The Amazing Mengelmoestuin

Jan 22, 2024
Posted by: Monique Parker

                                     

 

Last year in September, I visited the magical Mengelmoestuin, along a dyke between Bergambacht and Ammerstol, in the Netherlands.

I found out about this amazing place through Facebook, and I started following them.
When I was writing my book ‘Conversations on the Lost Connection with Nature’ and was looking for interesting people with a strong connection with nature, I decided to ask Mariel if she would be interested to collaborate. Luckily for me, she said “yes”. Mariel was the first of my ‘foreign’ collaborators and it was a pleasure to work with her.

Mariel and her partner Gerbrand’s story is an interesting one.
They are the owners and guardians of the ‘Mengelmoestuin’, an organic, biodynamic garden.

They have always been looking for a more conscious, balanced, and relaxed lifestyle, and this is how the idea was born to try and be as self-sufficient as possible and live off their garden.

In 2000 Mariel and Gerbrand sold their house and belongings to travel wherever the wind would take them, nothing was pre-planned. They travelled to the Middle East, Asia, and Bali.

 After 2 ½ years of travelling, they arrived home with the idea that they should be doing whatever is closest to their heart, preferably together, and in close harmony with the cosmos.

They created a garden on a piece of wasteland until Mariel became ill and had to be treated for cancer. Being outdoors and working in nature had a healing effect on her, so by the end of 2006 they decided to buy a plot of land and continue their ‘Mengelmoestuin’ garden.

Mariel had done various herb workshops and she embarked on a herbal medicine course. She loves working with the native herbs that grow in her direct environment. After all, what people need, always grows near them. That is how nature works. Gerbrand retrained as a horticulturist.

Their garden is first and foremost meant to feed them and be self-sufficient, but they also like to share with others. They are regularly selling produce, but as the ‘Mengelmoestuin’ is a non-profit, private garden, the income is all invested back into the project.

 

 

So, when I was travelling to the Netherlands last year to visit family and friends, I combined it with a visit to the Mengelmoestuin. A great opportunity to present Mariel with the book that just had been published and to see what this garden is all about.

It happened to be glorious weather, so before getting the tour, we sat down in the garden for a cup of home-grown herbal tea and some home-baked cookies. It is truly a haven, green and peaceful.

After the refreshments, we toured around the garden, in awe of what we saw. To my husband’s delight, there were honeybees. He is a very enthusiastic beekeeper who is always on the look out for bees and beekeepers when he is abroad.

Here are a few impressions of the garden.

 

                                              

 

     

                                       

 

 

                                                         

 

 

In the herb garden you’ll find comfrey, dill, yarrow, St John's wort, laurel, agrimony, sage, lungwort, valerian, calendula, angelica, mallow, lavender etc.

All over the garden there is wild growing ground-ivy, hops, dandelions, daisies, nettles, birch, hawthorns, elder and much more.

You can find chickens, roosters, guineafowl and ducks in the garden, all happily snacking on insects and weeds.

But the Mengelmoestuin is not just a garden. There is also a small shop (and a webshop), where Mariel sells the products she makes with what grows in the garden. For example, the 300 different varieties of fruit trees produce fruits for jams and cordials.

They also sell their produce at markets and fairs during the season. Vinegars, chutneys, herbal teas, incense, lotions and potions etc.

Every Thursday morning from 10.30am till 12.00 there is an opportunity to volunteer in the garden. A great chance to spend time outdoors and do something different.

Every Friday afternoon during the season, the garden is open from 12.00 till 5pm for a walk around and a cup of herbal tea.

It truly is a magical place, where two special human beings work with Nature, not against it!

 

                                                                

                    

                                                        

 

The Mengelmoestuin is a biodynamic garden.
Organic, agro-ecological, and biodynamic farming are quite similar, but there is an area where biodynamics is different:  the observation of the Earth’s rhythms and the cosmos.
For example, the movements of the sun, moon and the planets are studied to decide when the best time is to grow and harvest.

The growth of plants is affected by the forces and impulses originating from the different zodiac signs. Whenever the moon goes through a certain zodiac sign there is a positive effect on the plant types that respond to this sign. There are four groups of plants that each respond to three zodiac signs: root plants, leaf plants, blossom plants and fruit plants.

To keep track on what needs doing and when, biodynamic farmers and gardeners use the biodynamic calendar, that was originally introduced by Maria Thun, a farmer in Germany.

If you would meet Mariel and ask her what she is up to today, you could get an answer like “today it is still root day so I can sow the carrots or Wednesday and Thursday I can harvest the elderflowers”.

If you are interested in the biodynamic principles of gardening, a very useful book is The Biodynamic Year by Maria Thun, with 100 helpful tips for the gardener or smallholder (published by Temple Lodge).


 

                                                                                 

 

 

To find out more about the Mengelmoestuin:

If you’re a Dutch speaker, this is the website https://demengelmoestuin.nl/

Instagram @mengelmoestuin (even though it is in Dutch, seeing the pictures is a delight in itself)

Facebook @De Mengelmoestuin