Tuinhuis garden

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The tuinhuis or ‘garden house’ (shown in the fifth slide above)  is a small cafe on the grounds of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The surrounding garden was a very pretty place to rest after a long ramble around parts of the city center and the Museumplein, during a one-day travel stopover last week.

About half the area is composed of wide gravel paths around a simple boxwood parterre — which is filled with cottage annuals like variegated nasturtium and lime green flowering tobacco.

On the other side, white marble (I think) outlines the narrow planting beds.  Currently, you can see a free exhibition of Calder sculptures in the garden, as well.

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Vondelpark sandbox

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I really like this elegant sandbox/labyrinth arrangement in a corner of Amsterdam’s Vondelpark (spotted during a recent 24-hour stopover in the city).

I think the hedges are hornbeam supported from within by wires and posts.

There’s a brief history of the sandbox here, in the blog Playscapes.

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