Gardeners Go Europe

I just want to say thank you!!!

After two weeks at home, I had to think and tell a lot over Denmark! I collected many new impressions.
I realy enjoed the trip to Denmark, I learned so much, it was a realy impressive time.

thanks to all who made it possible.

Jeg håber på en tidlig reunion
Tak for det informative tid

many greetings
mange hilsner

Johanna

3am: I wake up. My room mate is snoring so loud that i'm not able to hear my own voice anymore. I hope the neighbours would call the police to save my sleep.
5:30: After a dream full of Sand, Wind and Akvavit my Alarm is ringing. I decide to stay for the next 10 minutes in bed.
5:40: Two aggressive Alarms at the same time start ringing painful loud.
5:50: I have brushed my teeth and my room mate is still ignoring his two Alarms.
6:00: Most of us (except of my room mate) are in the eating room. We are opening the fridges and get our breakfast/lunch boxes. We look full of expectations at the boxes with the lettering "Tech College". Which surprise would it be today?
It's almost empty! The kitchen women explained to us that some mysterious guys stole our food yesterday night. Some of us will stay hungry today...
6:50 Sebastian and I just arrived at buus&co, the company we work at. Everyone takes a coffee and sits down. It's Kims Birthday! He brought a nice cake with candy on it. We have got german sparkling wine and Peanuts as a present for him.
7:00: The workers Start preparing their cars to get to the building sites, except of the mechanician. He waits with a cup of coffee and a cigarette that a car or a machine will break and his help will be needed.
9:00: After working for 2 hours it's time for an half an hour break.
9:30: We continue working. Our company Buus&Co belongs to a very famous man called Inger who owns half of Aalborg.
12:00: It's Lunch time for half an hour. The breaks are absolutely obligatory.
15:00: I start putting the tools in the car when sunddendly an old woman starts talking in danish to me. She looks really angry. I just say "Jeg taler ikke dansk!" (I don't speak danish) and carry on working. She starts laughing at me and goes her way.
15:30: All the workers have been waiting for this exact time and leave the company. Vis ses! (Auf wiedersehen)
16:00 My room mate slept for 3 hours over his learning material after he had come back from work. His company is really work-shy and lazy. The workers employed by the cities out of germany would feel like at home there.
17:55: 5 over over-punctual good looking German gardeners wait in front of the eating room to get in.
18:00 What a surprise? It's Pork day again!
20:00 It's time for a round binokel. Sometimes we get interrupted by questions about entrance fees, bad looking sunburns, or milk on the dinner table, but no problem for the 5 good looking gardeners, we have the right answers!
22:00 After heavy discussions about ladders, driving money, irregular english verbs, one night stands with danish guys, and the last way to oknygaard (for those who know.....: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rigxc8puTts) it's time to say good night.

I want to say thank you to Baumschule Schimmele that it was possible to send me to Denmark to spy the danish working methods.
I also want to thank Buus&Co for being so kind to let 2 germans work at your amazing company!
It was also nice that Finn (a danish Teacher) visited us in our companies to look if we are working fast enough.
Special thanks go to Eva Baumgartner our german Teacher, who helped us with the organisational matters!
I will miss the amazing working times and the other four good looking gardeners, it was a pleasure to meet you, we had a great time together! The nice view on the Neckar in Heilbronn is unfortunately not the same as the view over the Fjord in Aalborg.
Anyway i'm looking forward to see the people who are important to me again!
Anytime I hope I will have the time to return to Aalborg and visit Buus&Co!

