Hi there! Nice to have you here at Anna&rsquo;s Tuin en Ruigte. You currently find yourself in a very unique area of city nature, where there is much to learn about nature and its role in the city. Anna&rsquo;s Tuin en Ruigte can be literally translated to english as: Anna&rsquo;s Garden and Wilderness. As the name suggests, the area, on the one hand, consists of a garden where different forms of agriculture are experimented with. In the other part of Anna&rsquo;s, the wilderness, minimal intervention is been carried out whereby the area is mostly left alone to nature in favor of biodiversity. &nbsp; Anna&rsquo;s Tuin en Ruigte has a growing and diverse community consisting of students, local residents, &nbsp;and scientists who share their love for nature. Moreover the area functions as a &lsquo;living lab&rsquo; where nature in the city is experimented with. And last but not least, excursions, workshops, information boards and this audio tour serve to share knowledge about nature in the city with a wide audience. Let&rsquo;s start! During this tour you will enter the wonderful world of nature in the city. The tour will guide you along several spots in Anna&rsquo;s, who each have their own unique story to be told. Click on the number that matches the subject to listen to the corresponding audio. All the numbers can be found on the map.

(1.1) Introduction

The history of this area dates way back, starting before the year of sixteen twentynine, when this area was the bottom of the Diemerlake. That is why you are standing here, 5! meters below sea level. In1629 the reclamation of the Diemerlake developed this area into agricultural land, marked by its fertile soils. The name Anna&rsquo;s Tuin en Ruigte derives from a farmer girl named Anna that inherited the farm in 1850, that you can still see next to Anna&rsquo;s. The farm was named after Anna, called: the Annahoeve. From 1901, the Annahoeve was rented by the family Verschuur, however the fertility and beauty of this area, and the preservation of the old farm is owed to Anna. Therefore this area is named after her. In 1963 the farm became property of the municipality of Amsterdam, whereafter the university of Amsterdam settled in this area, which is now the Science Park of Amsterdam. In this time professor Kistemaker had his laboratory across the farm. The story is told that in the ditches around the laboratory frogs with more than 5 legs and 2 heads were found. It was thought that waste water discharge was the cause, however it could never be proved. Currently caf&eacute; the Polder is housed in the old Annahoeve.

(1.2) History

The kingfisher wall is located in the river bank behind the information board. To see this wall, you have to walk out of the garden past the food truck. The kingfisher can be recognized by its unmistakably blue and orange colored feathers. The kingfisher can often be found sitting upright on a low-hanging branch above the water, looking for fish. Contrary to what his name suggests, the kingfisher does not benefit from severe winters. Their main food source fish, is then unavailable for a long period due to a thick layer of ice. A loss of 80 to 95% of the population is no exception. In addition to sufficient food, breeding places can help. Steep bank walls or solid root clusters of fallen trees are suitable for digging nest holes. At the kingfisher wall in Anna's the shore has been chipped. By cutting the bank vertically or slightly overhanging, predators get less chance of coming to the nests. The spot that is cut off, preferably has some vegetation of trees or shrubs. This offers a shelter for newly fledged youngsters and the shade ensures that the banks remain vegetation free.

(3) The kingfisher wall

Anna&rsquo;s Tuin en Ruigte is divided in different parts. The part where you are standing right now is the polyculture garden. In this area a relatively high amount of human intervention is applied compared to the rest of the area. The further you go to the ruigte, or wilderness, the less human intervention is applied. This is all part of a permaculture plan of Anna&rsquo;s. Permaculture is a form of agriculture where local conditions, such as the local plants and cultural practices, are used to stimulate social and ecological sustainability. Moreover, each element in Anna&rsquo;s performs multiple functions. For example, the wood chips on the path have the function of making Anna&rsquo;s more accessible. Secondly by walking on the path, the chips decompose and can thereafter be used compost. Therefore, polyculture differs from a regular garden, since all elements in the garden have multiple functions. Secondly, a polyculture garden is different than a regular garden in that is contains a no ploughing policy. This way natural decomposition processes and biological activities can take place to make the soils more sustainable and fertile. Another interesting aspect of the garden are the piles of plant material on the beds. The piles put nutrients in the ground and the beds are raised to protect the plants from the high water level. Furthermore, the garden contains winter crops. The winter crops fix nutrients in the soil, protect the microorganisms against freezing and make the soil less compact by the root system. Hopefully the polyculture garden will provide an abundance of food in the spring and summer to make some wonderful dishes.

