diff --git a/control-plane/roles/gardener/defaults/main/gardener.yaml b/control-plane/roles/gardener/defaults/main/gardener.yaml
index d5f2b63e..3bd07929 100644
--- a/control-plane/roles/gardener/defaults/main/gardener.yaml
+++ b/control-plane/roles/gardener/defaults/main/gardener.yaml
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ gardener_gardenlet_shoot_concurrent_syncs: 20
 gardener_gardenlet_shoot_reconcile_in_maintenance_only: false
 gardener_gardenlet_shoot_respect_sync_period_overwrite: true
 
+gardener_gardenlet_feature_gates:
+  HVPA: false
+  HVPAForShootedSeed: false
+
 gardener_shooted_seeds: []
 # - name: shoot-1
 #   project_id: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001
diff --git a/control-plane/roles/gardener/files/10-crd-autoscaling.k8s.io_verticalpodautoscalers.yaml b/control-plane/roles/gardener/files/10-crd-autoscaling.k8s.io_verticalpodautoscalers.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7be2e9ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/control-plane/roles/gardener/files/10-crd-autoscaling.k8s.io_verticalpodautoscalers.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,543 @@
+---
+apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
+kind: CustomResourceDefinition
+metadata:
+  annotations:
+    api-approved.kubernetes.io: unapproved, temporarily squatting
+    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.13.0
+  name: verticalpodautoscalers.autoscaling.k8s.io
+spec:
+  group: autoscaling.k8s.io
+  names:
+    kind: VerticalPodAutoscaler
+    listKind: VerticalPodAutoscalerList
+    plural: verticalpodautoscalers
+    shortNames:
+    - vpa
+    singular: verticalpodautoscaler
+  scope: Namespaced
+  versions:
+  - additionalPrinterColumns:
+    - jsonPath: .spec.updatePolicy.updateMode
+      name: Mode
+      type: string
+    - jsonPath: .status.recommendation.containerRecommendations[0].target.cpu
+      name: CPU
+      type: string
+    - jsonPath: .status.recommendation.containerRecommendations[0].target.memory
+      name: Mem
+      type: string
+    - jsonPath: .status.conditions[?(@.type=='RecommendationProvided')].status
+      name: Provided
+      type: string
+    - jsonPath: .metadata.creationTimestamp
+      name: Age
+      type: date
+    name: v1
+    schema:
+      openAPIV3Schema:
+        description: VerticalPodAutoscaler is the configuration for a vertical pod
+          autoscaler, which automatically manages pod resources based on historical
+          and real time resource utilization.
+        properties:
+          apiVersion:
+            description: 'APIVersion defines the versioned schema of this representation
+              of an object. Servers should convert recognized schemas to the latest
+              internal value, and may reject unrecognized values. More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#resources'
+            type: string
+          kind:
+            description: 'Kind is a string value representing the REST resource this
+              object represents. Servers may infer this from the endpoint the client
+              submits requests to. Cannot be updated. In CamelCase. More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#types-kinds'
+            type: string
+          metadata:
+            type: object
+          spec:
+            description: 'Specification of the behavior of the autoscaler. More info:
+              https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#spec-and-status.'
+            properties:
+              recommenders:
+                description: Recommender responsible for generating recommendation
+                  for this object. List should be empty (then the default recommender
+                  will generate the recommendation) or contain exactly one recommender.
+                items:
+                  description: VerticalPodAutoscalerRecommenderSelector points to
+                    a specific Vertical Pod Autoscaler recommender. In the future
+                    it might pass parameters to the recommender.
+                  properties:
+                    name:
+                      description: Name of the recommender responsible for generating
+                        recommendation for this object.
+                      type: string
+                  required:
+                  - name
+                  type: object
+                type: array
+              resourcePolicy:
+                description: Controls how the autoscaler computes recommended resources.
+                  The resource policy may be used to set constraints on the recommendations
+                  for individual containers. If not specified, the autoscaler computes
+                  recommended resources for all containers in the pod, without additional
+                  constraints.
