A Tree-mendous Adventure - Day 4

Alas, my final day was upon me.  I must confess that initially, feeling tired and isolated, I could not wait to return to my comfort zone in England.  However, as the week progressed, and I began to interact with my fellow colleagues, I began to really enjoy it.

I believe one factor for this is the transition from London life to a rural existence.  Within London, it is all go, rushing around, no time for anyone. However, when you escape the hectic bubble of London, you quickly realise that life does not need to be that manic, and this just slow down a bit.

It is difficult to adjust to a normal way of life after living in London, but I soon did in rural Hamburg as the week progressed.  I took a deep inhalation followed by a relaxing exhalation and enjoyed the fresh country air, and it felt very liberating indeed. 

It really does make me wonder why so many people choose to live their lives so hectically, but for some people they may not have that choice.

On a different note, for my final day I was put on the delivery/ despatchment team.  The morning’s work consisted of placing two semi-mature Acer platinoides on the lorry for delivery.  The trees had previously been lifted, bagged, tied and ready in the yard.  Again, this required heavy machinery to lift the trees and place onto the lorry.  We used a lot of coffee bean sacks in order to wrap around the tree bark in order minimise damage.

Once placed in the lorry, the trees are then secured with a ratchet strap.  These are brilliant as they achieve a level of stability and security that no man could achieve.  Simple physics.

The trees are then secured and going nowhere.  The lorry is ready to go off to its destination and provide the client with a specimen in the exact condition that it left the nursery.

After tea break, we then had an additional lorry to load.  This was much different to the previous as there were lots of varying sizes and a much bigger order.  The lorry had trees for three clients.  There were about a hundred trees and you think to yourself ‘How on Earth is all that going to fit?’  The key is preparation and taking your time.

It took the team and I three hours to load the lorry.  Once carefully packed, ratchet straps were used to tighten the lorry load.

Then it was time for lunch.  At the beginning of the week I was sitting on my own in the canteen, the lonely Englander!  Now, I found myself sitting at the table with a group of lads, with us all trying to communicate with broken English/ German.  I felt grateful for everyone being so accommodating and including me in the conversation.

The final afternoon was upon me.  The sun was out for the first time after a cold and windy week.  A suitable way to finish the week. 

The task for the afternoon was to tie poles in the semi-mature trees in the growing fields in order to encourage straight growth.  After this it was time to set up the irrigation systems again.  We are now at the back end of winter and when spring commences, the growth will extenuate the fields, buds will break, showering the nursery in a vast array of fresh, lush green and a variety of enigmatic flowers.

 All of this is an energy-intensive process and watering will be heavily required.  The irrigation systems had been covered for the winter in order to protect the pipes from cracking in the frost.

When the sun shines, and the air is fresh, it creates a nostalgic mood, summer is peaking its head around the corner.  Longer and warmer nights will soon be upon us.

The day had finally drawn to an end and it was time to say goodbye and be on my way.  Not before I expressed my gratitude to the team for having me.

Uwe, the taxi driver who initially escorted me there was to take me back to the airport.  We stopped off at the local gas station (the first shop I had seen all week!) and picked up some German beers to take home.  I gave one to Uwe to say thank you (although I must stress the fact that he did not drink this while driving!)

On the way to the airport, I was treated to a taxi tour of Hamburg as it was my first opportunity to see the city all week.  From what I witnessed, it looks like a great city, full of history, with a contemporary feel to it.  This is one place I will definitely be coming back to visit.

I said my goodbyes to Uwe and proceeded to make my way back to England.  The first thing I did when I got back home was to have a cup of tea.  It was the first one all week and it had never tasted so good!  A little bit of Britishness that will always be a part of me.

Throughout the week, I learned a great deal, and not just about trees.  It was a great experience, going out to a different country and having to try and get along with people where there is a slight communication breakdown.  It is all character building. 

It was fantastic to get away and see something different.  I had heard so much about Von Ehrens, so to be there and see it for real was something very special.  The scale of the operation and the efficiency of the work is something the UK could learn a great deal from.  We have a long way to go if we want to compete.

So to anyone who is involved with trees, forestry and arboriculture, we all share with Von Ehrens the same common interest;

Wir lieben Bäume.

