Everything you need to know about crowdsourcing project De Wilde Tuin

About the project

What is The Wild Garden?
De Wilde Tuin is a crowdsourcing project of NRC and Tilburg University. During four seasons, in collaboration with the participants, we will investigate what happens in your garden if you let part (one square meter) of it become wild. We ask the participants to report on findings in their overgrown piece of garden and to do tests to learn more about the soil in their garden and the soil life.

We also investigate the social aspect: what happens to the participants (does their attitude towards nature change) and do they get reactions from their neighbors to their ‘rewilded’ garden? We do this on the basis of surveys.

Why are you doing it in collaboration with Tilburg University?
The initiative lay with Ben Vollaard. He is now an associate professor at Tilburg University and a former editor of NRC. For NRC it is the first time that we are doing crowdsourcing on this scale, so for the editors it is an experiment.

What happens with my data?
Information such as e-mail addresses, addresses and other personal data will only be used for the benefit of the project, if you have given permission for this. We share the data from the survey with Tilburg University. Their privacy statement can be found here†

Where can I find more information about the project?
The landing page nrc.nl/dewildetuin contains all information about the project and related themes. You can also sign up for the newsletter there.

Participation

How can I participate in The Wild Garden?
Registration goes through this survey† We also ask you to sign up for the monthly newsletter in which we keep all participants informed about the findings of our participants and the productions that our editors make on themes such as biodiversity, nature experience and rewilding.

Even if you are not a subscriber to NRC, you can participate in the project.

How do I start?
Here you will find a step-by-step plan of what you need to do to create a wild garden.

1. Mark a square meter in your garden with a few sticks and a piece of string. This does not have to be a square, all shapes are possible (a small bed along the side of the garden for example) as long as the surface is only about one square meter. The location in the garden does not matter much, but in a sunny or partly sunny spot more will happen than in a shaded spot.
2. Clear the area of ​​tiles or other items. Do you have standard tiles in your garden of 30 cm by 30 cm? Then remove nine tiles.
3. If there is sand under the tiles, throw a little compost or soil on the patch and turn the soil. This is how organisms are spread in the earth. If you allow part of your lawn to naturalize, marking is sufficient.

Can I also participate if I have a balcony?
Secure! You can also get started with a large container of soil on your balcony. Keep in mind that you need to water occasionally and don’t just use soil from a bag, because there are few organisms in it. Here you will find the step-by-step plan:

1. Take a container with a surface of one square meter. Make holes at the bottom for drainage.
2. Use soil you already have and top it up with a shovel from a bedding or park. This is to add some more organisms to the soil.
3. Keep in mind that when the tank is sheltered, you should occasionally throw water on it. For example when it rains.

I have a question that isn’t here. Where can I go?
Mail to [email protected].