Garden Journal September 2022: A Dutch Summer Garden

I have to confess that the cover image for this blog post is sheer click bait. 😆 Because tulips bloom in the Spring, and I was enjoying this Dutch garden in late summer. But the images of copious tulips ARE what we immediately think of when most buitelanders (outsiders from other lands) think of Dutch gardens, no?

Today I'm sharing the lovely garden belonging to my cousin Ton and his delightful wife, Astrid. I had the pleasure of staying in their home in a small place called Berkel en Rodenrijs just near Rotterdam, during mid August - the height of the Dutch summer. And sure enough, they complained a LOT about the hittegolf - the heatwave - when temperatures "soared" above 28C. 😆😎

It needs to be understood that it's really NOT typical anymore for an average working or middle class Dutch family to have their own garden. MANY people live in apartments with a balcony at best, and in the older areas the house fronts straight on to the road, and there may simply be a functional postage stamp sized 'garden' area at the back - if you're lucky - which might get sun, sometimes. But my cousins are more than comfortable and probably best described as upper middle class - she doesn't need or want to work, their 2 kids are grown & flown, they own their nice 3 story home, they have nice pensions to look forward to, they travel internationally and they've just started a new phase of their lives with a new puppy.

I had the pleasure of being on watering duty in their garden on a number of occasions, as Dutch gardens are generally NOT planted or designed to cope with dry conditions. Ton & Astrid's home was the site for the much-planned Van Breugel Family Cousins Reunion on 14th August, and so the garden needed to be fresh and perky for the photos. 😆

The whole premise of this garden is for SITTING OUT IN THE SUN - and for entertaining during those few short months when the weather is OK.

So: entertaining spaces, ornaments, paving and pots. So things can be moved during hail storms and when the frosts come.

The neighbours are Turkish muslims who have had the temerity to plant FOOD CROPS - their grapes also had the audacity to cross the fence and it was related to me that much discussion was had about how to keep the grape vine TIDY and UNDER CONTROL. 🤣

The hydrangeas BADLY needed dead-heading and it was all I could do to stop myself from grabbing the kitchen scissors and getting started. 😉 Their old dog died and so the shrine is there to remember him. But he's been very much upstaged by a delightful young teenager named Zoe. Who loved to dig up their prized and treasured tiny square of grass when she was a puppy. Happy to report the grass is recovering and Zoe is going to obedience classes and learning to dig only in the special dog park near their house.

Rather than deal with the hydrangeas full of dead flower heads, my cuz decided to just BUY IN some more colour for the Reunion.

There were other sweet shrubs in flowers, but you had to look closely.

My deep watering sessions paid off though, much to the amazement of the cuz, who had convinced himself that the rose bush was a dud and wouldn't flower "in the heat". 😂 This little beauty bloomed for me on our last morning before we headed north to Groningen.

What I really enjoyed about their garden was that they KNEW exactly what function it had for them (lifestyle, entertaining, enjoyment) and they created it to be as low maintenance as possible.