Elisabeth Koch

09.07.1891 - 02.07.1982

Elisabeth Koch played a crucial role in shaping Finnish garden culture. Over the course of her career, Koch designed seven allotment gardens and countless small house yards, apartment building courtyards, and other urban green spaces. In addition to her design contributions, she worked for more than three decades as a garden adviser for the City of Helsinki, providing hands-on guidance to urban and allotment gardeners in Helsinki. Her expertise was also made public: her published writing included a large variety of articles and guidebooks on starting and tending to a garden.

Finland’s first allotment garden was established in Hatanpää in Tampere in 1916. In 1934, the Herttoniemi allotment garden in Helsinki was completed, following Elisabeth Koch’s design. In the expanding cities, the working population lived in very cramped and unsanitary conditions, and low-income families could only follow a meagre and limited diet. Allotment gardens were most popular in times of scarcity and war, when the incentive for gardening came from the promise of better nutrition for families.

Today, the role of allotment gardens is first and foremost as recreational oases for city dwellers. Whereas in the days of scarcity most allotments served a purpose of true nutritional need, today’s allotment gardens are more often places of leisure and relaxation

Writer: Anna Autio
Published: 6.3.2024