Hanover: Senior may keep the garden
According to the city of Hanover, Monika Geerlings let her leased garden run wild and was given notice of termination. A shock for the 76-year-olds, for whom the garden represents a “high quality of life in old age”. Now the story has a happy ending.
Hanover. For Monika Geerlings, these 400 square meters of garden in the allotment garden colony Waldfrieden 2 in Groß-Buchholz are a “great piece of quality of life in old age”, as the 76-year-old noted. Planting flowers, cutting roses, mowing the lawn, taking a break from time to time, sitting in a chair and enjoying nature: the elderly woman has been doing this for 38 years. And even if these 400 square meters look quite overgrown with lots of greenery – Monika Geerlings feels very comfortable here.
The 76-year-old has leased the property from the city of Hanover as a so-called Grabelandgarten and pays a low, double-digit fee per month. Grabeland is land used for hobby gardening, which is rented out by the city for a small lease. The federal allotment garden law designates Grabeland as a plot of land that may only be contractually cultivated with annual plants. And: It is not an allotment garden in the sense of the law. The city of Hanover, as the owner of Grabeland, also has the right to terminate Monika Geerlings’ contract annually.