GET DOWN, GET DIRTY
Get Down Get Dirty xl 2025 - English (with dutch support)
We invite you to become one of our GDGD students! We love sharing our renowned annual course guiding you through the whole growing season. You are welcome to combine the Get Down, Get Dirty workshop series with an internship.
This in-depth, eight-part series of half-day workshops covers the fundamentals of urban permaculture and sustainable organic growing as the seasons unfold. We will cover crop planning, seeds, seedlings, composting, soil health, ergonomic gardening, propagation by cuttings, creating a balanced garden, various vegetables, herbs, fruit, wild and edible flower crops, plant families, seed saving, four-season growing, harvesting, food processing, preservation and fermentation, and much more.
In addition to acquiring solid gardening knowledge, we will be looking into where this fits in the current socio-political spectrum and concentrating on living lightly on the earth. We will give an overview of pioneering urban farming projects in and around Amsterdam, and visit a few of them. A healthy part of the workshop is taught outside in the vegetable garden.
This workshop is suitable for beginners and people with a few years experience.
We combine theory with getting dirty, so please wear appropriate clothing!
These are themes of each session:
Introduction to permaculture and urban farming // Sunday 9 March
Planning an edible city garden // Sunday 23 March
Seeds, seedlings and plants // Sunday 30 March
Building healthy soil and composting // Sunday 11 May
Biodiversity and balance in the garden // Sunday 8 June
Getting to know the plant families // Sunday 29 June
Seed saving and winter growing // Sunday 7 September
Preserving your harvest (and harvest party!) // Sunday 5 October
We will share a vegan potluck midway during the session. Coffee and tea are provided.
If you are interested in an internship to accompany your training we are happy to arrange this for you at one of Cityplot’s exciting and educational locations (Stadsboerderij Osdorp or the Pluk! CSA at either the Boterbloem or Fruittuin location). Internships are possible most days of the week at one of our farms, for as many days or half-days as you like. More irregular? You can get your hands into the soil every Wednesday or Saturday between 13.00h - 17.00h we have volunteer sessions at the Stadsboerderij vegetable and herb gardens (March - October).
THE PRACTICALS:
Location: Stadsboerderij Osdorp, Botteskerksingel 30b, Amsterdam (close to tram 17)
Time: Sundays from 10:00h - 14:00h - see above for dates.
Language: English with Dutch support
Teachers: Ann Doherty, Eva Thomassen, Naomi Vermeulen, Amy Liu & Alice Andersen
Cost: 500 euros including optional internship placement
If this group fills up we can accomodate a second group (possibly in Dutch). Email us and we send you our registration form.
* Check our GDGD policies here
Register & more info HERE
YOUR INSTRUCTORS
ANN DOHERTY
Ann is an urban farmer, educator, beekeeper and worm composter.
She studied urban agriculture at the University of Guelph (distance learning) and at Warmonderhof in the Netherlands, and has a Permaculture Design Certificate from Linder van den Heerik.
She was the communications coordinator for the global environmental federation Friends of the Earth International for 16 years before she decided to take the leap into urban agriculture in 2011.
In 2017, she co-initiated Pluk!, a self-harvest Community Supported Agriculture farm in Amsterdam that will feed more than 200 families in 2024.
In 2023, she took over the coordination of the Stadsboerderij Osdorp garden. She also teaches and coordinates a community garden with Bloei & Groei and does community outreach with city-wide composting project Afval naar Oogst.
Originally from New England, she has lived and gardened in Amsterdam for three decades.
She brings a love of coordination and bringing people together to the Cityplot team.
Eva THOMASSEN
Eva is an educator, loves designing and building edible gardens. She is an artist at heart and has many interests & skills; loves working with her hands, like calligraphy and illustration in pen & watercolour and cooking.
Born in Amsterdam, she graduated in marketing and moved to Barcelona and London for 12 years. She co-owned a hiphop/skate/surf clothing boutique and worked in 90’s London fashion world. In London she started an apprenticeship for clapper loader and became an analogue photographer. She returned to Amsterdam to study art and started surfing regularly. Through her love for ocean energy, she discovered a big love for the outdoors and as her practices and training in art & yoga evolved she started taking more of an interest in the bigger issues in the world. After a period of feeling really powerless in th ebigger picture she is very grateful to contribute to the awareness around the provenance of food as well as sustainability and fell completely in love with gardening.
She formally joined the collective in 2018; she ran the biketour team, got her Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and is a longstanding member of the Kids Team; greening schoolyards with edible gardens and weekly lessons.
When not teaching the next generation about nature & growing food (4 -12 years old), she is often found at Stadsboerderij Osdorp, and now coordinates the herb garden there. She also enjoys giving workshops and organising events for adults, garden design & maintenance.
You might still catch her giving a few urban farming bike tours. Permaculture’s appreciation for generalists warms het heart!
Naomi vermeulen
Stadsboerderij Osdorp, Kids, Tours & Outings
Although Naomi was born and raised in Amsterdam, as a child she always felt most at home in the polder where she played in the mud with horses and other animals. After high school, she tried to figure out what she found most important by exploring the world. She encountered themes including sustainability and the current conventional agricultural system and decided to dive deeper into these topics by getting a degree in Future Planet Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
During this period she really wanted to put her knowledge into practice and get her hands dirty, so she started working in the community vegetable garden at Stadsboerderij Osdorp. It was here that she came in contact with Cityplot.
Naomi’s path has taken her from an interest for urban green spaces to a particular fascination for sustainable agriculture. She loves to mesmerize others with the natural wonders that a city such as Amsterdam has to offer.
Amy Liu
Workshops & Events, Restaurants, Garden Consultations
Amy loves plants, bees and art. Moving from China to San Francisco and then Amsterdam, she used to focus on her career in tech. A few years ago she realized her day job was unfulfilling and wanted to find another way to make a difference.
She explored different activities, including taking the Get Down, Get Dirty course from Cityplot and found joy in working with plants and the ecosystem around them. What started with a few indoor plants then expanded to a balcony with peppers and tomatoes. Wanting to grow and explore further, she transformed a backyard of tiles into a year-round fruit and vegetable garden. In parallel, she trained in natural beekeeping and now maintains her own hive.
She wants to share her knowledge to help more people discover the joys of growing their own food, the beauty of working and connecting with nature, and sustainable living.
Alice Andersen
Workshops & Events, Restaurants, Garden Consultations
Alice is an urban grower, digital producer, and experience designer and is part of the workshops, gardens and tours teams at CityPlot.
Some years ago, she read that many of us now recognise more brands than plants, so she set out to get to know more plants than brands! She loves getting her hands dirty and growing vegetables, foraging for wild herbs, and creating more wilderness in the city.
She enjoys introducing other city dwellers to the everyday magic that exists below our feet, the joy of growing your own food, and reconnecting with the seasons. She also teaches mindfulness meditation, and has found nature can teach us many things when we’re present.
