A little bit of History ...
At the beginning of the Gardening club, around 1973, there were 20 members. The gardens were situated at place of the actual tennis courts. A bit later (1975?) the gardens were moved where Escape is. Despite the larger number of gardens, there was still in 1980 a waiting list of almost 20 people, going only slowly down to 17 in 1982.
After the move in the new site in 1987, there were more than 70 members. 72 plots (100 m² each) were created, from which only 51 remain at this date.
Nine plots were removed for the boiler house in 1989/90, replaced by 14 new plots on the south.
Later on, those 14 plots disappeared again (where the container park is), as well as a row of plots on the west of gardens 5 to 10 and 41 to 43 (actual numbers), then a series of plots truncated or taken out (21/2 gardens) on the south east corner for the battery building.
Our oldest member is Hans P., member since almost the beginning (around 1975) and Hildegard B. (before 1985), then Françoise P. (1986).
After a very popular period, near to 90 members, the membership dropped to 67 (May 2017). Professional workload seems to be the main reason of it.
From a club with mainly Dutch members and a few British ones more than 35 years ago, the club had evolved to a truly international one, including more than 15 nationalities.
Each plot of 100 m² is identified by a number (from #5 till #78). Depending on the needs, these 100 m² plots are further divided into 4 pieces, using the four cardinal points (east, west, north and south). For example, there is a plot identified as 6SE.
With regard to the main paths, they are also identified by a letter (from A to G) and a number. The objective of this numbering is to allocate a piece of path to each club member, for maintenance reasons. Some paths within the plots of 100 m ² are to be maintained also, and they are identified by the letter H.
You can find a map of the gardens in our Documents folder, showing all the plots and paths. The name of the document is Map Gardens.
It is also displayed on the club hut’s door.