The shelving greenhouse is almost finished and it's feeling solid!
We are still missing a couple thingies such as a 'squeashy' sealant for the door (for which we want to glean from discarded fridges).
To build it we used upcycled wood from the Ot'je Garden (thank you John!), some plastic tarp from studio dreams (thanks Bergur and Katrina!) and discarded screws from MONK bouldering gym, where Guillem works.
We can't wait to start see green growing inside!
After a week of long..grey...cold…rainy days we were blessed with a dry! and bright! time when we met on Sunday morning - seemed like it was meant to be!
Having scrapped our planning the previous session we wanted to morph the day into some small caring tasks, coupled with a ‘crafting’ moment to form a sign for the garden, and possibly build or incorporate the gleaned materials we had been gathering from the grounds over the last months.
We started off in general mode - making time for coffee, biscuits and a catch up before gradually mingling into the garden to begin our trash collecting. We reflected that there had been a slowing down of litter coming in, less plastic, bottles, packaging, perhaps we were getting somewhere, or maybe this was now setting a ‘standard’ in the park, less lingering litter encouraging less dropping of new additions? It also meant that our focus could move from the big things to the small, honing in on cigarette butts for example, of which there were many. Hannah and John brought their claw grabbers along which made this task for minuscule grotty pick up easier :)
It seemed as though no one was sleeping in the garden anymore either, though we found a big shopping bag left behind by someone but there was barely any contents contained within it - let’s see, maybe someone will linger back soon.
The pile of wood chip mulch from the willow was still sitting around so this became the next job - we began by loading up the wheelbarrow and were surprised with how many we could fill from this seemingly small pile. We wanted to spread a portion of it over the garden paths, to incorporate the willows decay into the garden, and then the remainder to move to a more convenient spot along the wall of the grounds - currently it was in the middle of the park, and we promised the gemeente workers we would move it as otherwise they can get in trouble if there are complaints, so we wanted to keep our side of the bargain :)
The pile by this point had stood for little over two weeks and we were amazed by the warmth and mould that had already managed to infest it. We were reminded of the wood chip compost heater that Voedseltuin installed at their garden - coils of pipe moving water through such a heap, though on an enormous scale, that was then pumped into the walls of their communal house to heat it over winter. The heat quickly demonstrates how ‘alive’ the environment of the pulverised willow is - harbouring bacteria, fungi, insects, that were intermingling and fermenting the pile, chemical reactions and transferals of minerals/resources abounding. The current wet weather was also doing its bit, keeping the pile moist and lubricated. Kate recalled how mulch was often left to ‘cure’ for some months before it was introduced to new locations to be spread, generally to enable time for these processes to decay and slow down, similar to composting, so as also not to burn or cook plants that would be exposed to the heat from the pile. We decided then to spread a small layer of the mulch upon part of the paths, to reduce the risk of this ‘cooking’, and indeed to heap the remainder up, to let it continue to ferment over time, at its own pace.
Guillem was interested in researching if the mould present in the mulch would be an issue to introduce into the garden, incase it might make some of the species sick through transferal, though through his researches decided that the mould was also just a part of the environment, and as we were not making vast mulch layers, this should be okay to move in and amongst the biome.
On our list of things to do was to make a sign for Shared Grounds. It was something we had been wanting to make for a while, and as the weather was beginning to change and we were entering more a hibernation phase, it seemed like the right moment to look over the materials we had gleaned from the area. To make a sign also felt important as a way to communicate the garden in a subtle way to the neighbourhood. Kate brought some scrap wood she had from the studio, we had string and a hand drill, some extra tools. Silvia was very keen to use a dremmel to engrave into the plate, and we were curious to see how this might encourage a community of moss and mould to grow once outside in the damp. Hannah and John worked on the found objects, drilling some holes and combining them into a long form, feeding each into the other as a kind of braid.
After our lunch we set about installing the sign - attaching it to a large branch we had incorporated into the fence at the beginning of the garden. We also installed Hannah’s braid in the garden, interested to see how it might be shifted or changed by those coming into the landscape.
Photos by Silvia Arenas and Kate :)
Last collective working day was great!
We were honored by the visit and help from Erica and Ruby they brought really good vibes and energy with them.
The morning started with the traditional chat over biscuits and coffee and then we proceeded with a round of litter picking (over many weeks of performing the same task, the amounts of litter keep on becoming less and less. Good work!).
When we went to the garden we encountered quite an unexpected situation: two gardeners where cutting down the old willow tree that overlooked the children's playing area of the park. We got quite upset about this and we crossed through the thick obstacle course formed by the piles of cut willow branches to ask them what was the reason for the cutting. They told us that the willow was rotting inside and this posed a danger. After talking to them, we realised that by dragging the willow branches through the park, they also severed most of the nightshades and other species on that side of the garden. We took a breath and accepted that things in the garden just happen, they'll grow back straight and stronger.
During the trash picking, we encountered again the remains from someone who might have been sleeping in the garden. We decided to pick everything up from the ground and place the items inside the waterproof shopping bags.
