NL: The rise of the vegetable garden greenhouse: “Enough empty greenhouses”

“There may be plenty of empty greenhouses, but you can’t just start anywhere at the end of another grower’s lane.” That’s what Jim Smits from Moestuin Westland, one of the companies offering vegetable gardens under glass in Westland, told AD. The initiative in an old half-hectare greenhouse in ‘s-Gravenzande started last summer.

In the newspaper, Jim points out that good accessibility is important, as well as parking facilities, and it’s very convenient that the greenhouse is located next to Carlton Garden Center. They have ‘all the plants you need’.

Jim, who had been toying with the idea for a while, follows a grower who has retired. Moestuin Westland is one of six locations in Westland where glasshouse vegetable gardeners can go. Moestuin Eigen Spijs was the first in 2019. The concept is also catching on outside the region, with projects in Almere, Houten, Horst, and Dalfsen, among others.

The local political party Westland Verstandig applauds the idea. The party has submitted a motion calling for a ‘generous policy’ on a temporary exemption from a horticultural destination for the use of greenhouses as vegetable gardens. This motion will be discussed next month.

Westland Verstandig has also recently repeatedly called for an investigation into the status of the greenhouses in Westland. Is all the (outdated) acreage really still needed, the party of Peter Duijsens wonders.

A glimpse inside the greenhouse at Moestuin Westland