IN GERMANY, A GARDENER'S HEAVEN

Traveling abroad reveals lands where culture embraces horticulture

- MARY PURPURA 

I’ve often wondered what it would mean to live in a place where the benefits of contact with plants, the natural world and healthy outdoor environments are widely accepted and appreciated, where gardening and its kindred activities are all considered pluses.

I think I got a glimpse of that place last summer when I visited my son in the small city of Aschaffenburg, Germany (about 30 miles from Frankfurt). I was struck by the evidence of purposeful human activity, much of it linked to gardening, everywhere I went. Our walks through all parts of the city revealed blooming flowers, trees laden with ripening fruit and thriving herbs. Even pubs boasted window boxes full of mint, thyme and sage.

Germans seem to take nature exposure seriously. My son’s apartment was a two-minute walk from a very large wooded park with a big lake and various meadows. I walked daily in that park—as did a lot of other people—but I never traveled the same path twice. There were so many paths! Despite the popularity of the park, I really felt that I had stepped out of the city there, and I never felt that there were too many people around. Throughout Aschaffenburg, and in every place I visited in the country, walking paths, parks and open space abounded.