+                properties:
+                  containerPolicies:
+                    description: Per-container resource policies.
+                    items:
+                      description: ContainerResourcePolicy controls how autoscaler
+                        computes the recommended resources for a specific container.
+                      properties:
+                        containerName:
+                          description: Name of the container or DefaultContainerResourcePolicy,
+                            in which case the policy is used by the containers that
+                            don't have their own policy specified.
+                          type: string
+                        controlledResources:
+                          description: Specifies the type of recommendations that
+                            will be computed (and possibly applied) by VPA. If not
+                            specified, the default of [ResourceCPU, ResourceMemory]
+                            will be used.
+                          items:
+                            description: ResourceName is the name identifying various
+                              resources in a ResourceList.
+                            type: string
+                          type: array
+                        controlledValues:
+                          description: Specifies which resource values should be controlled.
+                            The default is "RequestsAndLimits".
+                          enum:
+                          - RequestsAndLimits
+                          - RequestsOnly
+                          type: string
+                        maxAllowed:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Specifies the maximum amount of resources that
+                            will be recommended for the container. The default is
+                            no maximum.
+                          type: object
+                        minAllowed:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Specifies the minimal amount of resources that
+                            will be recommended for the container. The default is
+                            no minimum.
+                          type: object
+                        mode:
+                          description: Whether autoscaler is enabled for the container.
+                            The default is "Auto".
+                          enum:
+                          - Auto
+                          - "Off"
+                          type: string
+                      type: object
+                    type: array
+                type: object
+              targetRef:
+                description: TargetRef points to the controller managing the set of
+                  pods for the autoscaler to control - e.g. Deployment, StatefulSet.
+                  VerticalPodAutoscaler can be targeted at controller implementing
+                  scale subresource (the pod set is retrieved from the controller's
+                  ScaleStatus) or some well known controllers (e.g. for DaemonSet
+                  the pod set is read from the controller's spec). If VerticalPodAutoscaler
+                  cannot use specified target it will report ConfigUnsupported condition.
+                  Note that VerticalPodAutoscaler does not require full implementation
+                  of scale subresource - it will not use it to modify the replica
+                  count. The only thing retrieved is a label selector matching pods
+                  grouped by the target resource.
+                properties:
+                  apiVersion:
+                    description: apiVersion is the API version of the referent
+                    type: string
+                  kind:
+                    description: 'kind is the kind of the referent; More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#types-kinds'
+                    type: string
+                  name:
+                    description: 'name is the name of the referent; More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-objects/names/#names'
+                    type: string
+                required:
+                - kind
+                - name
+                type: object
+                x-kubernetes-map-type: atomic
+              updatePolicy:
+                description: Describes the rules on how changes are applied to the
+                  pods. If not specified, all fields in the `PodUpdatePolicy` are
+                  set to their default values.
+                properties:
+                  minReplicas:
+                    description: Minimal number of replicas which need to be alive
+                      for Updater to attempt pod eviction (pending other checks like
+                      PDB). Only positive values are allowed. Overrides global '--min-replicas'
+                      flag.
+                    format: int32
+                    type: integer
+                  updateMode:
+                    description: Controls when autoscaler applies changes to the pod
+                      resources. The default is 'Auto'.
+                    enum:
+                    - "Off"
+                    - Initial
+                    - Recreate
+                    - Auto
+                    type: string
+                type: object
+            required:
+            - targetRef
+            type: object
+          status:
+            description: Current information about the autoscaler.
+            properties:
+              conditions:
+                description: Conditions is the set of conditions required for this
+                  autoscaler to scale its target, and indicates whether or not those
+                  conditions are met.
+                items:
+                  description: VerticalPodAutoscalerCondition describes the state
+                    of a VerticalPodAutoscaler at a certain point.
+                  properties:
+                    lastTransitionTime:
+                      description: lastTransitionTime is the last time the condition
+                        transitioned from one status to another
+                      format: date-time
+                      type: string
+                    message:
+                      description: message is a human-readable explanation containing
+                        details about the transition
+                      type: string
+                    reason:
+                      description: reason is the reason for the condition's last transition.
