Some weeks ago, I promised you another visit to a garden. And here it is. It is just a taste of the wonderful things you can see in this garden, which is situated in Noord-Brabant.
Noord-Brabant is one of the three provinces of the Netherlands 'below the main rivers', meaning in the South. Compared to my part of the West (built-up industrial) it is green, wooded and quiet. It is also where for six Saturdays in October/November I take a herbalist course with a friend. We go to the Heemtuin (arboretum, but in this case a facility where trees, shrubs and herbs are cultivated for exhibition) Rucphen for this. This garden is built for plants and insects first, and humans second.
The course is very involved, and I don't get a lot of time to take photos, but these ones will give you an idea.
The Heemtuin gives day jobs to challenged people from Roosendaal and surroundings, and is open most days.
I have always been interested in herbal remedies, probably because my body reacts very unpredictably to pharmaceutical ones by giving me either massive headaches or nausea. Besides that, my granny was old enough to remember remedies like onion skins in a warm scarf around your throat, or green cabbage leaves to soothe swollen milk glands.
In the Heemtuin I learn about the use of herbs found in Dutch soil. And it is fascinating! Our teacher very cleverly not only 'sends', a lot, but also gives us a feel, a smell and a taste of the herbs. For instance today she made a soup of narrow leaved Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), and it was absolutely wonderful! To our surprise it tasted of mushrooms.
For homework, we are to make a tincture. I wanted to make a Rosemary one, but my Rosemary at home is not in bloom yet (the one in the Heemtuin is), so I switched to Ginkgo. It takes at least three weeks to get infused enough, but I'll let you know at a later stage if it passed muster.
On our visit to the herbal garden, I took some photos of the wood walls they use in the garden. This one is very bird and hedgehog friendly. But there are numerous walls for insects as well.
I loved this one.
And the heemtuin being in a wood, there are ferns everywhere. I really like ferns, they appeal to the Neanderthal part of me. We call this a Tongvaren (Asplenium scolopendrium), and it used to be rare. But now it spreads more and more, especially near water, on old walls, waterwells, locks, and underneath dripping pipes. And in woody, shady areas.
And against a tree stump a family of toadstools were having a good time.
The Medlar was laden with fruit. To eat they are not so much to my taste, but some people love them. I do think it is a very attractive tree though.
And what do you think of this?! It is the rosette of a plant we call Gele Ratelaar (yellow rattler). The flowers were spent, but this is so cool!
Mistletoe! Very susceptible to air pollution. This looked very healthy though. Not a lover in sight...oh well.
So, you have an idea of the goodies this garden can offer you. I hope to visit it for much longer, and take many more photos, but that will have to wait for another time.
I'll leave you with a moody photo of one of the gates to my town. I am very lucky to live in a pretty part of the island, where all that reminds you of the heavy petrochemical industry just across the river, are the constant noise and sometimes the smell. But when I drive back from Noord-Brabant, the thought creeps up on me that I live in the wrong part of the country. Still, I am too old to move yet again.
Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are. Do look me up on my website: Renée Grashoff Schrijft *
* there is no point to leave me comments like 'nigeria' on my contact page. I only reply to serious questions. Requests for money are totally useless as well; I am permanently skint. If your English is not up to that word, it means I suffer from a permanent lack of funds. Nothing to get from this old lady, folks!
Bye,
Renée Grashoff