Eigentlich war ich ja schon vor einer Woche dran mit meinem Block. Aber ich habe immer darauf gewartet, dass noch ein großes Abenteuer kommt.
Also das Praktikum hat schon gut angefangen, auch wenn ich auf Grund meiner schlechten Englisch Kenntnisse nicht alles verstanden habe. Mein Vorarbeiter Thomas hat es trotzdem meistens geschafft mir etwas zu erklären, manchmal mit Händen und Füßen ;) und hat mich die ersten 2 Tage sogar alleine auf eine Baustelle geschickt. Bei ihm war es sehr locker zu arbeiten und ich hatte immer schon vor 15:00 Feierabend zum Teil schon um 12:00, meine Mitbewohner waren dann manchmal leicht neidisch ;)
Neben meiner Englisch Kenntniss gab es noch ein anderes Problem, das frühe Aufstehen :( worunter einer meiner Mitbewohner sehr zu leiden hatte da er entweder von einem durchdringenden Wecker 10 Minuten geweckt wurde, dieser endete erst mit dem generften Satz: mach endlich den Wecker aus, jedoch war es damit nicht getan. Denn spätestens 3 Minuten später begann die Qual von neuem. Dazu kam noch das er wegen lauten schnarchens manche Nacht kaum ein Auge zu bekam. Dies wurde mit dem generften Satz kommentiert leg dich anders hin oder du bekommst eine Wäscheklammer auf die Nase. Ansonsten verstanden wir uns sehr gut!
Meine Arbeit:
Anfangs baute ich einen Garten fertig, dass heißt ich machte eine Rasenplanie und pflasterte einen Gehweg mit Granitpflastersteinen. Nach drei Tagen fingen wir dann eine neue Baustelle an. Da aber noch viele andere Bauarbeiter auf dieser Baustelle waren konnten wir manchmal nicht viel arbeiten, daher hatte ich dann öfters früh Feierabend. Einen Tag lang half ich einem Subunternehmer von uns eine Betonwand zu schalen, was ich interessant fand. Bei manchen Arbeiten war ich verwundert wie das hier gemacht wird im Gegensatz zu unserer Arbeitsweise.
Freitags als wir im Agri College waren gab es doch noch ein kleines Abenteuer. Nachdem wir die Schule besichtigt hatten, welche auch einen Kuhstall Schweinestall und viele andere Tiere hält, fuhren wir nach Blockhus um am Strand entlang zu fahren. Irgendwann blieb das Auto unseres Lehrers im Sand stecken. Und es war nicht so einfach wieder frei zu kommen. Jedoch durch das freigraben der Reifen und mit viel Muskelkraft kamen wir nach einer Stunde doch noch frei und konnten unseren Ausflug doch noch fortsetzen. Die Freude war nur kurz denn nachdem die zwei anderen Autos nochmal anhielten mussten wir sie nochmal anschieben. Jedoch Sebastians starker Audi musste nicht angeschoben werden :) und wir kamen dann irgendwann doch noch heim.
Für mich vergingen die drei Wochen recht schnell da ich, wenn wir nicht gerade etwas unternahmen oder mit Jacob Binokel spielen lernen, für meine Prüfung lernte. Und es mir hier sehr gefällt :) die Menschen sind hier einfach lockerer.
Kurz um es war eine tolle Zeit hier und ich hätte es bereut nicht dabei gewesen zu sein.

In diesem Zuge möchte ich mich auch dafür bedanken dass, das alles hier für uns organisiert und ermöglicht wurde nach Dänemark zu gehen! Vielen Dank!

Gruß Willem

When I decided to choose Buus as my host company, I had no idea how the company or the colleagues would be.
Now that our stay here is nearly over I have to say it was the best decision I could make.
My team mate Jakob and I were lovingly received when we came to work on our first day. We were affectionately called the „Tysker“ (Germans).


Most of the time I was with Nikolaj on tour and we finished one project after an other. Working wit him was very awesome and funny. Although both of us could not speak perfectly english we understood each other. If he did not know a word in english, he tried it in danish and often it was similar to the german word.

Last week I had to drive one hour up to Frederikshavn with Sharon. She is green, that means she is working with plants and removing weeds. She doesn´t like the highway so I drove. When we arrived there we started to lay „rullegras“ (roll lawn). We did this the whole day, I think nearly 300 square meters. After the long ride home I was really tired and glad for the shower, a good dinner and my bed.


This week we started with pulling out some old stones on a driveway near Aalborg. After that was finished Nikolaj dug out the old sand and the soil with the mini excavator. Most of the time I had to drive the dirt into a container with the wheel loader. It was a big area that we were preparing so it took 2 days. Thereafter we put some kind of gravel in, for stabilization.
Unfortunately our time is over, so I will not see the finish result…:(

My good friend the wheel loader GIANT <3

During our stay in Denmark we lived at the Aalborg Sportshøjskole. We got breakfast there, lunch and dinner as well. Most of the time we were very happy with the food, even if there was a lot of pig on the menu.

All in all the time in denmark was a very useful and enriching experience. I really enjoyed it being here!

Ok now it's my turn to explain you my experiences from Denmark..

Well there are many differences bettween Denmark and Germany ( for example planting)


But i have to say , although the 3 weeks are not over yet, that it was a great experience for me...

At this point i would to say thanks to our teachers, the Elmerhoj company, the friendly people in Denmark and to the Projekt GrünRaum Gmbh for giving me this chance..

But not all can be perfect, also in Denmark... for me the 2 week was very stressfull, because my front window of my car was broken... but the Danish peope are very helpful so this problem get fixed very fast..

