I have been meaning to write something about German allotments and now Sarah Webb has done the work for me in the expat part of the Telegraph. She has succeeded in renting an allotment in Bremen, and renting one is an achievement in itself.

There are 15 parts to it, the lengthiest being the paragraph on Nutzung or “use of the garden”! These rules and regulations often have nothing to do with the more modern view that a garden is recreational rather than purely functional.
But what strikes one as classically Germanic in the contract are details such as the specified limit of 1m, 10cm for a hedge – and these things are checked.
This gives the gardens a certain uniformity which I for one could do without. However, to be fair, it is often this desire for uniformity which keeps standards maintained.

Wikipedia gives some impression of the difference between a British allotment and a German Schrebergarten. Here is the Bundeskleingartengesetz and here something on Kleingartenrecht.