Ilke Gers comes to visit :)

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 :)

Ilke and her book :)