This group meets from Monday to Thursday and also on Saturdays, led by Franke van der Laan. The location will vary depending on the weather and when attention is needed with any of the active projects. We will communicate in advance via What’s app indicating where and when we can meet.

On March 1, 2023 we started transforming this old monoculture field into an ecological paradise; more green, color and biodiversity.

There is always activity here during the week and the core group meets on Saturdays from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to participate every day.

Together with the residents of Lincoln Park and other surrounding neighborhoods, we create a communal garden with value for people and nature. We do this by facilitating and organizing:  Practical ‘hands-on’ working days, Educational programs, Workshops and events.

The Lincolnpark community garden has a lot of potential and we have all kinds of great plans for this project. Moreover, it will be created together with both the municipality and local residents, so that it becomes a place of value for many.

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Started in 2024, we are developing a 3-hectare site in collaboration with SADC, located along the Rijnlanderweg near the C-Beta sustainability center in Hoofddorp, which is also home to the Haarlemmermeer sustainability center NMCX. This pilot project aims to transform the area surrounding the co-working space into a vibrant climate forest, complemented by a vertical garden, flower meadows, and a vegetable garden. Our vision includes gradually expanding these green spaces around Schiphol, enhancing the environment for nature, insects, and soil health, while providing a serene escape for everyone to enjoy the blossoming greenery during their lunch breaks. For more information, please reach out to Franke van der Laan at Stichting MEERGroen.

In a greenhouse in Rijsenhout, in a former hydrangea nursery, we have been creating an ecological jungle since 2019! Together with the owner of the location, the greenhouse is being transformed from a place where pesticides were previously used into a now healthy green oasis, for people and nature. Every year we see biodiversity increasing, insects returning, birds, and the ecological balance recovering. The core activity is the vegetable garden; A wide variety of vegetables, fruits and herbs are grown between March and November. The produce is available for our volunteers who help and is sold in our MEERGroente shop and to local restaurants.

The greenhouse in Rijsenhout is a beautiful place and nice space to be, quiet and serene. There is also a tea garden with catering facilities, and is ideal for events and company days/team days. This project is the place where we can work when the weather is bad, also known as our ‘bad weather location’, because you work indoors, dry and a few degrees warmer.

We will be departing from Park 2020 in phases after a fulfilling 12 years in which we have significantly enhanced the area’s biodiversity and ecological value. Our presence has not only provided a beautiful green setting but also offered a peaceful walking space for local workers during their lunch breaks. As construction is set to begin soon, we will be moving on, but a small green section will remain, so it’s not a complete farewell.

This garden is cared for by a number of volunteers from the Oude Buurtje in Hoofddorp. The neighborhood youth and the neighborhood association are also regularly involved in activities in this garden (sowing, harvesting, guided tours). The garden consists of the old Dr. Nanninga open-air swimming pool of 2000 m2, which functioned from 1935 to approximately 1976, half of which has been developed into nature and half is used for vegetable cultivation. At the same time, this management preserves a piece of cultural-historical heritage.

Work day: Sunday

Contact person: Franke van der Laan

As a result of the vegetable deliveries from Park 2020 to Restaurant Den Burgh, the restaurant decided in February 2018 to establish its own vegetable garden, apiary, and flower meadow. The 600 square meter garden was completed in record time that same year, and collaboration during the growing season has continually improved. Six chefs and kitchen staff regularly engage in gardening activities, and we contribute one afternoon each week. The restaurant employs efficient cultivation techniques, with some sections resown three to four times within a single season, leading to processed harvests.

Contact person Franke van der Laan can be reached at info@stichtingmeergroen.nl.

Houtwijkerveld is a neighborhood project in the Houtwijkerveld district that has managed approximately 2 hectares of neighborhood garden and forest park since 2011. Approximately 5-10 local residents are regularly involved in the 5-6 working days per year and other local residents are less regularly involved.

The organizing core group is formed by Family v/d Pol, Family Arends in collaboration with Franke van der Laan. Over the years, a lot of meadow and forest management has been done, an orchard has been created, a play area with sandbox and area for younger and older children, a wadi with special plants, an amphibian pool and spring bulbs have been planted in the forest that keep growing. 

Contactpersoon: Franke van der Laan

In 2018, we started to manage the Jansonius nature strip for the Hospice Bardo. A small working group has been formed, which meets to work on the 2nd Saturday of the month, supplemented with companies and interns. The strip of approximately 1 ha consists of a large amphibian pool of 2000 m2, 4 species of flower meadows, a patch of swamp and fruit bushes and trees.

Work day: mostly on the 2nd Saturday of the month.

