De Ommuurde Tuin

De Ommuurde Tuin is an organic market garden of one hectare in the walled former kitchen garden of King Willem III between Renkum and Wageningen, where growers have raised more than 450 varieties of vegetables, fruit, herbs and edible flowers since 1999.

The garden is worked mostly by hand on permanent beds that are never ploughed, with crop rotation, green manures and their own bokashi compost; no animal manure is used, only plant-based fertiliser, and no pesticides or artificial fertiliser. Old varieties are grown with the CGN seed bank, part of the seed is saved, and the hedgerows are planted with edible shrubs and trees. The garden is certified organic (SKAL); we found it in the register.

Most of the harvest goes to about 90 weekly boxes for members of the CSA, at least 30 boxes from April to mid-December, at a solidarity price; members also pick their own herbs and strawberries. Boxes are collected at the garden on Wednesday or Saturday, in Wageningen on Tuesday evening, or delivered by bike courier. From April to October the garden shop opens on Wednesday, Saturday and the first Sunday of the month from 10:00 to 17:00, selling unpackaged produce, their own jam, herbal tea and sauerkraut, and pick-your-own berries.

The soil, worn out by decades of Christmas-tree growing before 1999, has been built back from under 1% to 8% organic matter, very high for sandy ground.