Le Jardin d'Abbo

Hidden behind an allotment garden complex in The Hague, lies a food forest of roughly 2 acres. It is Habbo Hovinga’s secret paradise, or as he himself so aptly calls it, his pariahdise. In more than 10 years he has transformed this piece of land into a true biotope full of edible plants.
To the outside world, Habbo appears to be a blunt prophet of doom, grumbling at the world around him, but in his own garden he turns into a caring and sensitive man with a strong will to fight for nature. He is an outsider with a sense of poetry. “I paint nature with my hands.” People told me to watch out for Habbo, but I’ve always wondered why. This is an ode to Le Jardin d’Abbo and everything it stands for. Or stood for.