Quan looked at his garden and saw that everything had to change

It was mainly the distances that Quan Le (44) had to get used to. In his old apartment in Rotterdam he had everything at hand: toilet, kitchen, living room, French balcony. But here, in the new house in Putten, he even has to go out for the newspaper: every morning a trip through the yard, past the two cars, the pots of hydrangeas and geraniums and the small forest, to finally find the newspaper at the gate to get out of the mailbox. And then he has to go back.

But a deal is a deal. He went to work in the hospital in Harderwijk, she went with him on the condition that she could keep her two horses at home. And so, nine years ago, Quan and his girlfriend bought a detached house surrounded by a garden of approximately 18,000 m2, with its own meadow, forest, garden house and stables for the horses.

Cleaned up

In the beginning Quan wanted to have that large garden cleaned up, just like the neighbors. With a brushcutter he mowed the young shoots in the forest and in the autumn he could blow leaves for days. He flattened the neglected pasture on the north side of their yard and then plowed it over and created a sleek green grassy meadow.

The garden responded in its own way to the efforts of its new manager

The garden responded in its own way to the efforts of its new manager. The day after blowing the leaves, there was always a fresh load of leaves ready for Quan and in the small forest, after such a large mowing, extra shoots appeared. The horses, eager to eat that fresh green grass, grew fat and their hooves hurt.

Quan looked at his garden and saw that things had to change. He bought books, scoured the internet and gradually learned about natural gardening. As a result, Quan now mostly leaves things alone. The shoots in the small forest, the mushrooms, the nettles: he leaves it all alone. Even the trees that are currently dying from the drought: they lie in pieces on the ground to digest. In the fall, Quan still blows with the leaf blower, but only those leaves that are on the gravel and the parking lot. And the pasture, which Quan wanted to have such a smooth green, is now full of sorrel, buttercup and cleavers, so that the horses get a varied meal.

good foot

Only a robotic lawnmower does its job faithfully every day to maintain the lawn around the house. But here, too, the mower maintains eight to ten centimeters, long enough to protect clover, plantain and daisy. The overgrown part that lies behind the garden house is completely spared. The grass is knee high and has shoots of oak, hazel, hibiscus and cherry growing in it. The soil remains moist despite the warm weather.

Quan and his garden are on good terms again. Every day, before going to work, he strolls around the yard with his dogs and then opens the gate for a long walk across the moor.