Manual › Your garden

Groups

A group for your allotment association, beekeepers, vegetable garden club, nature society or school, with members, its own noticeboard, a calendar and a conversation.

Under Groups (in the menu, under Nearby), people who share something come together: an allotment association, beekeepers, a vegetable garden club, a nature society, a school or another group. Every group has members, its own noticeboard, a calendar of activities and a conversation. To join or create a group, you need an account.

#Public or private

• A public group appears in the list under Groups, with the town and the distance (rounded to about a kilometre). Anyone can join. If the admins want to approve new members first, you send a request, with a short note.
• A private group doesn’t appear in any list. You only become a member if an admin invites you by email, or if you’re given the group’s share link.

If you’re not a member of a public group, you see its name, description, place, number of members, admins and calendar. The noticeboard, the conversation and the list of members are for members only.

#Finding a group

• At the top are My groups: the ones you’re a member of (with the number of new messages in the conversation) and your requests that are still pending.
• Below that, the public groups near one of your gardens, your location or anywhere. Choose a type (Allotment association, Beekeepers, Vegetable garden club, Nature society, School or Other group), a distance (5 to 100 km) or search for a word.
• Tap a group and choose Join, or Join (by request). You’ll get a notification as soon as an admin approves your request. Changed your mind? Withdraw it with Withdraw request.

#Creating a group

1. Choose Create a group.
2. Give it a name, the type, a short description (who you are, when you meet, who’s welcome) and, if you like, a photo.
3. Choose Where does the group meet?: search for your town or neighbourhood, or pick one of your gardens or your location. Others only see the town and the distance.
4. Choose Public or Private. For a public group, tick Approve new members if you want to know who’s joining.
5. Choose Create a group. You’re now its first admin.

A new account can create at most one group a day (see Blocking, suspensions and new accounts).

#Members and roles

Under Members you see everyone in the group, with the admins at the top. There are two roles:

• A group always has at least one admin. If you’re the only one, make someone else admin before you leave the group. If you delete your account while you’re the only admin, the longest-standing member becomes admin.
• A member leaves the group themselves with Leave group. In a private group, your sign-ups for upcoming activities are then cancelled too.

#Inviting people

As an admin, you invite people under Members › Invite:

• By email: enter an email address and, if you like, a personal message. The invitation is valid for 30 days; you’ll find it under Invited, where you can resend or revoke it. If your own email address isn’t confirmed yet, you send the invitation yourself from your email app (or copy the link).
• With the share link: anyone who opens the link becomes a member straight away, even of a private group. Share it in your own channels (email, WhatsApp, a newsletter). With New link the old one stops working; with Turn off link there’s none.

Anyone who opens an invitation without an account first sees which group it’s about, then creates a free account.

#The noticeboard

The group’s noticeboard is for arrangements, questions and photos: who has too many pumpkins, who can lend an earth auger, what’s happening on Saturday.

• Write a post and add up to 4 photos. You can edit or delete your own post later.
• An admin pins a post: it stays at the top, and members who only want pinned posts get a notification too. For a new post, an admin can tick Pin straight away.
• An admin can also delete other people’s posts if needed.

#The calendar

Under Calendar you see the group’s upcoming activities: a work day, a course, an outing. An admin chooses Plan an activity, with the type, the day and time, the place, a maximum number of places and whether helpers are needed, just like Activities nearby.

• You sign up or help out as with any activity. What you sign up for appears in your calendar, in the calendar feed and in your morning reminder.
• With In your calendar app (.ics) you download all the group’s upcoming activities for Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook.
• The calendar of a public group also appears under Activities nearby and in the neighbourhood email. That of a private group is only visible to members.
• All the group’s admins can edit or cancel an activity; anyone who signed up then gets a notification.

#The conversation

The conversation is a single thread for the whole group: for asking something or making arrangements quickly. Everyone in the group can read along. You can delete your own messages; an admin can delete other people’s too. Load older messages with Earlier messages. Under My groups and on the Conversation tab, you see how many messages you haven’t read yet.

#Notifications

At the top of the group, under Notifications, choose what you get from this group, in the app and (if you turned it on) by email or as a push notification:

For the conversation, you get at most one unread notification per group: chatty members won’t flood your bell. When you open the conversation, that notification is marked as read. Anything that concerns you personally (your request has been approved, you’ve become an admin) always reaches you. As an admin, you also always get a notification of a new request.

#Reporting and blocking

• Doesn’t a group or a message belong here, is it advertising, offensive or does it look like a scam? Choose Report: the Bladwijzer administrator will look into it and can hide the group or the message.
• Choose Block next to a message or a member: you no longer see each other’s messages in the group, and you no longer get notifications of what that person writes. See Blocking, suspensions and new accounts.

#Editing or deleting a group

Choose Change at the top of the group to change the name, the type, the description, the place, the photo, public or private and whether new members need approval. Delete removes the group along with its noticeboard, conversation, calendar and photos; the members get a notification.

Updated on 2026-10-09