Karlshorst: tripping, or not tripping, over a plant

On the metal stairs at the Berlin-Karlshorst train station, between the S-Bahn and regional train platforms, our faithful correspondent Martin Hill “tripped over” this specimen on his way to work.

Read Full Post »

Berlin-Lichtenberg: playground for plants. Observed by Martin.

Lichtenberg native Martin Hill writes that he just rediscovered this playground in his district on the corner of Friedenhorster Straße and Splanemannstraße. He explains that it dates back to East German days and is now beautifully overgrown — once in awhile, the plants will be cut back, only to be forgotten and left to cover the area once again. Once again, thanks for a lovely contribution, Martin!

Read Full Post »

A diary of our residency week in Lichtenberg

Plant walks at the lake, around the train station, in parks and in a graveyard — our week as artists in residence at Lichtenberg Studios flew by. On Friday, a few days before our departure, we hosted a plant talk and discussion, featuring the video diary of our Lichtenberg explorations above.

Read Full Post »

A Lichtenberg Herbarium

While walking nearby the Lichtenberg S-Bahn station today we wondered at the abundance and variety of wild blooms and came home with a notebook full of pressed plant specimens. We’ve been seeing this common daisy blanketing green spaces (both planned and rogue) throughout the borough.

Read Full Post »

Collecting specimens in Berlin-Lichtenberg

Berlin is in full bloom. Spring started early this year, so now, in mid-May, we are finding the city’s green spaces and empty lots covered in foliage, wildflowers and interesting weeds. On yesterday’s walks (to forage elderflowers near the residency studio, and later exploring Karlshorst with its allotment gardens and green spaces around the racetrack), we found ourselves interested in the specific plants we encountered, and collected some specimens.

Read Full Post »

First walk in Lichtenberg, with nettles and a rainbow

We made our first urban plant expedition in Lichtenberg today. Yesterday, Sara and I moved into the Lichtenberg Studios in Berlin where we are in residence this week. Our first order of business today was to explore the neighborhood on foot and see what kind of plants, parks, flower shops, green spaces and other urban nature we might find. Here are some of the things we saw, smelled, observed, tasted…

Read Full Post »

Looking forward to Lichtenberg / dance party!

In just a couple days, Sara will arrive in Berlin on for our one-week residency in Lichtenberg. This morning, I picked up the studio keys and took the opportunity to scout out the area for interesting plants. Here are a few things I saw. It looks like we’ll find plenty to explore! So stop by the blog: we’ll be posting about what we find, and where we’ll be working in public spaces around the district.

Also, an interesting Part 2 has just been added to our event next Friday…

Read Full Post »

Live in Berlin: an evening with Urban Plants

We have news! In a few weeks, Sara will be traveling from New York to join me for a mini artist residency at Berlin’s Lichtenberg Studios. For one week, we will be exploring the urban plants and people of Lichtenberg, one of the city’s quieter, more old-school districts where the East Berlin atmosphere still lingers.

We warmly invite you to join us on the evening of May 23… 

Read Full Post »

Lichtenberg: Walnuts, Pumpkins, Corn and a Recipe

Back from a harvest-time weekend in Brandenburg, here’s the full report! As you may have noticed from the last, photo-only post, I was in the small village of Lichtenberg near Neuruppin, about an hour north of Berlin, visiting relatives whose front lawn is currently being showered with walnuts from their neighbor’s black walnut tree, which hangs over their property. The common understanding of fallen-fruit rights in Germany is that any fruit that falls on your lawn is yours to keep (I’m not a foraging lawyer, so don’t take my word for this). Anyway, we filled this bucket almost to the top and our kind relatives said we were welcome to take them back to Berlin with us, as there will surely be more falling onto the lawn soon.

Read Full Post »

Lichtenberg: Fallen fruit, or rather, walnuts

From the neighbor’s tree.

Read Full Post »