A Tree-mendous Adventure - Day 3

On site at 06:45.  Germany is one hour ahead of UK time so I cannot help but think it is 05:45 back home and no one is up.  At Von Ehrens, people are starting to recognise my face so it is not as daunting, but the language barrier does present a problem.

I must say, thank you for football.  Personally, I am not the biggest football fan in the world; overpaid players who kick a ball for a living – and I am on site at 06:45, that is not a real job!  However, that is another story.

The beautiful thing about football is that no matter where you are in the world, it is a way of communicating with about 90% of men from all walks of life.  Now, I am from Stockport, Greater Manchester, but for arguments sake it is easier to say to people that I am from Manchester , in which people instantly think of Manchester United.  So, I basically pretended I was a Manchester United fan just to get along.  To say to people that I was actually a Stockport County fan would only complicate matters, although I presume people would understand what I would mean saying ‘Stockport County’ when it is followed by ‘nicht so gut’.

On a different note, the task for the morning was getting 500 semi-mature trees ready for delivery.  The trees were already bagged and netted.  All that was required was taking the labels off the trees and making sure that the trees had stem protection.

After this, the machines would do the work, lifting the trees onto the lorry ready for delivery.

Once the order was completed, we then proceeded to spend an hour cleaning and tidying the yard where we had been working.  This is such an important thing to do as it puts things away in their correct place, eliminates hazards and is a safe environment to work in.  If the working environment is pleasant to be in, then the productivity of the work can only be improved.

For the afternoon, I was moved onto tree pruning.  At Von Ehrens, it is a high-scale operation involving a machine which a person stands in with secateurs, and the machine moves up and down so that you can get to all parts of the tree to shape it accordingly.

The afternoon was spent pruning Quercus roba, which was in a semi-mature state and has been in the ground for some time, experiencing a hard prune each year.  There are two approaches towards attitudes of pruning;

As a person who is fascinated by the beauty of trees, there is a part of me that cannot help but think that this is a slightly cruel practise to keep pruning these trees so hard in order to achieve a desired shape.  To me, it is the human equivalent of a model starving themselves in order to be thin and achieve a certain body shape.  It is not natural and it is essentially manipulating nature as you prevent the tree from taking on a natural shape.

On the other hand, people have been coppicing and pollarding trees for centuries.  This does give a certain character to the trees and some of our oldest trees are pollarded/ coppiced trees.  Additionally, pruning does increase the longevity of the tree.  Furthermore, trees do need to be pruned to be managed and maintained for health and safety and protecting the public in parks and streets.  So there are different attitudes towards pruning and there is a fine line between essential pruning and pruning for human appeasement.

The day, it was very interesting and varied and again opened my eyes to the scale of the nursery is huge and is seriously big business.

Pictures soon to follow.

A Tree-mendous Adventure - Day 2

After crashing out at 9pm, I felt recharged and refreshed ready to do a full day’s work.  I arrived on site at 06:45, ready to begin work at 07:00.  There is no time to waste in Germany, this is one reason why the whole operation is so efficient, absolutely no time wasting!

I was then put with a team ready to do a day of tree lifting.  Once I established my position in the team, we got a good system going.  The machine that collects the tree from the ground is a monster.  It is essentially four pneumatic shovels put together which closes around the tree and buries itself into the soil like a knife through butter.  It closes around the tree roots and lifts it out in one whole scoop.  If a human was to try this then they would not get very far. 

Once lifted from the ground, the tree is then taken over to the netting and wire which will encase the root ball, thus protecting it from any damage during transportation.  The wire is then tightened round the root ball using a drill with a hook drill-piece which tightens the whole thing.

After this, the tree is then gently lowered to the ground where the crown can be tied together with rope, thus eliminating any damage during transportation once more.

Moreover, the machine will then pick up the tree(s) and it is ready to be distributed all over the world, depending where that may be.  A great majority of Von Ehrens’ clients are from the UK.

This process was repeated all day and in all we managed to bag up 40 mature trees.  Slow and steady really does win the race in this instance, as trying to complete the task quickly results in damage to the trees.  The trees which we were handling are €5000, so it is best to take your time.

After a busy day, the end of the working day was upon us.  This time I managed to find my way back to the hotel with no surprises along the way.  Ready for another day of it tomorrow.

Pictures to follow.

A Tree-mendous Adventure - Day 1

It seems to be a common belief that the impression of England is that we are a nation of gardeners and have a strong association with trees, forests and woodland.  However, all that can now be heavily questioned, as you may discover that it is Germany who is setting the precedent for trees.

