June the story so far…

June is here, summer is underway (not that you’d guess) and with a threat of new building plans to develop the ‘roomtuintje oostbos’ terrain looming, (143 apartments, each of 23m2 for students who will be paying €600pm for a temporary contract) the roomtuintje gardeners have been busy.

Here’s a photo gallery of some of the growings on…

 

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Cage of Green Peas in flower and now growing pods.

 

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Blooming Dropplant.

 

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Salad lettuce in the company of Strawberries.

 

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Mini Camomile meadow

 

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Ruccola flowers.

 

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Tomatoes in a hot house made from recycled house salvage.

 

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Street salvaged Evergreen Connifer.

 

 

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Calendula (Goudsbloem) in flower.

 

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Snijbonen – “Green Bean”

 

 

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Basket o’Strawberries (Aardbeien).

 

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Little bush.

 

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Black and Red Potatoe plants.

 

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First Kohlrabi plants.

 

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Garden bed with Leeks and Green Peas in Harmony.

 

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Late Tuinbonen / Broad Bean harvest from last year’s plants.

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Drop…

 

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Raspberries!!!

 

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Young pumpkin plants

 

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Unidentified flower growing from a bulbous root. Reportedly the root tastes spicy like radish.

 

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Ornamental thistle.

 

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Big strawberry plants with goudsbloem and lettuce in flower.

 

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May & June Bugs

Last year the garden was teeming with little creatures , creeping, crawling n buzzin around. This year is no different. We thought we’d give you a closer view. Here are some of the garden creatures we see in May & June…

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A Yellow 20 Spotted Ladybird larvae among the Citron Melissa.

 

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Sint Jansvlinder / Zygaena trifolii

 

Red Soldier

Red Soldier Beetle

 

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Lapsnuit-kever / Ortiohynchus Sulcus or Vine Weevil

 

Unknown bug

Unidentified bug (ID needed)

 

Dead bee being invaded by a mite! …a worry for bee keepers…

more to come….

 

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May in 2014 Pics

This gallery contains 17 photos.

  Leeuwenbekjes   Mung beans, now gone, thanks to snails or slugs… who knows…   The heart-shaped bed, now just exploding into colour   Spinach   Dark Purple Tulip   Potatoes doing well in car tires   Huge bush of … Continue reading

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Blooming April 2014 (Belated Post)

So Winter 2013/14 in Amsterdam didn’t happen. The ground didn’t freeze, the snow didn’t fall and it seemed like a long autumn rolled into an even longer spring. We are just getting some summer weather now in June!

Anyway as such many of the plants survived the “winter”. The brassicas keep on flowering,  the Broad beans continued to get fat and even the Stevia began to flower.

Here follow some more pics from April 2014.

 

Daslook - Wild Garlic before flowering in April 2014

Daslook – Wild Garlic, Bear Garlic

 

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Calendula in company with Grape Hyacinthas

 

Tuinbonen - Broadbeans for harvesting in May!

Broad Beans

 

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Lavas  – Lovage

 

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Frambozen – Roseberry

 

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Buckwheat sprouts

 

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Dropplant

 

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Leek – Prei

 

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Flowering Pak Choi

 

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Citroen Melissa – Lime Balm

Sort of Eucalyptus Mint, April 2014

 

 

 

 

 

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Roomtuintje Harvest 2013

Last years harvest wasn’t a stereotypical scene of busy villagers reaping the rewards after a long spent spring and summer toiling over the fields, no big parties to celebrate a bumper crop, nothing like that.However spend a lot of effort getting soil, sowing seeds, weeding  and debugging. We even managed to put a few things in the ground in autumn so as to be ready for springtime.

New Pak Choi (October 2013)

Baby Pak Choi (October 2013)

Here are some photos of the results.

Green Paprika (October 2013)

Green Paprika (October 2013)

Broccoli

Broccoli

Boerenkool

Boerenkool

Cauliflower (Oct 2013)

Cauliflower (Oct 2013)

Broccoli ready for harvest (Oct 2013)

Broccoli ready for harvest (Oct 2013)

Winter Squash In Autumn (Nov 2013)

Winter Squash In Autumn (Nov 2013)

Purple Cabbages (Nov 2013)

Purple Cabbages (Nov 2013)

 

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End of July, begining of August – Images of the garden

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Garden Creatures

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Bees in a Courgette Flower

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Butterflies on Buddlia

 

Dragonflies…

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Strange Little Dudes in The Hood

Urban Art Creatures

These little guys  appeared on the Roomtuintje Oostbos fence not so long ago and we noticed their friends hanging around the neighbourhood too.
They looked kinda friendly so we thought we’d share ’em with you.

Little creature big hands

Little creature big hands
Plantage Doklaan

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oh no no! the ant invasion!

Ant Invasion!

Ant Invasion Dapperbuurt!

Roomtuintje Oostbos is under attack, not by cops or by knokplug (thugs) but by those little creatures known as ants. The terrain is mostly covered by a thick layer of sand which the ants thrive in. We thought at first that it may be useful to have the ants nesting in or around our patches as they may aerate the soil but not so.

Populations have been on a steady increase and recently new varieties have been spotted like those larger ones with wings which seem to be very popular with the local black birds that can collect lots of them in their beaks before flying off to feed their young.

The ants have been protecting the Aphids (big green fat ones) and the black fly which are damaging certain crops like the tuinbonen (beans). The ants will hang around the Aphid groups and deter predators like the ladybird. Once a ladybird turns up they get into attack mode and the ladybird is forced to flee. The Ants are using the Aphids for their sweet secretions which they produce after sucking the life out of our lovely beans and peas.

Not only do the ants protect the Aphids but they have now begun to make nests in our vegetable and herb patches and boxes leading to damaged roots and ultimately dead plants.

We retaliated by putting a solution of sugar and yeast and some dried yeast with sugar grains next to one of the ant nests. What resulted soon after was a chaotic situation for the ants. As they brought home their trojan horse all hell broke loose. The ants nest began to explode. The ants promptly evacuated taking their precious eggs to another spot.

Beware The Ant!

Beware The Ants!

 

 

 

 

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June 2013

 

broad bean with lady bird      Lady Bird on Broad Bean

tuinboon

 

 

 

 

monks cress  Monks Cress

 

cabbage

 

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sunflower

 

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DSC00455  Jerusalem Artichoke, Sunroot

 

DSC00452  Young Fennel

 

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May/June update

Quick foto update since last post. More soon…

lettuce

 

baby fennel / venkel

 

sunflower

 

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wild flowers. there is a name for them. post us name if you know!

 

lovage / lavas / maggi kruid

 

cucumbers just before flowering

 

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red sunflower with herbs

 

calendula

 

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young carrots

 

sweet peas

 

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Chief gardener:

garden security

 

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…The End of Eden…

Update:

At the end of summer 2014 the Roomtuintje Oostbos garden along with the squatted (and unoccupied) houses were forced into a long and boring legal theatre to avoid eviction and let truth be known. Eviction was avoided for a time but the case was lost so eviction was eventual and was announced for the 14th January 2015.

At this very moment the garden project Roomtuintje Oostbos is over. Flowers still exist as they await the bulldozers of the Bouw Fuckers to arrive. The 14th of January has been and gone. No eviction yet.

The squatters above the now abandoned and demolished Eastwoods Coffee-Shop still stand firm and retaliant against the strong arm of the Amsterdam Police. They remain occupying until the riot cops come to remove them.

end of update…

 

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