Although publications on the subject had already appeared abroad, there were still numerous women in the Dutch cultural field whose roles, life histories and work were worth investigating. It became increasingly clear that for too long art historians had limited themselves to researching the garden designer, the commissioner and the signed floor plan: a "Bermuda triangle" in which the position of women disappeared. But reading and studying countless letters and diaries and conducting interviews did enable a picture to be formed of what her role was and, above all, what concerned her. Thus, writing this book became a search for the answer to the question of what women sought on their particular piece of earth and what they found there to this day. In doing so, it was important to pay attention to the ever-changing concept of "nature" and, in parallel, the conception of "female nature. The book ends with the question of whether gardening still fits into modern life or whether, precisely in times of stress and crisis, cultivating one's own piece of land offers a solution. Er stond een vrouw in de tuin can be read as the history of Dutch women from the perspective of garden history, but it is also a journey through Dutch garden history in which women have been chosen as guides.