Well that was what i had to say :D So maybe see you again Denmark

Today is the 11th day.
That is a long time. But it dosen´t feel like that. I´m really happy to be hear in Denmark, I love this country!
I love the landscape, the sea, the nature, the sun, the beautiful houses and the culture. It feels like comming home. Danish people are really friendly and helpful.

I´m working with Marcel, in the company Elmahøj. It is a small company with 25 employees. We drive 30 min. with the car, to our buildingsite. We are working with Torben in Aars. Torben is our foreman, since Thursday we got a new employee more, his name is Simon he is in the education too. I really like Torben and Simon.
Last week we started to lay path. This week we make the same. I know it sounds boring, but it isn´t. It is a lot of fun, because we have three ways to scrape off the sand and four ways to lay the path.
I want to tell you about one way to lay path, actually it is the same as in Germany, but when you see the picture, than you know what I mean.
It is a vacuum tool, but a really old on. In Germany we have the same but in the new way, so it looks really diffrent.

I hope that we can go to other a buildingsite next week, so maybe we can learn more about Danish work.

On Monday we had free and the weather was good, so we four girls started our beach trip.
First we drove to the palmbeach in Fredrikshaven. After that we drove to Skagen. Skagen is in the end of north Denmark, you can see there how the "Nordsee" and "Ostsee" are chrushing together.
It is really beautiful there.
We tried to go into the water, but it was to cold to go inside with the whole body, so we just went inside with our feets. The sand was warm an the water cold, it was just nice!

The last beach was near Løkken. There is a lighthouse, everyone told us to go there so we did it.
We had to walk 15 minutes to the lighthouse from the parkingzone.
On the way to it, we saw a lot of Hippophae rhamnoides bushes and Pulsatilla vulgaris. Around us were a lot grassland with sheeps. It was so sweet to see the lambs playing on the grass.

In the end of our journey we saw the lighthouse in the middle of really really much sand....
It was so breathtaking to see the contrast between the blue sea, the white sand and on the other side the green nature.
It was just beautiful. I don´t have other words for it...
I really hope for more moments like this one.

Hello you beautiful People in Germany and Denmark.
Today it is my turn to tell you about this wonderful experience.
My Company is OKNygaard and in my first Week I went to mowing the lawns of Aalborg. It was fun and Kristian told me by the way alot of Denmarks culture.
One Tradition was especially stuck in my Head.
If a unmarried person turns 25 years old. He or she is bound to a pole mostly a Lantern and then the freinds throw cinnamon on him or her. I am telling you this because everywhere where I had to mown the Lawns sometimes there would be a Lantern with Cinnamon on it.

On Monday we, the girls, traveled to some Beaches to just see this beautiful landscape. I am telling you about our Day in Frederickshavn.
Special anout the Beach in Frederickshavn is that there are Palms on the Beach, no kidding, real Palms.



We walked around the Beach and collected Seashells. It was soooo beautiful, just to see the water, to smell the salty Air and to feel the sand under our shoes.



Today at work Olivia, Manuela and me had to plant some ground cover-plant.
At first we had to spread some turf substrate, then we took a spade and digged respectively mixed the turf with the soil below.


After that we had to spread some jute net over the embankment, so that Soil is saved from slading.
And finally we planted the ground cover-plants. On 1 m² we planted 8 plants. The Plant was an Pachysandra terminalis ( Japanese spurge ).



After that was done we got to another place and started anew.

Well, that was my time here in Denmark. I really enjoy it and love it here. The Danish are very open-minded, nice and tolerant. Hopefully I will be able to tell you lots of more stories and adventures.

See you soon (Vi ses!)

After our first week of working in Denmark, we had to think about our leisure time. First we planned to go to the sea, but on Saturday weather was too bad. So we decided to visit Regenskov in Randers. It is a tropical garden with wild animals under 3 big hemispheres.
So 5 good looking gardeners headed to Randers, a city ca. 45 min away from Aalborg.

As we entered the tropical garden we found ourselves immediately in a south-american Rainforest,
temperatures and humidity increased rapidly. The journey began…

On our tour through the continents we met several toxic and dangerous wild animals. Such as snakes, bats, spiders, scorpions, Piranhas, jaguars, monkeys and……turtles.

We climbed trees and hills and walked through ancient temples. The vegetation was very different than what we have known so far. We didn't recognize a lot of plants.

We believe that working in Regenskov must be a pleasure and a great experience for our german colleges, the ornamental gardeners.

