Talking Social Green with Monty Don for the BBC
After my web publication and exhibition on the history of the Geuzenhof, I was contacted by the BBC to ask whether garden journalist Monty Don could visit the Geuzenhof to talk with me about my research on Social Green for his new programme.
Monty Don’s visit at the Geuzenhof in Amsterdam
In his three-part travel series Monty Don’s Rhineland Gardens he follows the Rhine from the Alps to the North Sea, with a visit to Amsterdam and the Geuzenhof housing complex.
The third episode, about the Netherlands and including the Geuzenhof, will be broadcast on:
Friday, 30 January 2026, 8:00 pm (NL time) on BBC 2.
Missed ‘Monty Don’s Rhineland Gardens’?
Rewatch on BBC2 or here.
–The Geuzenhof visit begins at 41 minutes.
After months of preparation, the cameras finally rolled at Easter last year. Perfectly fitting the setting, Monty Don arrived by boat along the Kostverlorenvaart canal and moored opposite the Geuzenhof.
Geuzenhof – developed by Huibert van Saane and Mien Ruys
The Geuzenhof housing complex was developed in the 1930s as a social green experiment by contractor Huibert van Saane. The spacious communal gardens were designed by renowned garden architect Mien Ruys. Huibert van Saane also built and managed the Oranjehof next to the Geuzenhof, an apartment building for single working women who were not permitted to sign rental contracts at the time – he offered them one. In the late 1950s, Mien Ruys returned to the neighbourhood to design the public green spaces.
My long-term documentation of the Geuzen neighbourhood, where I live, focuses on the area’s integration of social and green principles.
Monty Don – journalist, television presenter (incl. Gardeners’ World), and a passionate gardener himself – was interested in how social cohesion and the gardens have continued to evolve to this day.
On my balcony, we talked about Van Saane’s social ideas and observed how Mien Ruys’s garden design transformed the Geuzenhof garden into a stage. We also spoke about green ownership, the gardens of our childhood, and how many people it takes to design a garden that can thrive for generations – though not everything made it on screen.
Director of photography Mike Robinson, together with his team, captured the garden in wonderful images that beautifully convey the atmosphere of the site. Series editor Alexandra Henderson had a firm grip on the threads of the storyline.
It was an energizing day filled with inspiring conversations.
Book: How social green are you?
I am currently working on my book How social green are you?, which explores the history of Social Green and features the Geuzenhof as a historical example of how these principles developed over the long term.
Covering a timeline from 1493 to 2135, the book explores how this combination can help us address the climate crisis in the future. It is also a personal journey toward becoming more social green myself.
To that end, I have invited experts from various disciplines to discuss Social Green during visits to the Geuzenhof.
These visits – including Monty Don’s – will also be featured in the book.
Portrait photo of Monty Don at the Geuzenhof
I take a portrait photograph of every expert I welcome at the Geuzenhof.
I photographed Monty Don in the Geuzenhof garden beside the blooming magnolia in the ‘Mien Ruys bed’, created in a former children’s sandbox to honour the original garden architect and planted with her favourite flowers.
