Allotment gardens are all the rage, and not just recently - and there's no end in sight to this urban gardening trend! People love to create a nice retreat in their allotments, where they can just take the pace out and enjoy nature with friends and family.
This way, you no longer have to settle for an apartment with no garden or no balcony. Allotment gardens offer the wonderful opportunity to enjoy both - a central apartment, but also your own garden happiness.
Depending on the region, this happiness goes by the name of plot, allotment or even allotment garden. In all cases, what is meant is one's own spot of peace and quiet and a piece of nature. However, most allotment gardens still need a little work and design before they are ready.
Hence the question: how can allotment gardens be turned into true idylls? You will find gardening tips and inspiration as well as low-budget alternatives and extravagant ideas in this article.
What should not be missing in the allotment garden?
In our search for the most popular must-have feel-good factors of an allotment, here's what we tracked down:
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An arbor or a garden shed, ideally suited for an overnight weekend in your own garden
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Beds to grow your own fruits and vegetables
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A herb spiral, so every salad and every grilled meat can be spiced up with herbs from your own garden in no time at all
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A barbecue area, which for many forms the heart of their allotment garden
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A garden toilet that is hygienic, ecological and comfortable
When implementing these ideas, it makes sense to divide the allotment garden into different areas. This creates, for example, garden areas for gardening, a play corner for children and a cozy chill lounge that invites you to linger.
How exactly this could look in practice, we now look at.
Tips for the must-haves: How do I design my allotment garden?
When designing the allotment garden, you need to follow a few rules, because allotment gardens are subject to the provisions of the Federal Law on Allotment Gardens. And this law especially concerns the next idea to beautify your allotment garden and, moreover, to use it practically.
Design allotments: #1 garden shed
The legal requirements on the subject of garden houses state that no one may use them as a permanent residence. In addition, the floor space including the covered outdoor seating area is limited to 24 square meters.
With these specifications in mind, nothing stands in the way of our design ideas. Let's let our ideas bubble!
Small garden shed used as a tool shed
Which garden shed is best suited for the respective allotment garden depends, of course, on personal taste as far as appearance is concerned, on the one hand, and on the intended use, on the other.
Small garden sheds, as shown in the picture, are already available for plus/minus 200 euros and are excellent for storing garden tools, seat cushions and the like, protected from the weather.
Garden house for adventure overnight stays
In the category of "something more unusual" falls this garden house idea. While some browse experience portals, others transform their allotments into weekend overnight dreams.
A sleeping barrel promises overnight fun that you can enjoy over and over again and also gladly give away to your friends as an experience voucher. This way your joy can be shared and doubled!
2 in 1 combi garden shed - tool shed and overnight accommodation in one
Who would like to do without neither storage space nor the overnight stay possibility in the own allotment garden, which can get itself already a simple garden house starting from 700 euro in the building market. With the brand self-build you are here in the price cheaper and can save the budget a little.
Design allotments: #2 create beds for fruit and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables that you have been allowed to harvest yourself taste more intense and also give you a satisfying feeling. It is a real pleasure to see how the seed slowly germinates, the plants gradually grow and bear fruit.
It's also a wonderful opportunity for families to spend quality time together. You can teach your children about nature and evoke in them an appreciation for foods like fruits and vegetables.
Raised beds to plant fruit and vegetables
Back-friendly and decorative are raised beds in your own allotment garden. Depending on size and design, raised beds can be purchased for less than 100 euros. If you like color, you can also paint your raised bed in a bright color.
💡 Idea to save money:
Used raised beds are ideal for reducing the cost of the design of the allotment.
Down-to-Earth beds to plant fruits and vegetables
If you want to be more economical in gardening, you can do without raised beds and simply create the beds themselves with the help of their own muscles and a spade.
Design allotments: #3 herb spiral
While we are on the subject of the joy of growing your own fruit and vegetables, the herb spiral fits perfectly into the theme, because herbs give every meal the necessary zing. And how wonderful rosemary, basil and co. smell!
Beautiful herb spirals made of metal with stainless steel are available on Amazon for about 80 euros. Other options are also gabion herb spirals.
On the other hand, those who prefer a simpler design can simply plant their herbs in their flower beds.
Design allotment gardens: #4 Barbecue area/fireplace as the focal point of the event
Whether winter or summer barbecue, BBQ is simply always in season! No wonder that also in the Schreber- and allotment garden the barbecue area may not be missing! We are happy to share ideas for design:
Easy BBQ pit DIY
Simple, inexpensive and effective are fireplaces that you can create yourself in your own allotment garden. Little is needed to realize this point of attraction in the allotment garden.
Useful tips for implementation are:
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Choose a suitable place in the allotment garden at a distance from the garden shed and raised beds to avoid the risk of fire.
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Use a piece of string to mark the perimeter of the fire pit.
