Gardeners Go Europe

After over a month I see the stay in Denmark clearer. I didn’t just learn about the work, also about the people and the country itself. I will remember Denmark as a beautiful country with very nice and helpful people. I enjoyed every single day while we were there.
But the possibility of the stay was not our own merit. There were many people who collaborated. And I owe thanks to these people.
At first I want to thank our teachers Mrs. Baumgartner, Mrs. Mangold and Mr. Schrader who had the idea which enabled us to do this trip. Thank you for your commitment for young gardeners to see the world. I hope you'll be active for the next generations, too.
They went to Denmark to cooperate with the teachers there, Finn and Anette. Thank you for the possibility of the exchange.
Finn and Anette found companies where we could solve the traineeship. I thank the bosses of these companies, especially Martin, the leader of Buus & Co. where I was allowed to work. I thank the employees of Buus too, at first Kristian and Mariusz who picked me up and drove me home but also the others I worked with for example Michael for the fun and nice conversations we had.

Tusind tak!

Nun liegt mein Aufenthalt einige Wochen zurück. Ich kann nun auf einen sehr schönen Aufenthalt in Dänemark zurückblicken. Landschaftlich ist das Land wirklich beeindruckend. Mir wird die Weite und die offene Art der Dänen auf jeden Fall in sehr guter Erinnerung bleiben. Auch die langen Tage habe ich anfangs hier in Deuthschland vermisst. Denn in Dänemark wurde es zum Zeitpunkt unseres Aufenthaltes kaum dunkel. Mein Dank gilt den Lehrer, die diesen Austausch ermöglicht haben, den dänischen Betrieben und natürlich - nicht zu vergessen - den anderen Austauschgärtnern. Wir waren immer eine lustige Truppe und hatten viel Spaß. Rückblickend ist das mit dem mangelhaften dänischen Betrieb auch nicht mehr so gravierend. Ich habe viel vom Land und den Leuten gesehen. Damit bin ich sehr zufrieden.

Wow, nearly one month passed after returning to Germany and still I remember Randers Regnskov like it was yesterday.. I really miss the colleagues and to work around all those animals, even if I'm so afraid of snakes somehow I miss them, too. Especially to hold the python on my neck was so exciting and I think one of the most valuable experience to me! I'm so thankful for that and for the whole three weeks!
Also a big greeting goes to Jimmy, Vivi, Jacob, Jonas and Andreas (my host-family) who treated me so good, I really enjoyed your hospitality!

Im tropischen Zoo in Randers ist die Arbeit wirklich toll. Der Regenwald ist naturgetreu nachgebaut und hat verschiedene Pflanzen und Tiere. Es gibt einen drinnen und draußen Bereich. Die Pflanzen im Park müssen gegossen werden und das Unkraut muss auf den Kieswegen entfernt werden. Die meisten Pflanzen werden gespendet und somit waren wir auch in Randers unterwegs und haben die verschiedenen Zimmerpflanzen bei den Privat Leuten abgeholt und bei uns eingepflanzt.
Wir waren Im örtlichen Kino und durften für einen neuen Film die Blumen, Sand, Strand Dekoration aufbauen, das hat mir besonders gut gefallen. Am Abend gab es eine Betriebs Feier und ein Teambuilding, das trotz mangelndem Dänisch gut funktioniert hat. Danach gab es leckeres Essen vom Grill und nette Unterhaltungen.
Abends in Aarhus war es auch schön, von dem Hafen bis zum Strand gab es verschiedene Skulpturen zu besichtigen. Der Rehstreichelzoo ist sehr zu empfehlen, da die Tiere dort sehr zutraulich sind und es Spaß macht sie zu beobachten.



Vielen Dank an Randers Regnskov für die schönen drei Wochen, das Arbeiten hat sehr viel Spaß gemacht trotz des warmen und schweiß treibendem Klimas im Innen Bereich. Die Mitarbeiter sind alle sehr herzlich und zuvorkommend. Ich werde auf jeden Fall noch einmal dorthin reisen und es mir noch einmal anschauen.
The employees are very kind and obliging. I will travel once again there.
Liebe Grüße
Sophie

Well, after a week back home I miss Denmark. The hot weather deep south in Germany is hard when you come back after 3 weeks of freezing autumn.



