Categories for Gardening

Wednesday 5 October i went to Dordrecht, a small town south of Rotterdam. My first goal was to visit a gardening and seed shop with the name Vreeken’s Zaden. When i went to the shop Stek a few weeks ago to look around and buy some bulbs, i was also looking for Catmint’s seeds. They didn’t have them, but they mentioned the shop Vreeken in Dordrecht. I had never heard of this shop before. When i spoke about this in the garden, during a coffee break, i learned that many of the seeds used are from Vreeken. So then the thought came up to go and visit them.

I was lucky today. When i woke up, i felt a chill in the air. But the sun was shining. Even though there was a breezy chill in the air, it looked absolutely wonderful. The trip i wanted to take to Dordrecht was with the waterbus. A trip over water, following the Nieuwe Maas, past Kinderdijk to the Noord, ending in Dordrecht at the Merwekade. A short further trip with another boat brought me to the Hooikade, close to Vreeken’s Zaden.

After i entered the gardening and seed shop, i was simply stunned. The entire shop was packed full of cabinets of seeds. Ooh, they also had gardenings gloves, books, food for birds, houses for birds and insects, all sorts of gardening equipment and greenhouse type shelters. There is an outside with seedling plants, an upstairs with bulbs. And many people working there, going through the shop, no doubt working on orders coming through the Vreeken website.

Once i had made my first walk through the shop, i talked with one of the people working there, Ada. I told her who i am, asking permission to make photos inside the shop. I also told her i was planning on writing a post on my website. Which was fine, luckily!

After a second, more thorough trip around the shop, making photos, i settled with buying the Catmint seeds and a bag of bee attracting flower bulbs, flowering from early February until July next year.

I decided to walk back to the Merwekade over the Voorstraat, which was going through the old centre of Dordrecht. It is not a town i know well, i admit. The centre is a very old Dutch town centre, with some lovely pieces mixed into the shops. I loved the bit called the Hof, besides an Augustine church. Adorable.

I went to the Taankade, running alongside the Voorstraat for the final bit.

I ended up at the Merwekade once again. It had only taken me around half an hour to walk from Vreeken to the Merwekade. I waited there for around 15 minutes for the boat. The trip from Dordrecht till Rotterdam was an hour. With this lovely weather, not bad at all. A travel alongside man made natural areas, boat builder factories, bridges and a lovely three mast private ship.

Back in Rotterdam, i walked up to the Peace Garden, where i had left my compost bucket in the morning. A short trip to the Marqt shop to buy eggs and butter to end up at home. To rest my tiring feet!

Today i ventured out towards the south part of Rotterdam. I kept it rather close, i focused on the Kop van Zuid, the Head of South, and the neighbourhood Feijenoord.

I left home around 9:30 and went straight to the city herb garden the Rotterdamse Munt, on the corner of the Laan op Zuid and the Brede Hilledijk. I had checked before i left home and knew there were people in the garden from 10 onwards.

I had a short talk with one of the coordinators, Giselle. The garden itself exists only for around two years. It funds itself with a shop, a small cafe with a lunch on Fridays and Saturdays and the possibility to get your vegetables from around Rotterdam there. People can pick their own herbs, but they also buy them in the shop. A couple of restaurants let some of their staff pick herbs themselves.

The current location is temporary. In a year or two the garden will move to another location. Still unsure where at this point. I do hope the new place will be close to the current one. Making a community of people living close by, helping out in the garden, working and socializing with each other takes time. It’ll be a waste if the community surrounding the garden now will be lost in future.

The main focus of the garden are the herbs. Mint, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, verbena are among the most well known herbs, but there are many other herbs growing and many different variations of thyme, mint and other herbs which all have their place in the beds. In the greenhouse some cucumbers and tomatoes grow.

I had a mint tea and an almond cake. Lovely.

Ready to walk on. I planned to walk back through the Feijenoord neighbourhood. I actually missed it for the most part. I was back at the north part too soon, close to the bridge next to the Hef, the old train bridge. I saw sunflowers and more vegetables and herbs, so i walked into the area just south of the Hef. After i took a photo of the insect hotel i walked further around and talked with a man who was filling up a small swimming pool. He showed me the garden of the Hefpark. It turned out one of the coordinators was sitting in the shade a bit further along. I had a short talk with him. And i forgot to ask his name! So sorry.

He told me about the garden, a community of single user small areas, from one square meter to a lot bigger, all sizes people would think they can handle. Most people keeping their garden were living close by. I told him about my own work in the Peace Garden. We could both see the advantages of both approaches. For me, since i don’t have any gardening experience, it is really nice to work with other people who know more than me in a larger garden. But for a family it does make sense to have your own garden and work on it together. And of course it is an easy step to ask for help from neighbouring gardeners. He also told me about another Rotterdam initiative with multiple projects in Rotterdam, Creatief Beheer. I will read more about them and certainly will visit their projects.

There is also a BMX area for bikes to cross over and a volleyball field.

After this, back to the upper part of Rotterdam and walking back home.

The photos are placed in chronological order.