Zuiderpark becomes Edible Park

An Edible Park was opened in The Hague’s Zuiderpark on 22 October. The Edible Park is a project by the English artist Nils Norman to create a permaculture garden under the Foodprint Program. With Edible Park Norman aims to explore what gardening could mean for a city like The Hague.

City residents are invited to come and learn how they can grow their own fruits and vegetables. The municipality is using the project to examine whether other public green areas can be used in this way.

About the Edible Park

An artwork that grows and prospers and produces delicious vegetables and fruit is what the English artist Nils Norman conceived for Herweijerhoeve city farm in Zuiderpark and for the compound of the ‘Nut en Genoegen' Amateur Market Gardener's Association, located close to the city farm on the Meppelweg. For both sites he designed a special vegetable garden based on permaculture and entitled Edible Park.

At the Herweijerhoeve city farm Norman created a garden of about 40 by 20 metres. The centre consists of a special pavilion where participants can relax, a storage space for gardening tools and information centre. There will be a number of installations around the pavilion demonstrating sustainable functions such as a compost toilet, a worm bin and a willow vessel for natural water purification.

A circular permaculture garden has been built on the ‘Nut en Genoegen' compound on an unused piece of grassland. In the middle of this garden there is a big table with a pergola, accessible to everyone. A children’s adventure playground will be set up in the groves adjoining the permaculture garden.

The groundwork and the layout of both gardens started in November 2009 and construction of the pavilion began in May 2010.

What is permaculture?

Permaculture is a special kind of ecological (vegetable) gardening where different plants, trees and bushes are combined in order to boost each other. A tree provides shade, some plants attract useful insects while others retain liquid or bring nutritious substances from deeper layers upwards. The garden's compost provides a fertile soil. Permaculture gardeners work with nature instead of fighting it.

Volunteers

If you are available for a few hours (or more) a week and want to learn how permaculture functions in practice, helping in one of both gardens is a pleasant, healthy and nice way to discover this.

If you want to receive information about the public activities or enter as a volunteer, contact:

Gezonde Gronden
Telephone: 070 – 356 99 78
Website: www.gezondegronden.nl

Foodprint. Food for the city

Visit the website of art and architecture centre Stroom Den Haag for more information about the Foodprint Program.