I want to say thank you to all the nice people I got to know in Denmark!
It was nice to learn about a different way of working abroad, even when the type of work is mostly the same.



Stay as you are, Aalborg!

But export your working conditions to Germany ;)

I’m so sorry that this post is so late. In fact I have to write about last Thursday, but it was our last day and we had stress with packing our stuff, paying the flat and driving home. And now I’m not used to the german work anymore. ;)

But none the less I’ll tell you what I’ve done in these three weeks.
I had the pleasure to work at Buus & Co Anlægsgartner (www.buus-anlaeg.dk). For me it were new and useful experiences to work with a landscape gardener because I do my apprenticeship in a tree nursery. For sure I know how to plant and to handle with plants, but I never laid turf or made roof greenings with drainage system before. I the last week I was with Michael to cut hedges. It was a very big area, so we took the mower to pick up the leaves. This was very faster than to pick them up with the hands. In this week the weather was warm (even for us germans) and not so windy so the leaves didn’t fly away all the time. That simplified the work very much because we are not used to so much wind in Germany.


Nice place to work in the first week


This kind of wide hedge is called "pur"

by Debora

I want to say thank you very much to everyone.

First of all to the danish and german teachers.

Annette and Finn for being our contact and guide in Denmark and showing us the schools and nice places.

Mrs. Baumgartner, Mrs. Mangold and Mr. Schrader for aorganizing this experience and the possibility for let us be a part of it. Also thank you for solving little problems very quick.

Next, I want to thank Martin and the workers from OKNygaard, Aalborg.

Martin: Thank you very much for admitting us in your company. Also a big thank you for picking me up almost every morning and for the article in the newsletter, in whoch we will appear.

All the workers: Thank you for picking me up, sometimes very early. And thank you for teaching us, how you work and giving us tips for a better working.

Also a big thank you for all the insights in your company.

Of course a big thanks to the group. It was a great time with you, folks. I hope we will see us again, anytime!

Last but not leas a big thank you to my boss Mr. Gröning. For giving me the time, at the main season, to travel to Denmark for this experience!

As a summary I can say, it is a great project in a great country. It is a super possibility to get experiences and other working skills.

Igen Mange Tak!!



[Sankt Hans Fire - Midsummer]

Now it´s time to say thanks to all the people who submitted the exchange with denmark.
At first there are our teachers in Germany who have organised the trip and the
payment.
Second thanks goes to Annette and Finn who have showed us denmark and helped us
if there was a problem...
And last I would like to say thanks to OKNygaard and especially to Martin who has picked
me up every morning at the Anneberghus and has brought me back in the afternoon.
It is an honour to be part of this exchange and to work at OKNygaard with these
funny guys...
It was a very nice time in denmark and I have learned how they build their ways
in an other country. Furthermore it was a good experience to work under working
conditions.
Darüber hinaus möchte ich mich noch bei meinem Betrieb in Deutschland, Firma Sievers,
Garten- und Landschaftsbau bedanken, der mich für die Zeit sofort freigestellt hat.

Now it’s time to thanks everyone!
I want to say thank you to the people of HedeDanmark! Especially Rieke, Anita and Jakson.
It was a special experience to work at your company. During my attendance I have seen many different places in Denmark. Now I became acquainted with gardening at public and industrial places.

A special thanks to Martin from OKNygaard! Working at your company helped me to improve my skills in landscape gardening! I really enjoyed the last week working at a construction site.



Nicht zu vergessen sind natürlich die Organisatoren unseres Austausches. Ein besonderes Dankeschön gilt natürlich den deutschen und dänischen Lehrern.
Ohne ihr Engagement hätte es für uns nie die Möglichkeit gegeben die Arbeit des Landschaftsgärtners in einem anderen Land kennen zu lernen.
Auch wenn Probleme auftraten waren sie immer erreichbar und hatten ein offenes Ohr uns. So konnte für alles eine Lösung gefunden werden. Danke dafür!!!