(9) Polyculture

From the sign that addresses point 19, you can see the snake breeding stack on the other side of the water. Despite that there is no clear path leading to the stack, it is possible to go here.These breeding stacks are made for grass snakes. The grass snake is a water-bound snake that mainly feeds on amphibians such as frogs. He can be recognized by his round pupils and the yellow ring behind his head. Plus, the grass snake is the largest snake in the Netherlands: females can grow up to 1 point 3 meters in size! Moreover he is not harmful and does not even bite when he is caught. However he does have defense mechanisms, such as playing dead and he can stink very badly.The grass snake mates in spring, when the first sunny days break through. Therefore they were a symbol for spring in pagan times. The females lay eggs in mid-June, early July and the nests can consist of 10 to 40 eggs. The grass snakes lay their eggs in decaying material, because during the process of decay heat is released. This heat is necessary for the development of the eggs.The breeding stacks, as they can be found here in Anna&rsquo;s, offer a breeding place for the grass snakes. They are made from manure, plant material and branches, forming the rotting stacks that rings snakes like. Breeding stacks like these, can best be built in mid-april, to serve as a nesting place.It is important that the stacks are not built later than April, since the temperature, just after construction, can go up to 100! degrees of Celsius. Later on during spring this temperature will drop to 25-30 degrees of Celsius. Otherwise it will be too hot for the eggs to develop properly. &nbsp;

(19.1) Artificial Snake Breeding Stacks

Humans and the grass snake have been living together for a long time. Therefore, Grass snakes have been found, during archaeological excavations of human structures that were build sixtousand years ago.The cultural landscape, or by humans adjusted landscapes, have made the Netherlands, and particularly the northwest, suitable as a habitat for grass snakes. Humans have changed the west of the Netherlands from a periodically flooded peat area into a polder with sweet water and farms that provide livestock dropping which are suitable to lay eggs in. The dikes, building structures and mounds provide dry wintering places that protect the grass snake against frost.The long coexisting of humans and grass snakes can be traced back in old stories. The grass snake was seen as a friendly housegod and was a symbol for spring, renewal, wisdom and protector of livestock. This was before the the christian faith gained momentum in the Netherlands. The snake was associated with renewal because grass snakes throw off their old skin a few times a year. Besides, grass snakes were seen as a symbol of wisdom because they never closes their eyes. Therefore they see everything that happens around them.Since the arrival of the Christian faith, the stories about the grass snake have become negative. They are described as dangerous basilisks while he can hardly harm humans. This is easy to explain. Consider, for example, the story of Adam and Eve in which the devil appears in the form of a snake.

(19.2) Human and the grass snake

On the ground in front of you you will find the insect hotel. An insect hotel provides a hiding place for insects, and is usually used for hibernation. Despite the general dislike of insects, they are of great worth for nature. Not only do they serve as food for birds (and there are many visiting Anna&rsquo;s); butterflies, flies, bees, bumblebees and beetles also pollinate plants, which wouldn't exist otherwise. Most of the guests of the insect hotel also help to fight off annoying insects such as plant lice. The hotel guests are mostly ladybugs, flies, solitary bees, wasps and bumblebees. Solitary bees bumblebees and wasps do not live within a hive with a queen so they spend the winter alone in the hotel. Of course, different insects also have different wishes and needs. For example, ladybugs prefer more dense materials and they mainly use the hotel to stay overnight. Bamboo sticks are especially suitable for solitary &nbsp;bees, bumblebees and wasps. They use the rooms to lay eggs and close the cavities with pollen. The baby bees then bite these cavities open again.