+                      type: string
+                    status:
+                      description: status is the status of the condition (True, False,
+                        Unknown)
+                      type: string
+                    type:
+                      description: type describes the current condition
+                      type: string
+                  required:
+                  - status
+                  - type
+                  type: object
+                type: array
+              recommendation:
+                description: The most recently computed amount of resources recommended
+                  by the autoscaler for the controlled pods.
+                properties:
+                  containerRecommendations:
+                    description: Resources recommended by the autoscaler for each
+                      container.
+                    items:
+                      description: RecommendedContainerResources is the recommendation
+                        of resources computed by autoscaler for a specific container.
+                        Respects the container resource policy if present in the spec.
+                        In particular the recommendation is not produced for containers
+                        with `ContainerScalingMode` set to 'Off'.
+                      properties:
+                        containerName:
+                          description: Name of the container.
+                          type: string
+                        lowerBound:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Minimum recommended amount of resources. Observes
+                            ContainerResourcePolicy. This amount is not guaranteed
+                            to be sufficient for the application to operate in a stable
+                            way, however running with less resources is likely to
+                            have significant impact on performance/availability.
+                          type: object
+                        target:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Recommended amount of resources. Observes ContainerResourcePolicy.
+                          type: object
+                        uncappedTarget:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: The most recent recommended resources target
+                            computed by the autoscaler for the controlled pods, based
+                            only on actual resource usage, not taking into account
+                            the ContainerResourcePolicy. May differ from the Recommendation
+                            if the actual resource usage causes the target to violate
+                            the ContainerResourcePolicy (lower than MinAllowed or
+                            higher that MaxAllowed). Used only as status indication,
+                            will not affect actual resource assignment.
+                          type: object
+                        upperBound:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Maximum recommended amount of resources. Observes
+                            ContainerResourcePolicy. Any resources allocated beyond
+                            this value are likely wasted. This value may be larger
+                            than the maximum amount of application is actually capable
+                            of consuming.
+                          type: object
+                      required:
+                      - target
+                      type: object
+                    type: array
+                type: object
+            type: object
+        required:
+        - spec
+        type: object
+    served: true
+    storage: true
+    subresources: {}
+  - deprecated: true
+    deprecationWarning: autoscaling.k8s.io/v1beta2 API is deprecated
+    name: v1beta2
+    schema:
+      openAPIV3Schema:
+        description: VerticalPodAutoscaler is the configuration for a vertical pod
+          autoscaler, which automatically manages pod resources based on historical
+          and real time resource utilization.
+        properties:
+          apiVersion:
+            description: 'APIVersion defines the versioned schema of this representation
+              of an object. Servers should convert recognized schemas to the latest
+              internal value, and may reject unrecognized values. More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#resources'
+            type: string
+          kind:
+            description: 'Kind is a string value representing the REST resource this
+              object represents. Servers may infer this from the endpoint the client
+              submits requests to. Cannot be updated. In CamelCase. More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#types-kinds'
+            type: string
+          metadata:
+            type: object
+          spec:
+            description: 'Specification of the behavior of the autoscaler. More info:
+              https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#spec-and-status.'
+            properties:
+              resourcePolicy:
+                description: Controls how the autoscaler computes recommended resources.
+                  The resource policy may be used to set constraints on the recommendations
+                  for individual containers. If not specified, the autoscaler computes
+                  recommended resources for all containers in the pod, without additional
+                  constraints.
+                properties:
+                  containerPolicies:
+                    description: Per-container resource policies.
+                    items:
+                      description: ContainerResourcePolicy controls how autoscaler
+                        computes the recommended resources for a specific container.
+                      properties:
+                        containerName:
+                          description: Name of the container or DefaultContainerResourcePolicy,
+                            in which case the policy is used by the containers that
+                            don't have their own policy specified.