Through my internship, I have been fortunate to spend some time out in Hamburg, Germany where the legendary Lorenz Von Ehren tree nursery resides.

On Sunday evening I had my bags packed ready for a taxi to take me to London Bridge Rail Station at 03:30am.  It would have been 3 different bus journeys to London Bridge at that time in the morning, so I opted for the taxi.  From there I had to catch the train to London Gatwick.  It is never easy getting from A to B in London, especially at that time in the morning.  After pretty much all night travelling, I arrived in Hamburg and was escorted by Uwe, the taxi driver to Lorenz Von Ehren site.

It is a strange feeling when you have read about a place or seen photos of a place, and then you finally arrive at the place for real.

I met with Konstanze, one of the Sales Managers who deals with Great Britain (which was a relief, as my German lessons from school is very much undermined by Konstanze's English – or pretty much all of the staff their).  It is an understatement to say that it does make you wish you could be fluent in German.

However, I was driven round the site, and I could not honestly believe the scale and magnitude of  the site.  This is one serious tree operation.  It is basically a tree farm.  There would be one field of Betula Pendula – 20 years, one filed of Acer platinoides – 30 years, a field of Tilia.  Moreover, I do not believe anything comes close to this in the UK.  We have lots to learn and could may well benefit from the German’s work ethic and efficiency.

There are fields and fields of trees planted, as far as the eye can see.

I was then put with a team to work with for the rest of the afternoon.  Polish must be a pre-requisite, and English speaking is pretty much redundant, so as you can imagine, it was a pretty solitary affair.  I had to understand what we were supposed to be doing by watching someone first, and then hopefully comprehend it and get on with it.

That afternoon, we were getting 8 Tilia cordata (about 30 years old and weighing at least 5 tonnes each) ready for a delivery.  The trees had already been lifted in the morning and needed to be tied up and then lifted onto lorries using massive machinery.  It makes lifting the trees look completely effortless.  The whole operation of Von Enrens is completely machinery dependent.

Once, that task was complete, we then went to a field of Quercus roba where we battled with the cold and brutal Hamburg wind and straightened up the oaks that had been blown slanted out of the ground.  A very difficult task to do if low on morale indeed.  I learnt the hard way with this as I had only 3 hours sleep and did not bring enough layers of clothing with me, so I pretty much shivered for the rest of the afternoon.  To top it all at the end of the day, I got lost and could not find the place where I was staying.  After about one hour, running through the woods, and managing to ask a stranger in German where the Hotel Rosengarten is, I managed to get back to the warmth.  Although now I was boiling hot from running around for the last hour.  He who chops the wood warms himself twice…I suppose.

Pictures soon to follow.

Fit to BOST...

In this concrete jungle which we called London, it can be very difficult for everyone to have access to green space.  Furthermore, even when they do have an area of green space, the area can be run-down, degraded and just generally left in a poor space, deterring anyone from spending recreational time there.

This is where BOST (Bankside Open Spaces Trust) comes in.  BOST are a charity based in Southwalk, working with the local community and volunteers to develop local parks and gardens so that residents have the opportunity to have access to functional and practical green spaces.

 For my next placement I was lucky enough to get involved with BOST and spend the day with a community gardening project based in Southwalk.

The time was 07:30 on a Saturday morning, it is a time on a Saturday that should be a myth, very early indeed and not many people experience it.  The weather was dull to begin with, but as the morning progressed, the sun peeked out from the blanket of clouds.  It was the first bit of warm sun that I think we had experienced in a long while; the burning sensation on the neck was an unfamiliar one.  The positive change in weather seemed to represent the change BOST would implement onto the selected green space.

The person running the ship is Helen John – Hej for short.  A great character who’s vision and commitment to helping the local community is an inspiration and is what gives BOST the drive it requires.

The purpose of the days work was to take an average green space of a local housing estate and create raised capillary beds so that the local residents had the opportunity to grow their own vegetables.  These raised beds were no easy task, with massive timber sleepers, tonnes of gravel and mulch, this was one serious operation.

We got to work straight away, clearing and tidying the area ready for the beds to go on. As the morning rolled on, the local residents began gathering to the site, with their excitement and anticipation being the driving force for the project. 