(12) Insect hotel

Anna&rsquo;s Tuin and Ruigte is a wet area where a lot of plant-material is produced. The wet aspect is very visible, you can see water everywhere you look. However, if you look closely you can distinguish two different waterways in Anna&rsquo;s Tuin en Ruigte. The first type of waterway is surrounding the whole area. This waterway is in contact with Watergraafsmeer and eventually the rest of Amsterdams water network. At Science Park, there is a pumping station that pumps this water into the Nieuwe Diep, from there on the water flows through the Amsterdam-Rijn Canal and via the Nord Sea Canal it discharges into the sea. Thus the nutrient rich city water always flows through these waterways past Anna&rsquo;s. The other waterway, the closed waterway is located in the middle of Anna&rsquo;s and is not in contact with the surrounding water network. But, if the water does not come from the city, where does this come from? To answer this question it is important to know that Anna&rsquo;s is located 5 meters below sea level and was once the bottom of a lake. Therefore the groundwater feeds the waterway. Besides, it rains a lot in the Netherlands. Thus the closed waterway is not fed by city water but by groundwater and rain. Moreover, because the different waterways are fed by different sources, the composition of the water differs and the plants and animals that live in it are different. Therefore it is very interesting to look what exactly the effect is of closing the waterway. That is why we are regularly fishing the different species out of the water to monitor these differences.

(13) Closed waterway

There are many small beer breweries and hobby brewers in Amsterdam. Since hops are no longer grown on a large scale in the Netherlands, brewers get their hops from far away, sometimes even from New Zealand. Because hops have a lot of pests and diseases as a crop, growers are often assigned to chemical pesticides to guarantee their harvest. Besides the fact that this is totally unsustainable, it is still questionable how much the pesticides ends up in the beer.That is why experiments are being carried out in Anna's tuin and Ruigte with different hop varieties. The hop plants are grown in a biological way, which means that they are not sprayed with pesticides. In addition, experiments are being carried out with a polyculture system, in which there is no plowing. Polyculture means that the hops are then jointly cultivated with other plants, also called "companion planting".At the end of the growing season, the quality and production of each hop plant will be tested in the laboratory and compared with commercial farmers from well-known hop production areas. Of course our hops will also be used to brew a beer. So for beer lovers who can not wait to taste this beer, keep an eye on the website for updates!

(14) Hops garden

A bank is the boundary between land and water, and offers a habitat for many different animals and plants. Some banks are very steep and have therefore limited space for plants and animals to settle.Imagine that you are a baby duck that makes his first swimming attempt with his brothers and sisters. Insecure of what will come, you jump from the steep bank into the water, where an exciting new world awaits to be discovered. After the long and tiring first swim, mother duck returns to the land, and with her powerful wings she climbs back on the steep bank. However, for you this is not that easy. With your little flippers you have the greatest difficulty.Steep banks are not suitable for young ducks, you can now probably imagine that steep banks are not so nature-friendly. In Anna's you will find nature-friendly banks everywhere. These are wide banks that gradually expire, leaving enough space for different types of plants and animals. Fortunately, landscape managers are also increasingly aware of this. And as a result you are increasingly seeing nature-friendly banks in the Dutch landscape.

(15) Nature-friendly banks

We hope you enjoyed your tour! The audiotour that you just listened to is a pilot project. Therefore, your feedback is very welcome for future improvements and to make the tour better suited for the audience. We would be very grateful if you could take 2 to 5 minutes to answer the following survey! For the survey <a title="Survey" href="https://goo.gl/forms/iRfvzX4algA9eYIn2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click here.&nbsp;</a>Thank you!And last but not least, we would like to give a big thank you to Jeroen Sch&uuml;tt, Ingo Janssen and Jaoa Lotufo for their great input!

The End

You are about to listen to an audiotour about an interesting nature area at Science Park Amsterdam.&nbsp;&nbsp;The sections of the tour are numbered corresponding to the numbers the sections have on the map of Anna's Tuin en Ruigte. This map can be found in the introduction.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Amsterdam

Anna's Tuin en Ruigte

Overview:

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