Zum Schluss bedanke ich mich noch bei meinen Mitbewohnern und natürlich den Fahrern die es möglich gemacht haben die Strände, Märkte oder sonstige Plätzchen des Landes zu besuchen.
Das gemeinsame Speisen und Feiern mit euch hat alles perfekt abgerundet!

Mange Tak!

I worked at OKNygaard, which is a big company with some locations spread on the whole country.

The most time, I worked at the green section. So I cut grass, changed dead Fagus sylvatica and built two bucks on trees, so that they can't fall down.
I also placed paving stones and plates at a big site in Sundby, which is directly over the Limfjord, which crosses Denmark. At an other big site, I corrected kerbs, which were too wide in the future street.

All the colleagues, I worked with, were very friendly and helpful. They asked a lot about the life, apperenticeship and the work in Germany. They were happy to work with us because they work alone normally.

We also had nice Fridays. We visited the Agricollege and the Sandmosenskolen and some sights like the Rhododendronpark in Broenderslev and the coast with its beaches.



Our weekends were very nice, too. We visited some sights and parks in Aalborg and around or went to the beach, when the weather was fine.



Of course I will visit Denmark again!!

It is a wonderful country!!

I should have posted a blog last Thursday but there wasn't any interesing to post so it will happen today.

Today we finished a project at Gothab ~13km away from Aalborg:


All the plates, the wooden planting beds and those between the "Fliser", the stairs Elmerhoj built.
Elmerhoj has great and frienBdly workers too!
All in all, these 3 weeks were a great idea.

#Offtopic

At the Kvickly market down the street, we found an amazing plant!



Gaze in its names beauty.
The amazing Chilli "Penis Chilli".

Today our final week in Denmark started.
Another 3 days of work we are going to have in this beautiful country of nice people and incredible relaxed working conditions.
Working period is just 7:30 hours. From beginning in the company to get your bag and go out the company.
Extra hours are really rare.
Except today... we worked whole 8 hours.

But it wasn't that hard because today I worked most time with a

Motorwheelbarrow


and a Hydraulic Excavator.


Because we started a new project there was a lot of measurment necessary.

Today I am writing about my work experiences during the last days in Denmark.

Today was my last day at Hede Danmark. So I can give you a short summary about my activities at this company.
On the first working day I was very shocked that we have to pick up rubbish in the center of the city.
The other days of the week my main task was weeding beds and roadsides.
Today we were at Frederikshavn and we worked near the harbor so the view while working was really fine.
Finally our colleague bought some special Danish cake and all of us had a short teatime.

Probably it is hard to compare German with Danish gardening because it is almost the same. They also use hedge clippers to trim the hedges and they also use Round Up to complain against weed.
One difference is the sandy soil. For this they have special hoe that I have never seen in Germany before. You shrub over the ground like sweeping the floor. And then you just have to collect the weed.


Tomorrow is my first day at OKNygaard. I am looking forward to learn more about Danish landscape gardening.

To me it's the first time visiting Denmark. I like Denmark so far. Getting in touch with the Danish is very easy because they are friendly and helpful, if you are for example aksing for the way.

I am working at Hede Danmark which is a firm for outdoor maintance services. Due to the fact that our todays project was about 45min away, we have been picked up at 6.30 a.m. (usually 7.00 a.m.). I am working at many several places like trainstation and parking areas of supermarkets.
My main tasks at Hede Danmark are clipping hedges and removing the weeds.
I get along very well with my direct collegues: Anita who is from the Netherlands and Jaxon who is from Australia.

Aalborg itself is a modern and young city with lots of byciclist and parks. I like theier architecture (e.g. Musikhussens).

Thankfully it doesn't rain today. So we will take a barbecue at the beach, if all the other argree.

Yesterday we went to a little Park called 'Karolinelund'.
It is a beautiful place with a lot of young alternative people.
There have a little space for Urban Gardening and it is even legal to spray and paint the walls around there, so we found some beatiful Street Art.





If you visit Aalborg I think it is a place you should really visit!

Edit: And a beers just costs a 15 Kroner :D