Once the area was prepared, we then laid down the capillary sheet.  The purpose of this capillary sheet was to prevent any toxins or metals coming through the soil and contaminating the pH of the soil in the raised beds.  Personally, I had never worked with this before so it was a learning experience for me.

Once that was down and cut to size, we then laid down the gravel at the base to keep the capillary sheet down and also make the surface level in order for the timber sleepers to lay on.  Adjusting the timber sleepers in order for them to fit, be straight and level was a very tedious process indeed.  After much tweaking we finally got the base of the beds level.  This is very important to get right as if the foundations are not level, then the whole thing will be wrong.  Moreover, once this complete, they are then screwed together using very thick bolts.  Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail. 

No time for tea break this morning as the team were too keen to stop and we worked straight on through.  The next stage was to fill the beds with gravel to 15cm.  After this it is time to put the second layer of sleepers on top of the bottom sleepers so that the beds are nice and high.  Then they are tightened again.  These raised beds are going no where.

We must have prepared six beds in all.  However, the time was 17:30 and we had ran out of time.  Time files when having fun.  Mot of the hard work was done, the only thing left to finish was filling them with soil and getting the seeds and seedlings planted.  This is to be finished another time.

What I found inspiring to see was the community spirit that the project sparked.  The neighbours flocked to the site, some not knowing anyone initially, but conversation flowed and laughter followed and by the end of the day everyone knew each other and it felt like a real team effort.

In London, it is such a densely populated area, with so many people from different backgrounds, but yet it can feel very isolated at times as people are always in a rush and no one has time for one another.  However, on this project, things slowed down and people made the time for one another and it was really great to see everyone working as a team and becoming friends.

As well as creating and developing green spaces for local communities, one of the main objectives of BOST is to get people together and have a collective goal in which the whole neighbourhood can be proud of.  Using green spaces as a way to unite people and create a sense of pride of where they live can only be a positive thing and the work that BOST do is something we can all learn from.

Belderbos Landscapes - January 2011

Finally the cold snap of winter is upon us, and what better way to embrace the weather than with a bit of hard landscaping!  That will put hairs on your chest!

I got in touch with Belderbos Landscapes via Orchard Dene Nurseries.  Belderbos Landscapes is an established landscape and garden design company; building and maintaining gardens and outdoor spaces in London and the South East.

I spent a couple of days working on a couple of sites to get an insight into the sort of work that Belderbos Landscapes undertakes.  As with all hard landscaping, it is not for the faint-hearted, and is a bit of a hard graft.

However, it is nothing that I am not used to, as me Dad used to get me to do labouring since I was old enough to carry a full wheelbarrow, so about 12.

Both sites that I worked on had me preparing the ground for levelling for turf laying, bit of cementing, bed preparation and just general labouring.  The thing with hard landscaping is that it is hard work and it is a team effort.  We all work together to make certain tasks easier and thus the whole operation moves in in a much more efficient and fluid motion, getting the job completed on time.

Unfortunately, I did not manage to see the jobs through to completion, but I could see where it was going and what the final outcome was to be, and it looked like both sites were going to be stunning domestic gardens, guaranteed to cause jealously amongst the neighbours!

                                                                         Site 1

Site 2

Winfield House - December 2011

When it comes to Christmas, there is no one who does Christmas decorations like the Americans.  This is exactly the case when it came to decorating the U.S Ambassador's residency at Winfield House for the festive season.  Basically, the rule of thumb is 'bigger is better'.

Steven and myself had the task of decorating two mammoth Nordmann Firs.  One for the gold room, and one for the children.  Additionally, we also had to decorate the staircase with festive wreaths, berries, pine cones and holly.  As you can imagine, the staircase in the house was not a small one.

I must admit, I do love putting up the Christmas tree.  It gets you in the festive spirit and puts you in a good mood.  However, nothing quite compares to the scale of these trees.  I salvaged every moment of decorating the house as I may never get to do it again so I did not want to waste this opportunity.

It took three days, wrestling with ladders, baubles, teddies, fir needles, lights, holly, berries and just about everything else associated with Christmas, but we completed it.  It was worth all the (surprisingly) hard work and it looked spectacular when finished.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, one to really put you in the Christmas mood and was a lot of fun.  A moment that I will not forget.  Christmas will always seem so small from now on, it just does not compare to the size and splendour of Winfield House.