Open soils are Earth’s primary seed archives, preserving seeds, sometimes for centuries, until the soil cycles allow them to sprout, blossom, and reproduce. The basin itself is sealed, and the surrounding overgrown, inaccessible areas experience rapid water runoff. During heavy rainfalls, loose surface material is directly washed into the basin, disrupting the natural regeneration of plant communities.
Since autumn 2021, the Floating Gardens community has been collecting, preserving, regenerating, and multiplying seeds, cultivating a growing living in-situ and ex-situ seed archive. The in-situ seed archive grows in the Greenhouse as an edible interspecies commons.

Above us, geese on their way South cross the airspace, filling the air with their chit chats. Floating Seed Archive supports patentfree, non-genetically modified (non-GMO) seeds only, celebrating their ancestral memory, capacities of learning and adaption to new circumstances.

❋ Floating Gardens are committed to the in-situ conservation of non GMO seeds ❋

Our community seed saving and growing practice embeds a living archive of botanical diversity in the ecological context of the Gardens and the site. We are inviting individuals, seed networks and organisations to share ancient seeds and their stories with us, from crops, herbs and spontaneous flowers!

The harvested seeds of these then grown plants will be shared with local horticultural communities and individuals to be planted again, promoting and multiplying the in-situ conservation of these valuable endangered species in urban spaces.

If you’d like to send us a choice of seeds and their stories, we look forward reading from you:
garden@floating-berlin.org

Floating Gardens community participants since 2019 all kinds of weeds, Katherine Ball, beans, bees, Lorene Blanche, butterflies, calendula, clover, Elisa Crocs, crows, dirt, Jade Dreyfuss, fresh compost, fireflies, Adriana Gahona, Hannah Greven, Pia Groleger, Valentin Hammoudi, house martins, Laureen Hünig, ipomea, Gilly Karjevsky, Stefan Klopfer, Salome Kofler, kêmi atelier, Martina Kolarek, ladybugs, Bejal Lewis, Ute Lindenbeck, marigolds, Jann Mausen, mosquitoes, Lena Nahrwold, night moths, Nils Palme, Nina Peters, rainwater, Ru, Antonia Schlaich, snails, Antonin Steinke, strawberries, Sophia Tabatadze, Lara Tonon, Karin Weissenbrunner, wild roses, Andrew Wu, Sarah Yaparsidi, and many occasional participants.

Programme Coordinators: Adriana Gahona, Lorene Blanche
Plant bed care: Gardens Community

Texts: Lorene Blanche

❋