Open Tuinen Dagen 2013 Amsterdam Open Gardens

A Perfect Perch

LIZ SAYS: And stroll outside and into the 2013 Open Garden(s) of Amsterdam tour.

Never mind the train ride and all that.

The tall, thin facades facing the narrow cobbled streets of Amsterdam hide secret little pads of green, oasis's of calm and quiet, usually accessible only to those with a house key. This particular weekend, however, every gardener and gardener wannabe was out and about shuffling through the cool, wet city hide aways. 

The Open Tuinen Dagen was held over a weekend in June. It was planned out pretty well, with the ticket being a souvenir booklet, that was stamped or marked with scribble, at every garden you went to along the way. 

It was also easy to recognize the hoards as they came towards and consequently along with you, green book in hand to gardens 1-20.

It was a disorienting way to visit the lovely little gardens. Well, little compared to Paris. 

We were often filing through fairly small hallways and stone steps to sometimes fairly small urban spaces. Most of the lovely, cool, soothing spaces reminded most of the visions I, as a urban gardener in Madison used to imagine my garden would eventually look like. The perfectly placed and trimmed japanese maples that managed to survive the winter turned me absolutely green. But of course, they had the exact conditions that were mentioned on the label of our $125 investment in Madison. I wonder if that little burgundy japanese maple is even alive now, 5 years later. The winter wind in a enclosed garden in Amsterdam is pretty cushy compared to the wind and snow and sleet  our poor little tree had to face in the American midwest. 

Anyway, prompted by the crowded conditions of the strolling tour, my mind started to wander. I mean, what would it be like to be in this garden with out the crowd. 

To be higher up, to be, on a perch, above, in the perfect place. I rolled my eyes upward whilst being sandwiched in, uncomfortably close, to group of ladies, who all knew each other and kept turning around to stop and chat.

And there it was, a little chair at a table dressed with flowers, all of the windows of the perfect little ariel niche were thrown open. 

Almost all of the gardens we visited had perches, some fortunate enough to be close to the property, but not actually located on it. Balconies in modern high rise type apartments interspaced with the more ornate balconies of the tall, thin, wonky 16th century Amsterdam all with a little perch over the cool and quiet green.