It all started with tiny tomato plants and strawberry plants in my student room. After years of growing vegetables in pots and small borders, I started focusing on house plants. Why? Because it’s fun all year round! With my grow lights and heated propagators I don’t care about spring or fall: I sow all the time.

Nimma is the informal name of Nijmegen, the oldest city in The Netherlands (>2.000 years). The city center shows gorgeous old houses as well as ugly ones and very new buildings. Why? Nijmegen was accidentally (!!) bombed by the allies during World War II. 800 people died, amongst them a lot of young children: the primary school in de city center got hit as well.

Besides history, Nijmegen is also famous for the ‘four day marches’ every year in July. People from all over the world come to Nijmegen to complete 4 days of walking 30km, 40km or 50km!

From the city center of Nijmegen it’s only a few minutes to get to the peace and quiet nature of the ‘Ooijpolder’: wild Konik horses, cows, spoonbills and other birds.

Nope. I got a master’s degree in Chemistry and besides a mandatory course of cell biology, plants were far from my study area. However, I love to learn and I’m curious, so when it comes to plants I might call myself an autodidact :-) I’m not an expert though, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you think I provided misinformation.

"Marieke, describe yourself in 5 words."

"I hate doing that." [pause] "Seriously."*

Did you ever get this question? I really hate to be caught off guard with it. Buuuut…. my answer tells you more about me than you might think: perfectionist, thinker, honest, kind. And funny.*

*You see what I did there right?