her grandmother in Northeast Anatolia. That is a linguistic and cultural challenge. We don’t get certain messages. For example, being close to organic gardening.
What other problems are there?
Obsolescence is certainly a major challenge. People want to stay on the parcel until they can no longer. But not all old people are open, and the older they get, the less open they become. That creates areas of conflict. Now come the young, green families. We have one here too. They try to do everything as close to nature as possible and confront the traditional.
Do you have an example of a conflict?
Do you know what a power tiller is?
Something like that. This is used to plow the ground.
The device was once a dream for the old people. We now know what it does to the floors. Motorized milling machines are forbidden in Zurich. It’s an intergenerational problem. Fritz over there has this thing for 40 years. The new, young tenant does not take any milling.
An older man greets Halfmann. Hans, hello! All right? Hans is one of the oldest tenants.
Why does it bother the young family when Fritz takes the motorized tiller?
These are almost ideological principles. (laughs)
Are there often such conflicts?
In some systems it does. We actually only have this one young family and the long-established gardeners. This sharp break between generations is a problem.
The average owner is still the elderly Swiss?
Older couples. We live in a society that is demographically unbalanced, and this is even more evident here in the allotment gardens. But now there is a surge of boys.
How often does a parcel change tenants?
Two or three a year stop because of age. Because of the age structure, this will accelerate to five a year. Nobody just gives up on the old. I like that. We recently had to fire someone because they couldn’t manage the property.
Was that your opinion or his too?
That was objectively visible. It was totally rotten.
Is that where you step in?
Yes, we have to intervene. It’s age sometimes. In a smaller facility like here in Lyss it is more manageable than in a facility like Zurich-Wiedikon, which has almost 400 members.
In cities in particular, one always hears of long waiting lists.
There are clubs that have 100 people on the waiting list. Of their 100 parcels, only 10 become vacant each year. In cities like Zurich, where people know where they are for about three to five years professionally, that’s difficult.
Has the demand for gardens increased even more since Corona?
Very. We have had more inquiries for a year. There are currently 5000 people who are interested in a plot of land with our associations. To satisfy this request, we would need around 200 hectares. At the moment we only have areas that we are losing.
Are there clear rules as to what I can grow in my garden and how?
There are garden rules everywhere.
Philippe Rossier
Otmar Halfmann lives seven lives in one. Growing up in Wuppertal, Germany, he went to Zambia for German development aid when he was in his early twenties. Lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, even saw the inside of a prison there. “All experiences,” says the now 68-year-old, “that I don’t want to miss.” He moves to Switzerland and works in management for various logistics companies. In 2018 he went to Sudan for Doctors Without Borders, now he would like to do another assignment. “I’m a cosmopolitan,” says Halfmann, who is married to a Zambian woman. The two have four children and are already grandparents. You live in Lyss BE.
Does it have to be a certain proportion of vegetables and fruit?
Yes, that’s in most gardening regulations. We also have a bed spacing. (laughs) A little order helps.
Because of the appearance? Or do you not want people to just grill?
One background is the idea of self-sufficiency that has evolved over time. This was particularly pronounced between the two wars. There was an encouragement to cultivate areas in public spaces with potatoes and vegetables.
But the war is long over!
It just tastes good. The vegetables that we get from the greenhouse in southern Spain have traveled well over 2500 kilometers and can no longer taste as good as the one here. Added to this is the pride in working for food. That sounds very old-fashioned now, but life is not just take-away.
Halfmann: Sali Fritz. How is lisa
Neighbor: Yes, it’s fine. She is playing the piano.
Halfmann: It’s good against osteoarthritis. (laughs)
Neighbor: She started learning the piano at the age of 77 and is taking lessons.
Halfmann: That’s great.
Neighbor: Yes, that’s nice. She has joy. And I can even hold out when she’s rehearsing. (laughs)
The need is there. However, there are fewer and fewer allotment gardens.
Some of them are in locations that no longer fit today. I recently made an objection in Zurich-West. So it really doesn’t make sense to build another shopping center. Something is going wrong with our spatial planning. How many stores have been given up in recent years and yet we are building more and more retail space? You have to think about online trading and changed consumer behavior.
Where do you see an opportunity for more gardens?
Zoning back is a big issue. I see the chance that such an area will be used for a family garden for 20 years. The need is there. If I made 100 parcels available in Zurich today somewhere between Dietikon and Oerlikon, I would immediately have 1000 people who would apply. I hope that I can still initiate a project like this at my age.
What effects do the two agricultural initiatives have on family gardens?
They do not have a major impact because we have already banned the use of pesticides in most of the plants. In Zurich they immediately fly off the property when they use pesticides or fungicides. So it doesn’t actually affect the way we manage our gardens. But our association supports the initiatives. The majority of the population is likely to accept both initiatives. We can play a pioneering role in Switzerland. We don’t have such huge monocultures like France or the USA, for example, so it would be more difficult.
Do you have to admonish the gardeners in Lyss?
We have no ban with us, but social control. Maybe someone could inject something at night (laughs), certainly not on a bright day. I also see a certain role model function: Those who want to garden close to nature should please show that it is possible. I also collect the dung from our pony and put it on there (points to the potatoes). But I understand the opposition.
Explain it.
People and livelihoods are affected. I understand that they are fighting back. You also have to say that not everything has gotten worse in agriculture. We allotment gardeners are not existentially dependent on the yield. A farmer who has a certain management model and is dependent on certain chemicals, yes. I don’t starve to death here if we have a pest or fungus infestation. The farmer has a completely different problem with poor harvests. I expect understanding from everyone.
Why do you actually say family garden and no longer allotment garden?
Interesting that you ended up asking this question. This is an early example of cancel culture. Mr. Schreber was a teacher from the first half of the 19th century. The co-initiator of the first allotment garden in the Leipzig area stood for very rabid concepts in dealing with children. The term was pushed back more and more. That has to do with his weird concept. The term is still on people’s minds, but we don’t use it anymore.