After our adventure we had to make a life changing decision, whether we go to McDonalds or to the local restaurant. The decision was fast made.

Hannes, Marcel, Willem, Jakob and Sebastian



To be continued...

After work we drove 30 minutes to a wonderful lake called Store Økssø. The road to the lake was really bumpy, so it was a lot of fun. At first we collected firewood in the forest. And started to make a fire. At home we made stock bread dough and baked it over the fire.
After a while it got colder so we finished the barbecue.
We put our things in our cars and walked around the lake. Actually we wanted to swim, but it was so cold, but Olivia still got for a swim. The water was warmer than the air around us.
It was a really really beautiful evening.

This morning my day started at 7:15 am. First my colleague and I drove to the company to pick up a compactor. Afterwards we went to the building site where I had been the last days. There we met our team leader (Kaspar) who told us to go to another lot because there wasn't enough work for three persons. As we arrived at our new building site Peter, the foreman, introduced us which work we should do. After he told us what to do we were so exhausted from listening that we had to take a break and eat something ;-)
Bursting with energy we started to place some curbstones and supported them with concrete followed by paving with cobblestones. At eleven o'clock Kaspar called us and said that we can come back to the first lot. Once again we supported curbstones with concrete. In the afternoon I assisted my colleague with cleaning up the building site and put some old rails away. When everything was cleaned up and organized I was driven home by my colleague. "Thanks, dude! :-)"

During my three weeks stay in Aalborg I am working for OKNygaard. At this company work is split in green and grey. This week I am working for the green division. The last two days I worked with two girls on a big area with several apartment buildings. The whole ground is not so old, maybe you can see it on the picture below

We were weeding one bed after the other. We did this again and again. It was a quite boring but also easy job. As the weather is very good (no clouds, continuous sun and temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees) and the two girls are very friendly the job is anyway fun. I also want to mention that the Danish people are very friendly, open minded and try every time to help other persons. And they give us lots of tips what we can do during our visit in Denmark. So it is not going to be boring in our leisure time. By the way they pick us up every morning and drive us home after work to Sportshøjskole. This is more than we can expect. So at this point big thanks for this.
Yesterday evening, we went for a two hours walk on the promenade. At the end of a rampart we found a nice place to sit down and observe the sailing and rowing boats. During the whole walk we made a couple of beautiful photos. On the pictures below you can see the beautiful sunset.

This morning I had to wake up very early because my colleague Andreas picked me up at 6 am. He always starts one hour earlier than normal so he has more time in the afternoon. At first we drove to the other side of Aalborg to a bank. There we had to pick up garbage with a long stick where you can grab something. In the mean time my colleague cut the grass with a brush cutter. After that I went over the pathway with a leaf blower so everything gets clean. Our next building sites were train stations. The first one was in Hobro and the second one was in Skørping. There we had to collect garbage also under the hedge. We weeded weed out and put mineral fertilizer on the roses. My colleague burned weed with a flame thrower. He just had to go over it fast so the cells in the plant brake and water gets out so the plant dies from inside out. We couldn´t use herbicides like Roundup to get rid of the weed because it was a government building. Our last building side was on a company area and there we used Roundup for weed on pathways and around the building. We also had go around trees and lamps so it is easier for the grass man to cut it. For our health we had to wear long pants, plastic gloves, buts and a gas mask.
In the afternoon I drove with my car to a the lake Store Økssø and walked around it. I also swum in the lake. It was very nice. I found a great tree to climb and to sit in it. I drove back to the Sportshøjskole. It took me around half an hour. After that I went to dinner and out with my camera for a walk to get some good pictures near the water.

Today was my first working day at buus&Co. I started at 7 o'clock and worked till 3:30 in the afternoon. While working I enjoyed the good weather in Aalborg and I got to know my nice new colleagues. Our accomodation is pleasant and located only 2 km away from the center. The soap smells really bad but the meals are delicious. We also had some struggles with the shutters but after we solved this with our concentrated power there was nothing left that could stop us. Weakened by the long exhausting drive from Heilbronn to Aalborg yesterday it was a pleasure to work physically in the sun today. We had to cut down trees and bushes. After we had finished this job we drove back to the company ground and planted some Carpinus betulus as hedge. "Baumschule Schimmele" would have had better quality. Anyway I kept calm and carried on planting. Not every city can be so lucky to have a "Baumschule Schimmele". I'm looking forward to work tomorrow at Buus&Co for new experiences as a competent landscaper in Denmark.
God morgen!

We just arrived in Aalborg!

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!