+                          type: string
+                        maxAllowed:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Specifies the maximum amount of resources that
+                            will be recommended for the container. The default is
+                            no maximum.
+                          type: object
+                        minAllowed:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Specifies the minimal amount of resources that
+                            will be recommended for the container. The default is
+                            no minimum.
+                          type: object
+                        mode:
+                          description: Whether autoscaler is enabled for the container.
+                            The default is "Auto".
+                          enum:
+                          - Auto
+                          - "Off"
+                          type: string
+                      type: object
+                    type: array
+                type: object
+              targetRef:
+                description: TargetRef points to the controller managing the set of
+                  pods for the autoscaler to control - e.g. Deployment, StatefulSet.
+                  VerticalPodAutoscaler can be targeted at controller implementing
+                  scale subresource (the pod set is retrieved from the controller's
+                  ScaleStatus) or some well known controllers (e.g. for DaemonSet
+                  the pod set is read from the controller's spec). If VerticalPodAutoscaler
+                  cannot use specified target it will report ConfigUnsupported condition.
+                  Note that VerticalPodAutoscaler does not require full implementation
+                  of scale subresource - it will not use it to modify the replica
+                  count. The only thing retrieved is a label selector matching pods
+                  grouped by the target resource.
+                properties:
+                  apiVersion:
+                    description: apiVersion is the API version of the referent
+                    type: string
+                  kind:
+                    description: 'kind is the kind of the referent; More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#types-kinds'
+                    type: string
+                  name:
+                    description: 'name is the name of the referent; More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-objects/names/#names'
+                    type: string
+                required:
+                - kind
+                - name
+                type: object
+                x-kubernetes-map-type: atomic
+              updatePolicy:
+                description: Describes the rules on how changes are applied to the
+                  pods. If not specified, all fields in the `PodUpdatePolicy` are
+                  set to their default values.
+                properties:
+                  updateMode:
+                    description: Controls when autoscaler applies changes to the pod
+                      resources. The default is 'Auto'.
+                    enum:
+                    - "Off"
+                    - Initial
+                    - Recreate
+                    - Auto
+                    type: string
+                type: object
+            required:
+            - targetRef
+            type: object
+          status:
+            description: Current information about the autoscaler.
+            properties:
+              conditions:
+                description: Conditions is the set of conditions required for this
+                  autoscaler to scale its target, and indicates whether or not those
+                  conditions are met.
+                items:
+                  description: VerticalPodAutoscalerCondition describes the state
+                    of a VerticalPodAutoscaler at a certain point.
+                  properties:
+                    lastTransitionTime:
+                      description: lastTransitionTime is the last time the condition
+                        transitioned from one status to another
+                      format: date-time
+                      type: string
+                    message:
+                      description: message is a human-readable explanation containing
+                        details about the transition
+                      type: string
+                    reason:
+                      description: reason is the reason for the condition's last transition.
+                      type: string
+                    status:
+                      description: status is the status of the condition (True, False,
+                        Unknown)
+                      type: string
+                    type:
+                      description: type describes the current condition
+                      type: string
+                  required:
+                  - status
+                  - type
+                  type: object
+                type: array
+              recommendation:
+                description: The most recently computed amount of resources recommended
+                  by the autoscaler for the controlled pods.
+                properties:
+                  containerRecommendations:
+                    description: Resources recommended by the autoscaler for each
+                      container.
+                    items:
+                      description: RecommendedContainerResources is the recommendation
+                        of resources computed by autoscaler for a specific container.
+                        Respects the container resource policy if present in the spec.
+                        In particular the recommendation is not produced for containers
+                        with `ContainerScalingMode` set to 'Off'.
+                      properties:
+                        containerName:
+                          description: Name of the container.
+                          type: string
+                        lowerBound:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Minimum recommended amount of resources. Observes
+                            ContainerResourcePolicy. This amount is not guaranteed
+                            to be sufficient for the application to operate in a stable
+                            way, however running with less resources is likely to
+                            have significant impact on performance/availability.
