Herb garden

The herb garden was created in 1927. Throughout the garden you will find small information boards that allow you to see straight away what each plant is and what it was once used for. If you would like to know more, the head gardener will be happy to help you. A selection of plants for blind and visually impaired visitors to touch has been planted in front of the herbarium. The names of these plants can be read on braille boards.

1. Dye garden

In the past all kinds of plants were used to dye material. Indigo, for example, was used for the colour blue and madder for the colour red. Marigold was used to dye different foodstuffs yellow and pokeweed berries were employed to enhance the colour of red wine. The dye garden is divided up according to colour.

2. Kitchen garden

The kitchen garden contains herbs and vegetables that were used for culinary purposes as far back as the Middle Ages. From the 17th century, these herbs faced competition from the more intensely flavoured herbs from the Far East.

3. Magical garden

This garden contains plants that people believed possessed magical powers. These plants were thought to ward off disasters and bad spirits or to bring good fortune. The elderberry, for example, was often planted by the back door to keep evil forces at bay. It was also believed that rubbing on a balm made from enchanter’s nightshade gave a person the power to fly.

4. Monastery garden

This little garden was created on the basis of a poem written in 840 AD by Walafrid Strabo, abbot of the monastery of Reichenau, an island in Lake Constance, Germany. The poem, the Hortulus, is the oldest botanical poem from western European culture and, at the request of the Open Air Museum, has recently been translated for the first time from the original Latin into Dutch and published in book form.

5. Medicinal garden

The medicinal garden is divided into 27 sections, based on the effect that the plants have on a certain set of symptoms. For example, there are herbs used to treat rheumatism and obesity, as well as 'women's complaints'. Various plants are therefore present in more than one section. Even today, herbs still provide the raw materials for around 25% of our medicines, and large-scale research into new medicinal plants is being carried out all over the world.