Gardeners Go Europe

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

Well, it was my fourth day at Randers Regnskov but still I explored so much new areas and animals. I've been to the snake-temple after work and it was kind of scary seeing all these snakes without any windows between them and me, especially due the fact that I don't like snakes too much (I fear them to be honest).. But it wasn't half that scary than it was yesterday to go into the monkey-cave to dig over the hard-packed soil while the monkey watch you very close..
That may sounds like I don't like it there but I really enjoy the work! In the morning, as long as there are no visitors, we clean up, the ways of cause but also we remove old leaves, clean the windows that you have a clear view into the aquaria and so on.. After a short break at 10 o'clock -when the visitors are there allready- we continue with different jobs, which are to do like planting new plants/weeding/cleaning backstage/... Today we've been weeding at the outdoor-area called "DenmarkPark" (with some very pleasant wind and rain), where there are also some animals like goats, pigs, cows,.. The last days used to end with cleaning backstage, so I was quiet happy to stay there till end today, so we could also have a short look at the baby-jaguars (which don't really look like baybies any more).
So that was enough for this week and I wonder what we'll do next week.

Here you can see a mantled guereza how he was staring at me during work yesterday

Sophie, David and me arrived Aarhus on Sunday at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The weather was pretty good, only it was a little bit windy and stormy.

I have a really nice flat in Barbrand next to two lakes and a great view. The house is 4,5 km far away from Aarhus centre and I have to drive only 2 minutes to the next supermarket. My flatmates, two woman, are very cool and friendly but not very often at home.

Every day at 7 o’clock I start to work at greenhouse Graff in Sabro and stop at 3:15 pm. The work really interesting and they try to show me everything in the 24 000 square meter big greenhouse.


On Monday I cleaned out the yellow and bad leaves in the cuttings propagation (Poinsettia & Hibiscus), and sprayed it against brownish-grey mildew (Botrytis) with calcium( 0.05%). In the next 3 weeks I will check it two times per week alone.

On Thursday it was also very interesting at work. I filled up 13er pods and then I was sticking Hibiscus cuttings in this. After that I was sticking poinsettia cuttings into quick pods. Before, we watered the pods, because the earth was very dry. Then I was prune 9 weeks old Hibiscus ( 13er pod) and a machine shifted the pods to the right distance.

Today I checked the cutting propagation again. Then I brought out some different kinds of useful plants in a experiment house. ( For example: Amblyseius cucumeris against Thrips)

So I am really curious to the next 2 weeks.



PS: That`s my boss and me at the picture

Hey
My name is Levin and I`m working at OKNygaard.
My arraival was a little bit difficult because i missed the car with the other guys and so I had to take the train and so I arrived first at 11pm at Sunday in Aalborg.

Like I mentioned at the beginning I´m working at OKNygaard. This company have 8 subsidiaries in different cities and I´m at the branch in Aalborg.

Today I was with the Teamleader Joachim at a big site in Sundby. There we have to plant about 1000 Fagus sylvatica.

After work all guys cooked together and then we went to the beach near Nibe. The beach there is very nice only the water was cold and the weather windy.
The people and the collegues are very friendly and helpful.
The work is like at home only the worktime is shorter than at home.

We are lookingf forward to the next three weeks and are very excited.

C U next Time :)

We arrived Aalborg!
After a long journey from southern Germany we reached the northern Denmark.
The weather is sunny but for our feeling a little bit stormy.

So let's get out and discover Aalborg!!!

And tomorrow we will be the first time in our host company.

by Michael

Next Sunday our trip to Denmark finally starts!
I'm really excited about our traineeship.

Gug will be my host company for 3 weeks. And it seems to be quiet similar to my own company Hans Schmid GaLaBau GmbH.
They also have their on nursery and a own garden centre.

http://www.gugplanteskole.dk/
http://www.schmid-galabau.de/

by Michael

http://oknygaard.dk/7/referencer

My company is OKNygaard in Aalborg.

When I'm looking on their website I'm amazed.

The projects are very big in contrast to ours.
The buildings are beautiful and modern.
The references, whisch you can find in the link, speak for themselves.

I'm looking forward to work with the colleagues in Denmark and build such beautiful things like places and parks.

Schade dass wir nicht alle beisammen sind aber ich denke wenigstens einen Besuch wäre es mehr als wert:
http://www.regnskoven.dk/
Mit diversen Aquarien, einem 15m hohen Wasserfall unter Dach, einem Baumkronen-Pfad und vielen, vielen anderen Attraktionen ist die Formulierung "ich freue mich auf das Praktikum" mehr als untertrieben... Wer will kann sich ja auf der Homepage ein wenig rumklicken und neidisch werden ;)

Durch eine Kooperation mit dem Agri College Aalborg in Dänemark ist es uns gelungen, ein Austauschprogramm für unsere Auszubildenden des Erwerbsgartenbaus und des Garten- und Landschaftsbaus ins Leben zu rufen. In den kommenden zwei Jahren können bis zu 20 Schülerinnen und Schüler aus den Einzugsbereichen der Berufsschulen in Stuttgart, Göppingen und Heilbronn ein dreiwöchiges Auslandspraktikum in Dänemark absolvieren.

Die praktische Arbeit in einem dänischen Betrieb wird die fachliche Qualifikation unserer Auszubildenden stärken und ihre Fremdsprachkenntnisse fördern. Neben der fachlichen Weiterentwicklung werden die neuen kulturellen Erfahrungen auch die persönliche Entwicklung der jungen Menschen positiv beeinflussen.

Die Teilnehmer/innen werden seitens der Berufsschulen auf den Auslandsaufenthalt vorbereitet und vor Ort bei Bedarf durch unsere dänischen Kollegen unterstützt. Des Weiteren erhalten sie vom europäischen Förderprogramm Erasmus+ finanzielle Unterstützung.

Im Ausbildungsjahr 2014/15 ist der Zeitraum vom 13.06.2015 bis 04.07.2015 für den Auslandsaufenthalt vorgesehen. Die Teilnehmer werden täglich über ihre Erfahrungen in diesem Blog berichten.

Wir freuen uns auf Texte und Bilder aus Aalborg!

Das Organisationsteam
(Eva Baumgartner, Annabelle Mangold, Karl Schrader)