Baumpatenschaftsprogramm. What a word. Catches the eye, and great to say (if not spell). It means "tree sponsorship programme", and in Freiburg, Germany, it gives residents a way to care for the patches of soil around street trees. Which sounds formal for something that began, in at least one case, with a woman getting fed up with the mess outside her front door.
Olivia Besters started tending the ground beneath a chestnut tree because it was compacted and littered. Thirty-five years later, she cares for 36 tree beds around her neighbourhood. Other residents have joined in, and Freiburg now has hundreds of people looking after these little spaces.
I love that Olivia wasn't setting out to save biodiversity. She wanted her doorstep to look nicer. The biodiversity came along too. Researchers found that tree beds tended by residents supported around 1.6 times as many plant species as similar untended beds. And when people are out gardening, neighbours stop to talk. Some decide to have a go themselves.
It took me back again to my chat with Alex Montgomery of Generation Soil, who made me think differently about the life in the ground beneath our feet. In Bristol, his team turns local food waste into living compost. And to Matt Knight of Freely Fruity, whose half-time-in-the-pub question was so straightforward - why don't we plant more fruit trees where people live?
Neither conversation left me feeling that everyone needs to become an expert gardener. Freiburg's story doesn't either. It's about noticing a place you pass every day and giving it a bit of care. Sometimes the neighbours notice. Sometimes the plants notice too.
I may need to practise saying Baumpatenschaftsprogramm. The idea, thankfully, is much simpler.