On the narrow streets of Freiburg, where asphalt and tram rails crowd against grey facades, bright patches suddenly flare up at the trunks of trees — daisies, cornflowers, wild grasses. These tiny flowerbeds by the street trees are no accident: they are the result of a programme the city launched back in 2004 and reinforced in 2010 with the project "Freiburg in Bloom".
Residents take sponsorship of the soil pits around the trees — they plant seeds, water, and weed. The city supplies them with plants and advice from ecologists at the EcoStation. Over two decades, more than five hundred people have come to tend seven hundred such plots. What began as an informal initiative has turned into a systematic practice.
Scientists compared two hundred pits: one hundred tended by citizens and one hundred without care. In total, they counted 474 plant species. In the tended plots, the number of species turned out to be 1,6 times greater — that is, by 60 percent. Moreover, not only the number of non-native species grew, but also the number of native ones, and the plant communities became more diverse.
At a time when cities are losing biodiversity faster than rural areas, such "blooming islands" work as living bridges. They provide food and shelter for insects, sustain soil life, and at the same time change people's attitude toward their own neighbourhood: instead of faceless concrete, a patch of wild nature appears for which you are personally responsible.
Importantly, the programme does not require large expenditures from the city — it relies on residents' willingness. The visible result motivates neighbours to repeat the experience, and the green pits gradually connect into a network. Thus small, repeatable actions add up to a noticeable ecological effect.
The study shows: when city dwellers receive simple tools and support, the urbanised environment is capable not merely of preserving the remnants of nature, but of actively multiplying it.