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Dig the spot with a spade about 10 centimeters deep.
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Then fill the hole with sand.
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Surround the fireplace with large field stones or cobblestones. (Of course, another option would be to use a ring of fire, which you can order online.)
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The firewood can now be stacked on the sand.
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If you don't just want to grill sausages, baked potatoes and bread on a stick, then a tripod swivel grill is what completes this grilling area.
If you don't like it quite so rustic when it comes to the barbecue area, you will definitely be happy about the next design ideas.
Fire bowls: quickly and elegantly to the barbecue area in the allotment garden
A few clicks on the Internet are enough and the barbecue area is almost ready. Fire bowls are available in different designs and in the price segment from cheap to luxurious.
With about 80 euros you are on Amazon with a BBQ fire pit similar to the photo. Whether the place for the fire bowl is still paved or piled up with gravel, is left to the individual gusto.
Campfires always remind you that little is needed to spend a cool time with your partner, family or friends.
Designing an allotment garden: #5 garden toilet – a quiet little place in the country
Since very few allotment garden sites provide sanitary facilities for communal use and even if they do, not everyone is lucky enough to be able to reach them quickly because their own plot may be located at the very edge of the allotment garden site, it is worth having your own garden toilet.
However, when implementing your own toilet in the allotment garden, some legal requirements must be observed.
More information about the legal requirements, which toilet variants are thereby omitted and between which options you can decide, we have described in more detail in the article "Allotment garden toilet".
composting dry toilet as a comfortable and sustainable garden toilet
Are you looking for a solution that combines comfort, hygiene and sustainability, so that the garden fun is maintained at all times, then the composting dry toilet is also your favorite.
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Comfort: Easy to use and also almost odorless due to the separation of liquid and solid excretions. Because by separating the residues, the formation of odor-causing ammonia is prevented.
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Hygiene: The use of litter also serves to bind moisture and thus odors. In addition, optical purposes are also fulfilled: everything is always covered under a scatter layer so that it is not visible.
By using compostable Bio-Bags as inlays for the collection container, faeces do not come into contact with the container, making the toilet easy to clean. During the cleaning, you will not come into contact with any skin-caustic chemicals or with faecal residues.
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Sustainability: After removing the leak-proof canister, you can simply use the urine in a mixing ratio of 1:10 to water your flowers. You close the compostable Bi0 bag together with the contents and either throw it in the composter in your garden or in the collection point of your allotment garden.
So everything is returned to the ecological cycle in a natural way as fertilizer.
Design of your allotment toilet
After a short digression on the practical side of having your own toilet in your own garden and the actual toilet solution itself, we now turn our attention back to the design.
You can order a ready-made toilet house on the Internet for around 500 euros. Here, too, money can be saved by doing it yourself or by a lucky find on Ebay classifieds.
Small details, such as a heart cutout on the door (see photo below) or a beautiful two-tone paint job will make the toilet house in the garden a quiet feel-good place.
Additional small decorative elements that you can place inside the toilet house are inexpensive and look great.
Design allotments: Nice-to-haves
After the tips on the five must-haves in allotments, we now share the nice-to-haves that anyone can use to enhance the ambiance of their allotment through small details.
Flowers: Cheapest idea for "Pimp my Kleingarten"
One of the easiest to maintain, cheapest and most beautiful gardening tips is to create a wildflower meadow. For under 10 euros, you can get a wide variety of flower mixtures: Daisies, corn poppies, cornflowers and many more.
A perennial blaze of color that also attracts bees and butterflies to the garden.
Design allotments: Garden swings for children and adults alike
Whether at the seaside, in the jungle or in your own allotment garden, swings have a magnetic effect on young and old. They have become popular selfie spots all over the world. But if you're on a digital detox, you can simply relax on the swing instead of snapping a photo.
Hanging bench as a photo spot in the allotment garden
For an average of 150 euros, you can create this feel-good corner in the allotment garden.
On a suspended bench it also rocks well in pairs, so you can also share the swinging happiness with your partner.
Wooden swing: swing like you did when you were a child
On the subject of "Back to the roots": Experiencing childhood feelings again and again yourself or giving these memories to your own children - this can also be achieved with a simple wooden swing for 20 euros.
Swing alternative: hammock
A hammock also makes it possible to make the garden cheap, so you can really enjoy the time in the allotment. The cost of this is 20 euros upwards.
Conclusion: ideas for designing your allotment garden
Allotment gardens offer you plenty of space and design options to put your feel-good ideas into practice. If you invest a little more work to design your allotment garden, you can save some budget. But buying used things also saves your wallet and the environment.
Either way, it is worthwhile to design your own idylls, just to be able to get away from it all to your allotment garden.
Because what is certain in any case is that allotment gardens are not a passing trend, but that they are part of people's primal attitude to life - a piece of nature in its own right!
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