+                          type: object
+                        target:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Recommended amount of resources. Observes ContainerResourcePolicy.
+                          type: object
+                        uncappedTarget:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: The most recent recommended resources target
+                            computed by the autoscaler for the controlled pods, based
+                            only on actual resource usage, not taking into account
+                            the ContainerResourcePolicy. May differ from the Recommendation
+                            if the actual resource usage causes the target to violate
+                            the ContainerResourcePolicy (lower than MinAllowed or
+                            higher that MaxAllowed). Used only as status indication,
+                            will not affect actual resource assignment.
+                          type: object
+                        upperBound:
+                          additionalProperties:
+                            anyOf:
+                            - type: integer
+                            - type: string
+                            pattern: ^(\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))(([KMGTPE]i)|[numkMGTPE]|([eE](\+|-)?(([0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?)|(\.[0-9]+))))?$
+                            x-kubernetes-int-or-string: true
+                          description: Maximum recommended amount of resources. Observes
+                            ContainerResourcePolicy. Any resources allocated beyond
+                            this value are likely wasted. This value may be larger
+                            than the maximum amount of application is actually capable
+                            of consuming.
+                          type: object
+                      required:
+                      - target
+                      type: object
+                    type: array
+                type: object
+            type: object
+        required:
+        - spec
+        type: object
+    served: true
+    storage: false
diff --git a/control-plane/roles/gardener/tasks/main.yaml b/control-plane/roles/gardener/tasks/main.yaml
index 27b40451..2d0b0be3 100644
--- a/control-plane/roles/gardener/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/control-plane/roles/gardener/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -56,13 +56,19 @@
       - gardener_dns_provider is not none
       - gardener_cloud_profile_metal_api_url is not none
       - gardener_cloud_profile_metal_api_hmac is not none
-# Gardener expects a VPA to be present, otherwise VPA enabled and soil bootstrapping do not work
-# maybe this can be removed in a future version of Gardener?
-- name: Deploy VerticalPodAutoscaler CRD if required
+
+- name: Deploy required Seed CRDs
   k8s:
-    definition: "{{ lookup('template', 'vpa.yaml') }}"
+    definition: "{{ item.definition }}"
     apply: yes
-  when: not lookup('k8s', api_version='apiextensions.k8s.io/v1', kind='CustomResourceDefinition', resource_name='verticalpodautoscalers.autoscaling.k8s.io')
+  loop:
+    - name: hvpas
+      definition: "{{ (lookup('url', 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gardener/gardener/' + gardener_repo_ref + '/example/seed-crds/10-crd-autoscaling.k8s.io_hvpas.yaml', split_lines=False) | from_yaml_all | list)[0] }}"
+    # TODO: starting from g/g 1.82, this resource will be located in seed-crds, too
+    - name: vpas
+      definition: "{{ lookup('file', '10-crd-autoscaling.k8s.io_verticalpodautoscalers.yaml') }}"
+  loop_control:
+    label: "{{ item.name }}"
 
 - name: Create garden namespace
   k8s:
diff --git a/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/gardener-control-plane-values.j2 b/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/gardener-control-plane-values.j2
index 10b263df..b9dec2c0 100644
--- a/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/gardener-control-plane-values.j2
+++ b/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/gardener-control-plane-values.j2
@@ -51,38 +51,8 @@ global:
     shootViewerKubeconfigMaxExpiration: {{ gardener_apiserver_shoot_kubeconfig_max_expiration }}
 
     vpa: {{ gardener_apiserver_vpa }}
-    # this requires the Hvpa resource in autoscaling.k8s.io/v1alpha1, which is not in the GKE cluster... how to actually use this?
