Lots of my friends have been telling me about their "Kleingartens" and the bountiful harvests they're seeing this month. When I first asked, "What's a kleingarten" they said, "You know - it's what you call an allotment in the UK". OK I thought - a tiny piece of barren soil in amongst other pieces of bleak earth with crappy looking sheds made of corrugated iron, in depressing inner city wastelands - seen 'em in London - got the picture.

In fact the only thing a Kleingarten and an allotment have in common is that there's a bit of soil in them.

In Germany a "Kleingarten" is a little piece of paradise: beautifully manicured lawns, herbacious borders, fruit trees, honeysuckle creeping majestically over handmade trellis, miniature Bavarian Alpine houses, awnings, electric lights, kitchen's, TV's, flushing toilets, sauna's jakuzzi's and sound around 3D cinema's (some for sure) - you could live there quite comfortably all year. Apparently the only rule is that 25% of your little garden must be used to grow veg, the rest....? Go crazy!

In the UK an allotment is: a piece of earth about 5ft by 10ft. There is no more to be said about them. Aside perhaps, from the fact that they are generally depressing and godforsaken.

To make my point quite clear:

This is a kleingarten:










This is an allotment:








This is a kleingarten:









This is an allotment: