Westland is a region of the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and lies in the western part of the Province of

South Holland South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...

. It consists of the municipalities of Westland and

Midden-Delfland Midden-Delfland () is a municipality (''gemeente'') in the Westland, region of the Netherlands, Westland region in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. It had a population of in , and covers an area of of which is water. It was for ...

, and also of the town of

Hook of Holland Hook of Holland (, ) is a coastal village in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; ''hoek'' means "corner" and was in use before the word ''wikt:kaap#Dutch, kaap'' – "cape". The English translation using Hook is a false cognate of t ...

(which is a part of the municipality of

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

). Westland is well known for its

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

in glasshouses, hence its nickname the glass city.

Greenhouse Horticulture

Greenhouses were already in use in some country estates from the 18th century, but in the 19th century it was decided to place glass windows against the

grape wall A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,00 ...

s to protect the grapes from bad

indian summer An Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Several sources describe a true Indian summer as not occurring until after the first frost, or mor ...

s, which disrupted ripening. Moreover, this also allowed the ripening time to be shortened. This introduced the modern greenhouse horticulture. New inventions such as the lessenaarskas, the kopkas, the druivenserre, the broeibak and the agricultural warenhuis eventually led to the modern

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

. From the end of the 19th century, but especially in the period just after 1900, the greenhouse was introduced on a large scale in the Westland, which again completely changed its appearance: over time, about three-quarters of the horticultural area was covered with greenhouses. Grape cultivation increased enormously before the outbreak of the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, but collapsed after the war because the southern European countries were able to supply grapes much more cheaply. As a replacement for grapes, the cultivation of

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

es,

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae mostly grown as a leaf vegetable. The leaves are most often used raw in Green salad, green salads, although lettuce is also seen in other kinds of food, such as sandwiche ...

and

cucumber The cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.cut flower Cut flowers are flowers and flower buds (often with some stem and leaf) that have been cut from the plant bearing it. It is removed from the plant for decorative use. Cut greens are leaves with or without stems added to the cut flowers for con ...

s also became increasingly important. These products are all mainly intended for export. After the First World War, rail transport was supplanted by road transport, for which a large number of new roads were built to bring the products quickly to the sales markets. The Westland is a prosperous and innovative region, due to the fast-growing development in the field of

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit ...

. Many new techniques are emerging to enable us to function better as a horticultural company, from the closed greenhouse to the convertible greenhouse. The greenhouse horticulture area, the '' Glass City '', is largely limited to the municipality of Westland. The street name '' Laan van de Glazen Stad '' in Naaldwijk also refers to this. In Midden-Delfland (as argued above also part of the Westland region) livestock farming predominates. File:Druivenland Weeknummer 36-39 - Open Beelden - 29853.ogv, Grapes being picked in a greenhouse in Westland in 1936 File:De eerste verse groente Weeknummer 43-12 - Open Beelden - 14177.ogv, Harvest in 1943 File:Druivenfeest in het Westland-508328.ogv, Grape festival in westland in 1951 File:Tomato P5260299b.jpg, tomato growing

References

{{coord, 52, 0, 29, N, 4, 13, 14, E, source:nlwiki, display=title Regions of the Netherlands Regions of South Holland