Situated at the northern edge of the district of Pankow, Blankenfelde-Pankow Botanical Park acts as a transition to the open fields of Berlin-Brandenburg. It is an area of landscape protected as part of a 2014-15 UEP scheme devised to carry out improvements to the ecological potential of landscape conservation areas.
To these ends, a three-field system of crop rotation for the three existing field sections of the park was implemented. Under the motto of ‘Beautiful Agriculture’, initiatives including ecological agriculture, soil-improvement measures, soil-protection treatment, two-crop and mixed fruit cultivation, as well as systems of plant selection/cultivation supporting biodiversity, and beekeeping are due to be initiated.
Using the modular system of crop rotation, root crop (module 1), cereal crop (module 2) and green manure (module 3) are rotated within one field. After module 3 the rotation starts again with module 1. Within each respective module there are a variety of different crops to choose from, though their function within the crop rotation remains the same.
The composition of the crop rotation responds each year to a changing motto, which stresses different elements of agriculture. Educational themes such as “self-harvest”, environmental education, information about old varieties and agricultural processes, etc. are intended to be linked with regular activities such as harvest festivals, seeding actions and so on. Because of the changing motto and the rotation of the crops, visitors to the park can experience the familiar landscape scenery in new and different ways each year.