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Whether it is your own home, public transport or your car, when you step out of your door in Wateringse Veld, you immediately step into a museum. This new housing estate houses the tree museum. Scattered throughout the district, artist herman de vries has planted about 300 different species of trees along streets, in public gardens and on squares. A different species for each street.

For each tree species in the museum there is, as in a real museum, a sign with the Dutch name and the shape of the leaf. In addition, de vries has published a book with the museum in which you can read more explanations alphabetically for each tree species. In fact, de vries conceived an arboretum but on the scale of a neighbourhood.

Originally, de vries trained at the Rijkstuinbouwschool in Hoorn. In 1953, in addition to his work as a botanist, he became an autodidact. In the early 1960s, together with Henk Peeters and Armando, he formed the much-discussed NUL group, an artists' group that strived for art in which representation played no role. In the same period, de vries experimented with the book as a visual medium.

Around 1970 he made the definitive step into art. It was then that de vries moved to Eschenau in southern Germany and nature began to play an important role. His beloved world of plants became the theme of all his visual work. To make it clear that people are not above plants, he consistently writes his name and all his texts without capitals.

De vries enjoys international fame with his 'sanctuaries', nature reserves in the form of an enclosed garden. To him, science and art are not contradictory. With the tree museum in Wateringse Veld, for example, he makes scientific knowledge not only visible but also tangible. And that in a district where sustainability is a priority in all kinds of ways.