Our plan for the morning was to focus on building insect hotels/shelters from the trash that we had gleaned and accumulated after every trash picing rounds at the beginning of the working days. This plan was quickly set aside when we encountered the cutting down of the willow tree. After having a good chat with the people wielding the chainsaws (who were super freindly and interested in what we were doing with Shared Grounds), we asked if there was any possibility to collect some of the wood or residual mulch that they would chip the tree into, and to our luck we could have it all. They even cut the trunk in smaller pieces that we could roll along the path to make them into a set of chairs around a matching table in the deep corner of the garden. We also agreed that after mulching the tree, they would leave it all in the park for us to use and bring back to the garden.
We also planted some of cut branches from the willow to see if they would root into the ground. We had no big hopes for this to work out but it was worth to try it out at least!
It was nice to go with the flow of the day, and change tact, responsively, given what arose, alongside embracing the decay of the tree and their generosity in gifting us extra mulch for the path, our delux table setting, and top ups to our takkenrillen - nothing leaving the site, so no extra energy going into moving the willow's remains elsewhere. Instead they can stay with us a little longer.
We ate lunch after all the rolling, shifting, collecting, on our fresh and sweet wooden hideaway in the middle of Shared Grounds, gezellig!
Sweet photos of the day from Kate, Guillem and Ruby.
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While Guillem was away, Kate encountered some traces that probably suggested that someone had been sleeping at Shared Grounds.
The contents of two supermarket reusable bags were spread over the Gemeente mulch that now draws the path through the green strip. Cardboard packaging, reciepts, letter envelopes, instruction manuals, foam, broken branches, fallen leaves, broken lighters, clothing labels, a transport strap and a group of brown slugs enjpying the accumulated moisture inside one of the shopping bags.
By the shade of the "little house" (allegedly built by Stedin as their storage in the neighbourhood), we also found a "rent e-bike" lying on the ground as taking a nap.
In addition to all of these, we also encountered a considerable amount of human feces on the land, which we eventually spread to feed back into the soil community of the garden.
Encounering this traces made us remember about a time when we were first working on the locationa and a neighbour abruptly approached us questioning if we had been sleeping there since he heard noises thourghout the night. We explained him that we had been prunning a bit and showed him our gardening tools as proof of that. The behaviour and tone from the neighbour suggested us that there had been friction in the past between residents and people sleeping rough.
Someone sleeping at the garden posed quite a dilemma on us. But we were sure about one thing, we didn't want to involve any authority in dealing with this (we won't participate in homelessness criminalisation) and also, we didn't want to expose to an uncomfortable situation any participant/collaborator of the project nor the person/people who might have been using the land for sleeping.
To us, this situation is a very clear reminder that this garden is not only ours, and we never wanted it to be, as a public space in our city, the garden may serve the layered mulitiplicity of uses and interests of human and non-human agencies in the neighbourhood.
We reached out to our dear Four Siblings Collective for advice on the matter. They never had this situation on their land since they are quite outside the city area and there is almos nowhere to have privacy, it is like an open field. They also suggested to contact the "wijkagent" of Charlois, since they are not police but "a softer version for local and neibhourhood problems". They also suggested to contact the organisation We Are Here in case we met the person/people and they were to be refugees.
After giving it a lot of thought, we decided to let time pass and allow the garden to flow at its own rhythm.
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interview by Peter den Bok, photography by Arnoud Verhey - G was sadly away from Rotterdam, so only K as coverstar :)
On 3 October we met with Ilke Gers who with Rib made a fragrance garden in the park back in 2019. We wanted to learn from her about the process this took and to see if there were still traceable elements from this project in the garden today.
She documented the months working on project in a physical book which we have been looking over - this collected photos of the transformations of the garden, notes on the process, and written and drawn plans. We had already been looking over this in attempts to become better aware of different decisions/actions that the garden had experienced though we were interested to hear from Ilke herself. She explained that within her project she wanted to introduce different plant species to the garden that were attractive to insects, and also to clear up the area to make it attractive to people to use too. She cleaned a lot of rubbish away, and made a path through the area in preparation for plantings that were agreed upon in consultation with Cor van Gelderen from the nursery Plantentuin Esveld in Boskoop.
Sadly none of the plant species that were introduced survived to the present time - she noted that there was a large bush/tree that had been thriving, but that it was removed when the brick energy compound was built on the edge of the garden (along with all the other vegetation that was there). In the least it seemed that the path she developed was still the winding path that exists, her decisions on its meandering form holding up to today.
Given our recent experiences with someone possibly sleeping rough in the garden, we asked Ilke if she had witnessed anything similar whilst she worked there. She was quick to explain that it was also an occurrence then, and that she took the route of just working with and around these conditions, rather than seeking organisational or police assistance. We discussed our similar approaches, and about our joint sense that this is just a part of this place, one that should be respected and embraced rather than stigmatised or removed.
We went for a walk through the garden altogether and she seemed to enjoy seeing how the plants and trees had grown, what we had introduced into it, and of our plans and thoughts around the project more generally.
Hopefully we see her visit again soon :)
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| Ilke and her book :) |
