A holistic garden system

Dear Swetlana Osmers, you are originally an administrative officer. How did your passion for gardening come about?

Growing my own food has always been a natural part of my life. I grew up on a traditional self-sufficient farm with animals in southern Kazakhstan. I have been fascinated by the effects and interactions between nature, animals and humans for as long as I can remember. When I took over our farm in the fifth generation, I made the decision to follow my passion professionally too.

How do you organize your work as an entrepreneur in the garden and media sector?

My field of activity covers two central areas: garden experience in the form of on-site seminars, workshops and garden accompaniment, as well as media work. In both areas, the garden is discovered and specifically sought out as a powerful place of orientation and as a response to central social issues such as security, climate change, sensory overload, alienation and the search for meaning.

You live on a farm with three hectares of land. What do you value in your own garden design?

My vision: to recognize the garden by its soundscape - a garden where it smells, hums and buzzes, birds chirp and there is a hustle and bustle. After taking over our farm, I began to use the old stock and design and implement a variety of garden spaces myself: Shade garden, flower garden, berry garden, flowering meadow, fruit and deciduous tree avenues, chicken garden and an emerging mill garden. Embedded in this emerging “diversity garden” is my “living vegetable garden” for modern self-sufficiency. All the areas flow seamlessly into one another and create an impressive effect.

How can gardens be adapted to future climatic challenges?

My answer to the challenges of our time is a living, holistically conceived garden system. It is an ecologically valuable, climate-resilient garden that provides tranquillity, a connection to nature and quality of life. In exchange with working groups and institutes for arable farming, grassland and cultivated plants as well as with professional associations for garden therapy, I explore the question of how a sustainable vegetable garden can be designed within the framework of a home garden - exemplified by individual “living vegetable beds” that can be implemented for small and large garden spaces.

What aspects are the focus here?

The focus is on: natural antagonists and nutritious flowering plants for pollinating insects, the targeted use of sacrificial plants, defensive plants and holistically effective cultures, structuring elements for a lively, diverse vegetable garden and guidelines for “garden therapy” as a basis for effect, design and experience. All this is done taking into account the natural conditions on site, climate-appropriate planting, well thought-out water management, the promotion of natural cycles, the targeted regulation of the microclimate, animal-friendliness and the promotion of biodiversity as well as decelerated, mindful design and care.

You will be presenting your “Slow Living Garden” concept at spoga+gafa. What is it all about?

The SLOW LIVING GARDEN® concept combines three central areas: modern self-sufficiency, biodiversity and health awareness. The difference to existing concepts is the effect and the combination of the three areas mentioned. The result for the end customer or target group is a practical and holistic garden concept: it shows gardeners how they can grow food in their own garden, actively contribute to biodiversity and at the same time make their mental and physical health more resilient to external influences by doing so in a self-created, species-rich environment.

What else makes your approach special?

It is an approach that combines current social trends and modern (garden) needs and offers a variety of points of contact for emotional customer and brand loyalty. In my presentation at spoga+gafa, I will therefore draw the bow of SLOW LIVING GARDEN® to exemplary impulses for brand manufacturers and garden retailers and also provide a handout as orientation in terms of content and an invitation to think the concept further individually.

Swetlana Osmers will be presenting her SLOW LIVING GARDEN® concept in a talk on 26.06.2025 at 2 p.m. on the Green Stage at spoga+gafa.

More information about the lecture