The three city gardens in bloom
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Mien Ruys Gardens, Buro Mien Ruys designed three city gardens that have become an integral part of these unique gardens in Dedemsvaart. A true honor for our designers and a true asset to the many visitors who come here to find inspiration. Two landscape designers and a landscape architect each created a design for a modern city garden measuring 5x7 meters.
Modern city gardens
In 2023, three designers from Buro Mien Ruys designed a 5 x 7 meter urban garden. Completely different, yet sharing a common principle: they must be green and sustainable. Aesthetics also play a key role, as a garden design should, above all, be timelessly beautiful and inspire creative inspiration. These criteria were elaborated differently in each garden. Three designs for a modern urban garden that meets Mien Ruys' vision but also today's demands: sustainable and suitable for various target groups.
The three city gardens were created and designed to inspire small backyards. They are modern versions of the 1960 City Garden and are designed for different target groups: a family with young children, an easy-to-maintain garden, and a garden for nature lovers with vegetables, fruit, and native plants. With these three completely different designs, the designers at Buro Mien Ruys demonstrate that even a small garden can be green and sustainable. This is how the Gardens continue to evolve.
The three city gardens are located in the newest part of the Gardens:
- Colorful children's garden – Evy Blom
- Minimalist wadi garden – Ward Maaswinkel
- Indigenous Eco-Garden – Ilona Dekker
The three city gardens in bloom
The gardens were laid out in February 2024 and celebrated their grand opening in June of that same year. They have now been in bloom for several seasons in a beautiful spot in the Mien Ruys Gardens. The place where Mien Ruys experimented with garden design and planting a hundred years ago. Her entire life was dedicated to streamlined design and excellent planting, something our landscape architects and designers work on daily.
About Gardens Mien Ruys
When Mien Ruys conducted her first planting experiment in 1924 in the shade of the fruit trees in her parents' orchard, she could not have imagined that this experiment would be followed by many others, and that all these experiments would grow into a complex of some 2.5 hectares! For seventy years, Mien Ruys experimented here, and some of these experimental gardens are now designated national monuments, while others are municipal monuments. After her death in 1999, the experimentation continued, by designers from Buro Mien Ruys and by others. Testing new materials and plant combinations was always central to her work, with the aim of learning from them and displaying and sharing these experiences.