Contact person: Franke van der Laan

More than 10 years ago we started a fruit park here, in collaboration with the municipality. We created fruit circles in the lawn with trees and shrubs, where the neighborhood can pick raspberries and currants, among other things. This has expanded over the years, including an orchard with apple trees. It is also a colorful sea of ​​flowers for many months of the year! So double enjoyment. We maintain this by, among other things, weeding, pruning, extra feeding of trees, and additional planting and sowing. We also collect flower seeds there for use elsewhere.

Contact person: Franke van der Laan

The Stenenveld (near Bornholm and the bus lane to Haarlem) has a biotope that is unique for the Haarlemmermeer. During construction by the municipality, a large root cloth was laid here, with a layer of natural stone on top. This offers potential for all kinds of succulents, ferns and herbs that are otherwise very rare on clay soil. It also provides a habitat for amphibians and reptiles.

We took over managing this site in August 2018. At that time the site was overgrown with brambles, reeds and overgrown shrubs and trees. We never get rid of the reeds and blackberries completely, so we reduce them to a minimum so that they do not get in the way of the desired species. As for unwanted shrubs and trees, we are making more and more progress towards removing them permanently. This is thanks to the municipality, which enabled us to have a contractor pull out the largest specimens with a crane. There were spectacular roots! Since then, we have been catching up with nature and have managed to manually remove the last unwanted shrubs and trees. Now we are increasingly getting around to enriching the site with the species that belong in the biotope.

Volunteers can:
– Remove unwanted species (blackberries, reeds, thistles, red dogwood, willows, excessive grass)
– Remove larger shrubs and trees (a real workout!)

Special biotope, including broad wasp orchid, painter’s sorrow, tongue fern and Japanese walnut tree.

Contact person: Franke van der Laan

The Heemstede working group was first launched in 2013. The first project at the request of then councilor Botter was Speelbos Meermond: A landfill that fell into disuse in 1975, which was transformed into a natural playground, wrapped in clean soil.

The first volunteer signed up in 2013. The group now consists of 15-20 active members who work every Friday. In 2015, the overdue maintenance at Meermond was so under control that a second project could be added: Groenendaal Estate (90 ha). Since 2015, work in both projects has been carried out every 14 days, as far as the work in Meermond allows. Meermond has now been enriched with a flower meadow, an orchard (90 trees and shrubs), a witch’s path and a breeding kingfisher.

In Groenendaal the focus is on reducing maple seedlings to better enhance the monumental oak, beech and linden. Approximately 45 hectares have now been cleared of seedlings (root and all). In 2016 we started to fill the vacant space with stinsenbulbs (already approximately 400,000).

The Sorghbosch in Heemstede is a 6 ha. large former estate housing three facilities for the elderly from 3 owners: Kennemeroord, Kennemerduin and Nieuw Overbos. Little attention has been paid to the forest in recent years and together with the municipality and the owners we are working on a management plan and contract. This is not happening quickly, but it is progressing steadily. In the meantime, work has been going on off and on since 2017. Once it has been arranged, the intention is to have a permanent volunteer group that will work weekly.

Contact person: Franke van der Laan

Nature work does not only consist of weeding and digging. You can help biodiversity in many ways and convey its importance to people. Furthermore, the weather outside is not always optimal, so for continuity it is always good if there are plan B activities. In our case, these mainly consist of recycling wood in the form of insect hotels, nest boxes, bat boxes, kestrel, owl and peregrine falcon boxes, hedgehog boxes, kingfisher walls and whatnot. Since 2019 we have had a special building for this on Meijerslaan. in Heemstede. Maintenance of tools is also done by this group and especially by Adri Huibers.

Contact person: Franke van der Laan

In 2017, Heemsteed municipal policy made plans to create a new flower meadow every year. One of these flower meadows has become the one on Kohnstamlaan, measuring 3000 m2. MeerGroen has been involved in the design and management of the flower meadows since 2018. Haymaking and milling are done mechanically and during the season the unwanted herbs are weeded manually, partly by permanent meerGroen volunteers, partly by local residents, who are organized through a neighborhood app group. The flower meadows in Heemstede are located here:  Slot Heemstede, Kohnstammlaan, Cruquisweg, Blekersvaartweg

• Visible biodiversity
• Organic seed
• Reclaiming seed

Contact person: Franke van der Laan

De Horsten district park
This was previously the old Menneweg garbage dump and is now being transformed by the MEERGroen teams into a beautiful colourful nature friendly environment.

Work day: 1x per month on a Saturday or Thursday

Contact person: Franke van der Laan