“Guts and Glory”
“We take our mission very seriously! Compost is the basic building block of our Secret Garden, we absolutely insist the plants grow in healthy soil.”
It’s a down and dirty business composting Bloemgracht’s Secret Garden.
A well-designed micro-garden should be extremely productive, colourful and as flamboyant as our Secret Gardeners. To become a sanctuary for flora and fauna, this small urban space has big boxes to tick. It has to be low-maintenance, sustainable, economical, chemical-free, and also eco-friendly.
Do our Secret Gardeners have the ‘guts and glory’ to rise to a mighty community challenge, or risk being dunked in the canal by fellow neighbours? The odds greatly improved after a quick flick through “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Composting” manual by a thrifty green-fingered expert.
A big pile of dirt and weeds earmarked for the Secret Garden requires careful relocation logistics. A brainstorming session at Café Chris HQ results in the emboldened beer bribery of a local, to borrow his bicycle trailer. Time to squeeze in another round before a chaotic cart dash along the Bloemgracht.
Forgetfulness is an everyday Amsterdam trait in a city with more bicycles than people, amidst the tag team confusion one of our Secret Gardeners can’t remember where his bicycle is parked. It’s now a toe-tripping race against the clock, to bag the compost and return the cart before last rounds at Café Chris.
A trail of mud and dirt is left in the wake of our stampeding Secret Gardeners as cartloads of green waste is tipped onto the Secret Garden. Cars with passengers stop to admire their supreme feat, “I’ve never seen people work harder for something so small. I would never have noticed the garden if that cart wasn’t blocking the street” says one driver.
Our Secret Gardeners are achieving big things, it’s a magnificent effort of blood, sweat and swearing!
