Garden development

Gardens in Jena

Gardens are an important part of urban life with great ecological and social significance. They are significant for the local recreation of the population and represent an important potential for urban development.

There are around 580 hectares of gardens in Jena, which is 5% of the city's total area. Of these, 148 hectares - around a quarter of the area - are allotment gardens, which are organized in the Jena/Saale-Holzland-Kreis regional association of allotment gardeners.

Garden development concept

From 2011 to 2013, the city administration had an initial garden development concept drawn up for Jena. The objectives were to safeguard and develop the existing garden stock and adapt it to demographic developments as required, to examine the possibilities of designating garden areas close to the city center as building land and to develop the quality of nature and landscape. The concept was confirmed by the city council in 2013 as a basis for action by the city administration.

In the years that followed, the results of the garden development concept were incorporated into the city of Jena's development plans, including the development of residential and commercial areas and land use planning.

In the meantime, the framework conditions had changed. Among other things, there was a population forecast from 2019, which made it necessary to redefine the demand for gardens and, based on this, to revise the development concept. The aim was to adapt the objectives for the qualitative and quantitative development of the city's garden stock to current developments.

The allotment garden advisory board was closely involved in updating the garden development concept. Jena households with and without gardens were surveyed in 2021 about garden use and wishes. This served to obtain additional information on aspects for which no documents and figures were available.

The updated garden development concept was adopted by the city council on 21.03.2024. It contains a comprehensive and long-term strategy for the further development and design of the city's garden stock, taking into account the forecast demographic development and social, ecological and urban planning aspects.

Brochure "Gardens in Jena"

Following the adoption of the first garden development concept, the city of Jena published a brochure in 2014 that sets out the concept at the time and places it in the context of the development of gardens in the city. Even though the updated garden concept means that the resolutions presented in the brochure are no longer up to date, it is still an interesting source on Jena's gardensto supplementthe updated garden development concept from 2024.