All posts by Tero Klinga

Getting Stoned

Learning Diaries,

Good morning, I still don`t understand how god morgon is supposed to be pronounced. Even though I have said it several times every morning. And this morning is the morning I don`t anymore wake up for work in GardenWorks.

So I spent 3 weeks working in this gardening company called GardenWorks, which maintains and builds gardens for all kinds of customers. Let`s just say this first: this is a company I can recommend if someone is looking for a place for work or practise. From the first day on, I already got to do just the same things as the actual workers do.

These weeks included planting, sowing, a bit of lawnmowing and risusavotta, and a lot of stonework! Actually I don´t even try to list every single different kind of task I did. One day we even took a flagpole down, And the other day we lifted it up again. I was suprised that on the first day I already laid some paving stones. Which was nice. During this practise, I was allowed to use many machines and tools the workers needed in their projects. I will post pictures when technological conditions allow it. And even risusavotta can be educative; if the trees happen to be something You don´t meet in Your home forests.

It was pure pleasure to work in +25c sunshine weather for many days. Well, I have to admit that at some moments it was a bit exhausting. Lately I have spent my freetime mostly by exploring the plants this local area and school garden contains. And of course hanging out with friends, and doing some gardening with them.

Factory Work In a Nursery

Learning Diaries,

Hi, again. I have been listening to Danish language for 5 weeks now. It is still a mystery how they pronounce their language. Even though  I have worked for the last two weeks mainly with Danish people unlike in the greenhouse, which will be the next subject.

I spent 3 weeks working in a company called Graff Kristensen, which is huge  hibiscus plantation, at least in my point of view. Well, I guess anyone could consider it huge, because it contains hundreds of thousands of plants at all times. Most of them are grown from cuttings which are originally from Vietnam. Reason for this is that the mother plants are better in Vietnam´s sunshine. The cuttings are brought by aeroplanes to Netherlands, and then by trucks to Denmark. Six months after their arrival to this nursery those cuttings have become nice hibiscus flowers, which shall travel all around the world. This coming of cuttings and sending of final products happen weekly. This is a lot of energy spent on producing dying decorations. Just think about an aeroplane with a cargo of cuttings for a decorative plant.

Back to more usual issues; I enjoyed my time working in this greenhouse, and I am thankful for the people there. I now have the experience of almost every kind of practical work in an industrial scale greenhouse. I had good guidance to the greenhouses practises and introduction to their company.

Hibiscus is a nice looking flower, and you can use it in infusions and it has also other ways of use. You can find more information about it if You can read this. I don´t recommend to use these ones which are grown for decorations, because of the wide range of chemicals sprayed on them.

General Issues

Training Places,

Hi, have a nice time reading this. I am not a name, I am a number 17161. At least in my working place´s database. Well, I was given a name Tero, which has been in use since that. And who knows how old my soul is. This body I use in this existence is almost 29 years old. But what might really matter is that I am practicing  greenhouse work and paving now in Denmark. My accommodation is in a gardening school called jordbrugetsskole (or simply Green Academy) in Beder. The Danish students living here are nice people, which prevents me from sleeping enough. In greenhouse I will work for 3 weeks and then I will change to a paving company for 3 weeks. I arrived here in 17.4.2017, on a day when no markets was open. But I was lucky to get coffee and bread from a local bakery.

The very next day I started to work for company called Graff Kristensen, which is located in Sabro, 10km to northwest from Aarhus. Their main product is hibiscus, but they grow also poinsettia, and I have seen some cacti growing there too. It is my first experience working in a greenhouse so I really don´t know if there is something which would be called special in their procedures. But what seems to be common practice in this field of business is that majority of the workers come from eastern Europe. And that is a thing which makes the work even more enjoyable for me. Even though it is a bad thing that global economy is in imbalance, which causes the need for people to travel away from their homes. These people have welcomed me well and they have taught me their languages. So I have learned more Polish and Ukrainian than Danish, and anyone who has ever tried to speak Danish, understands why.

So far this experience has been beyond all the praising words. In only one week I have had so many new experiences that it is already hard to remember those all. For example in last Sunday my friend Martin made me go into the sea in hangover, right after we had woken up. And I can tell it was cold because of the insane wind I never have to feel in Finland. It was more of a challenge than going into avanto last winter. I don´t know if I have the guts to party with him anymore if that is the way we shall always cure our hangovers.

Pictures might be provided later. Until then just imagine a flat land in spring.

Could someone please explain me this existence?