If you get out of the center of town and all its amusements, one thing you'll notice is the passion Amsterdammers have for gardening. This year, the street I live on won the award for best garden street in our neighborhood. Now I'm not talking about the garden in the yard, though Im sure those are nice. But what you can often find are entire streets where people build gardens in front of their homes.. often growing right up the side of the building. Sometimes that whole feeling of being in a city melts away and all you smell is that green smell and you see the rag-tag collection of vines, flowers, and shrubs people have managed to plant in front of their apartments.
As a British gentleman told me, while randomly explaining how he started his garden in the Pijp,

"You must simply put out a few containers in front of your house and start growing things. Before you know it, you've got something beautiful and the whole neighborhood will join in."