Monday 26 May 2014

Switzerland and Germany.


The first few weeks of our adventure to the UK and Europe have been rather eventful. After a massive 13 hour flight from Singapore to London and an 8 hour flight before that, we landed in London.
Explored the city and organised our travels to meet up with Jenni in Switzerland. I met Jenni through working at the Heritage Nursery with her when she came over on exchange. I showed her my home in Moruya and it was great to meet up with her again to be shown her part of the world, and what an amazing part it is.
She lives just out of Zurich in a small town of Bulach, she took us on sight seeing tours to the Rhinefalls, up to Santis Mountain and through the beautiful old cities of that area of Switzerland.

We also made a day to go to Europa Park in Germany. It was a fun filled day, on roller coasters and rides. But not only that it also had a lot to do with Landscape design..... There is structure to the way the theme park is set out to ensure that people directed through the space easily. It needs to accommodate to the masses of crowds so even the lines to get onto the ride is a journey and designed to distract you from the fact that you are in a queue for almost an hour. All this then tied into the over all aspect of a theme park and that is a total Utopia- A perfect place in the world for fun and adventure.

Gardens that were well maintained, bright, happy and framed the pathways that lead you throughout the park

Green grassed spaces for relaxing families, with a juxtaposition of roller coasters flying through the space adding excitement, thrill and movement.... 


I was also fortunate to get a chance to met with Paulus, Christine and Ragula from Grolimund Gartenbau AG. Arrangements were made with Bruno my ex-employer from the Heritage Nursery (He is Swiss) and he called on a favour from his good friend Paulus.
This is a link to their web page to learn more about Paulus's company.
One of the latest of Paulus designs for a play ground in a block of apartment buildings
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.grolimund.ch/news.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3DGrolimund%2BGartenbau%2BAG%26es_sm%3D93

Ragula showed Mick and I around the grounds and through the office talking to us about how the firm is run. We were then shown with Paulus some of his finished landscapes, and his own home garden. You could tell he was a very hard working man with a love of plants and good design. It was a great experience to see first hand how a well run garden design, maintenance and construction company works and to be able to see that there are so many possibilities in this industry within that field.

We made our way up to Dusseldorf to meet with Annette Irish- the President of the Australian Institute of horticulture. She had planned to take me through some of Dusseldorf's retail nurseries to see how different they are to those in Australia or other places around the world.
They are beautiful- and on a very large scale
Colour blocking, vertical lines on the back shelf displays
Colour blocking, with large open pathways that are continuous throughout the nursery. 
 Some of the techniques that were used in these nurseries were vertical lines with stock and colour blocking, as they are more appealing to the human eye. Attention to detail with all plants is critical for the sale of those plants. The use of add on's being placed near products will increase sales. The fact to have paths that are continuous throughout the nursery to ensure fluent flow. Re-stocking and stock rotation, they had "plant" displays with new releases of plants to show off the product to the customers. And great variety of plants to choose from, though I couldn't help to compare to the retail nursery I worked in at Canberra for Bruno and Hedy. The Heritage Nursery Yarralumla. https://www.facebook.com/TheHeritageNursery I found that I too was taught these techniques of retail nurseries, perhaps on a smaller scale.
Large scale nurseries 

Mick and I managed to also squeeze in visiting 3 of  Dusseldorf's wonderful gardens throughout the city in our short stay. The highlight was Nord park (North park). This garden had large open spaces to show the massive scale of the area with magnificent water feature. We were then lead to a secluded Japanese style garden that used perfectly trimmed conifers to add interest into the garden and traditional ideas of Japanese planting that reflect the natural world that surrounds us, mountains, lakes and plants.
Formal and stunning part of Nord path.
Large scale Lawns that lead you into the secluded areas of the park, Nord Park, Dusseldorf, interestingly not a soul walked over the lawn while we sat there to rest our feet, everyone took the designated paths. 

Annual Planting beds within Nord Park, Dusseldorf
Perfectly trimmed conifers with the colour of the azaleas and Rhodo's in the back ground of the Japanese Garden, Nord Park Dusseldorf
Beautiful flowering Rhododendrons and Azaleas with water fall in the back ground, Japanese Garden in Nord Park, Dusseldorf
The lake in the Japanese Gardens, Nord Park, Dusseldorf
We visited as well the Dusseldorf Botanic Garden,  though to me it looked a bit neglected, and hard to find our way around. Though was good to see different types of plants and some Australian there too. The final garden was the Benrath Manor, A Baroque style garden, with glorious garden rooms. There was also a community vegetable garden within the grounds a wonder way to bring people out doors and into a spectacular garden.

All in all it was a fabulous trip to see how Switzerland and Germany treat their gardens and out door spaces and has given me some inspiration.

Green house at the Botanic Gardens Dusseldorf 
Dusseldorf Botanic Gardens


Ally way of perfectly pruned trees very visually appealing to draw you down the space.
The Grand Lake and view out of the Manor house at Benrath, Dusseldorf
Benrath Manor House, Dusseldorf Germany
Community vegetable garden at Benrath Manor, Dusseldorf
Sunken gardens with a water feature behind at Benrath Manor, Dusseldorf





































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