At first there was the Schrebergarten
Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber (October 15, 1808 - November 10, 1861) was a German physician and university teacher at University of Leipzig, famous for a variety of controversial ideas, but also for the iconic Schrebergartens, tiny plots of land leased to youth for the purpose of gardening.
Schreber advocated both his "systematic remedial exercises" and countryside exercise for urban youth and demanded playgrounds out of town, as free space for children to move about was too limited in urban mansions. Finally in 1864, three years after Schreber's death, Leipzig school principal Ernst Innozenz Hauschild established the first "Schrebergarten", by leasing land for the physical exercise of children. The idea quickly took off, but it was during World War I and World War II that the gardens rapidly rose in importance as sources of otherwise hard-to-get fresh fruit and vegetables.
Nowadays, Schrebergarten colonies are an unmistakable feature of German suburbia, particularly if you travel anywhere by train. Ordered, trimmed, enclosed, ornamental, they feature floral and vegetal displays and tableaux of garden gnomes. As for people, they’re only temporary visitors, because however fabulous the garden – and some are very fancy –one of the many hundreds of rules is that a Schrebergarten is non-residential.