The Dutch competition to green gardens and streets
A great way to bring green to our towns and cities
Tile whipping
Tomorrow, our regular list of garden jobs to do and not to do will be out, but I just had to tell you about this great idea that takes place in the Netherlands. Following my post on the Bergamo landscape festival here, our fellow Gardening Mind Linda has directed me to the brilliant Dutch initiative of Tile Whipping which was featured in this week’s Positive News. Here’s a summary:
2024 marks the running of the fourth annual Tegelwippen competition – which translates literally as ‘tile whipping’ – where towns compete to replace as many paving slabs as possible with the aim of greening up gardens and public spaces. More than ELEVEN MILLION tiles have been removed since 2021, replacing hundreds of acres - equivalent to 200 football pitches - of grey concrete with trees, grass, vegetable gardens and flower beds.
The idea is that you lift the slabs and replace 30cm of whatever is underneath with good soil/compost. And get this - the slabs are taken away for free by ‘tile taxis’ provided by the local authorities.
The removal of other hard surfaces like concrete, tarmac and gravel also counts towards the final tile whipping tally, with the winning town bagging the coveted ‘Golden Tile’ award. During the campaign, if you remove at least one square metre of paving from your front or back garden, you get a gift.
Not everyone is strong enough to heave concrete from their back garden to the kerbside collection points, so locals all muck in to assist the less able-bodied. Tile whippers submit photos of their transformed spaces, and each month judges select the best, awarding the title ‘Whipper of the Month’.
The competition is for both private and public spaces: neighbours join forces to create ‘facade gardens’ – another initiative which encourages people to create buffer zones of greenery between the street and their homes by removing sections of pavement.
Facade gardens help keep homes and urban spaces cool in the summer heat, and absorb runoff in increasingly heavy spells of rain. Rotterdam holds the record for the longest such facade garden, at 140m - in the Netherlands - there’s a whole manual here.
It’s all above board - checks are made to ensure these amends don’t interfere with accessibility. In many Dutch towns it’s simply a matter of informing the local authority, and in some cases they’ll even come and help, and sometimes they’ll even do the job for you.
Isn’t this BRILLIANT?
Paid subscribers, I’ll be back tomorrow with that essential list of what to do in your garden right now.
The NL is definitely a trailblazer on this, reading about their facade gardens inspired me to launch something in our community in Brussels. However, it’s difficult here with much fragmentation of govt. bodies to be able to rip up the pavements. Although, I have come across a non profit called Less béton which helps projects in the community to remove concrete jungles. But I love the idea of a competition to rip up tiles! Thanks Linda and Jo for sharing. I received good news today that our street planting project is receiving funding 😊. Next on my list is to get some concrete replaced with plants 🌱
how fantastic is this???