-    # hvpa:
-    #   enabled: true
-    #   maxReplicas: 4
-    #   minReplicas: 1
-    #   targetAverageUtilizationCpu: 400
-    #   targetAverageUtilizationMemory: 400
-    #   vpaScaleUpStabilization:
-    #     stabilizationDuration: "3m"
-    #     minChange:
-    #       cpu:
-    #         value: 300m
-    #         percentage: 80
-    #       memory:
-    #         value: 600M
-    #         percentage: 80
-    #   vpaScaleDownStabilization:
-    #     stabilizationDuration: "15m"
-    #     minChange:
-    #       cpu:
-    #         value: 200m
-    #         percentage: 80
-    #       memory:
-    #         value: 300M
-    #         percentage: 80
-    #   limitsRequestsGapScaleParams:
-    #     cpu:
-    #       value: "1"
-    #       percentage: 40
-    #     memory:
-    #       value: "2G"
-    #       percentage: 40
+    hvpa:
+      enabled: true
 
   scheduler:
     resources: {{ gardener_scheduler_resources | to_json }}
diff --git a/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/gardenlet-values.j2 b/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/gardenlet-values.j2
index d2e6937c..d041d83c 100644
--- a/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/gardenlet-values.j2
+++ b/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/gardenlet-values.j2
@@ -66,9 +66,7 @@ config:
       - key: seed.gardener.cloud/invisible
       - key: seed.gardener.cloud/disable-capacity-reservation
 
-  featureGates:
-    HVPA: false
-    HVPAForShootedSeed: false
+  featureGates: {{ gardener_gardenlet_feature_gates | to_json }}
 
 vpa: {{ gardener_soil_vertical_pod_autoscaler_enabled }}
 
diff --git a/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/vpa.yaml b/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/vpa.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 138e9dee..00000000
--- a/control-plane/roles/gardener/templates/vpa.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,124 +0,0 @@
-apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
-kind: CustomResourceDefinition
-metadata:
-  annotations:
-    api-approved.kubernetes.io: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63797
-    resources.gardener.cloud/keep-object: "true"
-  labels:
-    gardener.cloud/role: vpa
-  name: verticalpodautoscalers.autoscaling.k8s.io
-spec:
-  conversion:
-    strategy: None
-  group: autoscaling.k8s.io
-  names:
-    kind: VerticalPodAutoscaler
-    listKind: VerticalPodAutoscalerList
-    plural: verticalpodautoscalers
-    shortNames:
-    - vpa
-    singular: verticalpodautoscaler
-  scope: Namespaced
-  versions:
-  - name: v1
-    schema:
-      openAPIV3Schema:
-        properties:
-          spec:
-            properties:
-              resourcePolicy:
-                properties:
-                  containerPolicies:
-                    items:
-                      properties:
-                        containerName:
-                          type: string
-                        controlledResources:
-                          items:
-                            enum:
-                            - cpu
-                            - memory
-                            type: string
-                          type: array
-                        maxAllowed:
-                          type: object
-                          x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-                        minAllowed:
-                          type: object
-                          x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-                        mode:
-                          enum:
-                          - Auto
-                          - "Off"
-                          type: string
-                      type: object
-                      x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-                    type: array
-                type: object
-                x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-              targetRef:
-                type: object
-                x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-              updatePolicy:
-                properties:
-                  updateMode:
-                    type: string
-                type: object
-                x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-            type: object
-            x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-        type: object
-        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-    served: true
-    storage: true
-  - name: v1beta2
-    schema:
-      openAPIV3Schema:
-        properties:
-          spec:
-            properties:
-              resourcePolicy:
-                properties:
-                  containerPolicies:
-                    items:
-                      properties:
-                        containerName:
-                          type: string
-                        controlledResources:
-                          items:
-                            enum:
-                            - cpu
-                            - memory
-                            type: string
-                          type: array
-                        maxAllowed:
-                          type: object
-                          x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-                        minAllowed:
-                          type: object
-                          x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-                        mode:
-                          enum:
-                          - Auto
-                          - "Off"
-                          type: string
-                      type: object
-                      x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-                    type: array
-                type: object
-                x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-              targetRef:
-                type: object
-                x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-              updatePolicy:
-                properties:
-                  updateMode:
-                    type: string
-                type: object
-                x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-            type: object
-            x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-        type: object
-        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
-    served: true
-    storage: false