Report day 7
Report day 7
Last Monday 27th of July, Lars (19) hit the road in the name of BuurtBij. This time, not with Robin – who normally is present – but with Erik (12), another very young nature enthusiast who is eager to discover and help us learn more about nature here in Amsterdam Noord. This time I wrote the report in English, as Erik is from Budapest. He speaks a little Dutch but we mostly talk English together. The neighborhood where Lars and Erik moved within was Volewijck, in which the wild bee species Langkopsmaragdgroefbij lives [1]. The tree of the day was the willow (or wilg in Dutch).
Noord zoekt Soort
The species of the week – based on SoortSafari of tv program Klokhuis [2] – was the Sunflower. Immediately they knew where to go: there’s a beautiful tall sunflower at the start of the Papaverweg. It’s huge! See the pictures they took with Erik for scale. They found multiple sunflowers and also saw many bees enjoying the sunflowers.
It’s not crazy that we find a lot of Sunflowers in Amsterdam. Lars: “Actually there is a sunflower protest movement! It’s so cool, a group of activists plants sunflowers all over Amsterdam to raise awareness of the Lutkemeerpolder and to bloom the city.” Check out the action on their own page: https://buurtgroen020.nl/zonnebloemprotest.
What did they plant?
On this Monday, Erik and Lars visited Martine de Schipper of Groen&Gezellig. She is doing a façade garden (geveltuin) project with her neighbourhood. Martine explains: “We planted a variety of plants, mostly in height; ground-coverers, low plants, grasses and plants that grow high onto the façade. All plants we planted are native and ecological, coming from Noorder Bloemen (klaprozenweg), a biological nursery. Everybody can come here to buy plants! We used a budget from Tolhuistuin, where small ideas for social ecological projects could get funding. After the project started, the Woningbouwvereniging also joined and funded, as the project is not only about nature, but also about community and bringing people together.” More about the project can be heard in the interview Lars did with Martine. Listen to it here.
Lars and Erik planted snapdragons (leeuwenbekjes), Jacobs ladders, and Cuckoo flowers (koekoeksbloemen) with Martine in their garden. They also placed some sticks to help some higher growing plants that needed support!
Next to flourishing the façade with green, the neighbourhood is also planning on taking on a new project; the small park at the Buiksloterweg. Martine says that “the park holds a lot of diversity of plants and animals.” (they even found lizards!). Two big new school buildings are almost finished right next to the park, so they would love to protect the park and make it a more safe space.
What did they notice?
Lars noticed that the park Martine showed to him and Erik, needed some pruning (snoeien). Lars: “Pruning a plant is important to help control the air circulation and light exposure for the ecosystem around the plant, and to help the plant itself grow strongly.”
Lars showed Erik how to prune a plant correctly. Erik tells me what he learned: “It is most important to look at how the plant is growing, and how the branches are influencing the plants around it. You should make the cuts as close to the stem as possible, and as small as possible, because they are wounds for the plant!”
Listen to Lars and Erik about pruning here.
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