Journal of work in Proeftuin Meerhoven in 2022
Posted on wo 04 januari 2023 in blog
Since mid 2017 I have been involved with gardening at the Proeftuin Meerhoven in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. This is a community garden maintained by volunteers in the neighborhood adjoining ours. We use the space with approval from the local council. The harvest from this garden has supplemented our lunches and dinners with many freshly grown vegetables and a few berries.
I do not been keeping meticulous records. What you see here is pieced together from e-mails, notes in my bullet journal and the spreadsheet I keep of incoming groceries from buying in the shops, harvesting in our gardens and foraging in the wild.
Winter 2021/2022 (December, January, February)
Harvest
- turnip / stoppelknol (2kg)
- parsnip / pastinaak (3kg)
- Brussels sprouts / spruiten (0.2kg)
- cabbage leaves
- musterd seeds
Plant
- magnolia cuttings
- seedling laurel / laurier
- seedling bamboo
Sow
- broad beans
Maintain
- add compost to seedlings and bushes
- add compost to growing beds
- repair hedge
- repair gates
- construct cold frames from plastic
- prune trees
- cleanup litter
Spring 2022 (March, April, May)
Harvest
- bieslook (0.15kg)
- asparagus / asperge (0.2kg)
- strawberry / aardbei (0.2kg)
- tops of nettle / brandneteltoppen (0.5kg)
- turnip greens / raapstelen (0.4kg)
- rhubarb / rabarber (0.75kg)
Plant
- seedlings of pumpkin and zucchini
- seedlings of tomato
- seedlings of hazel
- relocate mint for ground cover
Maintain
- repair hedge
- construct frames to guide pea plants
- watering plants
- mowing grass around beds
- weeding beds with potatoes and strawberry
- weeding around currants and raspberry
Summer 2022 (June, July, August)
Plant
- cabbage / kool
- seeds from plum, cherry, quince
Harvest
- potato / aardappel (1kg)
- strawberry / aardbei (0.25kg)
- beans / bonen (0.55kg)
- nettle seeds / brandnetelzaad (0.05kg)
- zucchini / courgette (10kg)
- turnip / knol raapsteel (1.5kg)
- cucumber / komkommer (0.9kg)
- peultjes (0.6kg)
- rhubarb / rabarber (0.2kg)
- radish / radijs (0.1kg)
- red currants / rode bes (0.3kg)
- tomato / tomaat (8.5kg)
- black currants / zwarte bes (0.3kg)
Maintain
- experiment with wool as mulch
- mowing the grass on the garden paths
- watering plants
- weeding the beds
- adjust IBC containers after vandalism
Fall 2022 (September, October, November)
Sow
- rye / rogge
- alisander / zwartmoeskervel
Harvest
- potato / aardappel (5.8kg)
- bieslook
- beans / bonen (0.04kg)
- zucchini / courgette (0.45kg)
- cabbage leaves / koolbladeren (1.1kg)
- horse radish / mierikswortel (0.1kg)
- pumpkin / pompoen (1.4kg)
- cabbage / kool (1.8kg)
- rocket / rucola (0.03kg)
- chard / snijbiet (0.5kg)
- tomato / tomaat (1.2kg)
Plant
- seedlings of hazel / hazelaar
- cuttings and seedlings of raspberry
- rooted cuttings of red and black currants
Maintain
- add compost to beds
- prepare beds for planting
- weed beds
- repair hedge and gates
- take cuttings from red and black currants for propagation
- turn compost heaps and move compost to beds
- mowing the grass on the garden paths
Proeftuin Meerhoven in winter 2022.