Fieldclub #2: The Nursery, how to grow a tree 

The Nursery

After a successful edition in January 2023, the Independent School for the City and MacGuffiin joined forces again to organise another fieldclub!  And for this edition, we expanded the collaboration even further by teaming up with Pleasant Place - a growing collection of publications about the art of gardening.

Fieldclub #2 took us into the wilderness of the cultivated landscape. Under the name The Nursery, we explored Boskoop—an intricate patchwork of tree and shrub nurseries, canals, and greenhouses that has been shaping landscapes across the world for centuries. Here, in a landscape of regimented nature, the tension between craft and industry, ecology and economy, tradition and innovation plays out in real time.

Boskoop is not just a place, but a system. It is a test site for survival strategies: some nurseries go big, expanding across the globe; others go niche, reinventing old techniques. Some embrace the cultural landscape and its biodiversity, while others rely on large-scale cultivation. But all of them must negotiate the same shifting ground—tightening environmental regulations, changing climate conditions, and an evolving cultural perception of what a landscape should be.

What does it mean to be ‘biological’ or ‘ecological’ in this world? What will survive, and what should be left behind? And what happens when a nursery stops cultivating and lets itself be reclaimed by nature?

We visited four nurseries and one experimental garden, each offering a different take on production, landscape, and survival. The aim was to collectively observe, to ask questions, to weave together the stories of survival and adaption. To step into a landscape where nature is both controlled and uncontrollable, shaped by the hands of the grower and the forces of time.

Fieldclub Programme

09:15 Meeting at Independent School for the City (Robert Fruinstraat 52)

09:30 Departure by bus to Boskoop. Presentation by Marjolein van der Loo in the bus.

10:00 - 11:00 Esveld | A living archive
At the Esveld nursery, centuries of plant cultivation have accumulated into a unique landscape experience. Home to an Aceretum (Japanese maple garden) and countless rare species, this family-run business experiments with the boundaries between organic and ecological cultivation. Presentation by Cor van Gelderen

11:15 - 13:00 Booy Nursery – Het Groene Huis | The cultivated wilderness
At Fred Booy’s nursery, the cultivated and the wild intertwine. A family-run business for generations, the land has gradually been allowed to rewild, creating a space where 100% ecological cultivation coexists with a near-forgotten landscape of peat and water. Presentation by Fred Booys.

13:15 - 14:15 lunch at Plantentuin Esveld
Presentation by Lou-Lou van Staaveren about Pleasant Place.

14:30-15:30 Kwekerij Bulk | to be confirmed

15:45-16:30 Hoogeveen Plants | The factory of the future
One of the largest players in the industry, Hoogeveen Plants aims to become “the world’s leading plant producer.” A multinational operation, their Boskoop branch specialises in large-scale organic production, tackling issues such as peat reduction and biodiversity within the framework of industrial agriculture. Presentation by Bob Hoogerdijk 

16:30 - 17:30 Return to Independent School for the City by Bus