The tour by video.....

Check out our students whirlwind tour at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQvCfz07WBM

Back to work!

It's back to work as usual for all the travelling staff and students on Monday, so we will be updating the blog with our outcomes of all the travel and technologies we discovered whilst we were overseas !

Floriade

Today we travelled for two hours to the town of Venlo to attend the Floriade expo. A giant horticultural exhibition that is only held every ten years. Some great sights, and a recycle plant next door caught fire for good measure while we were there!

"Dry Hydroponics"

Our second visit for the day was to look at a Dry Hydroponic system.

This involved polystyrene trays being floated on a nutrient rich solution and the plants roots absorbing the water and nutrients.

A great system that we are hoping to install at Chisholm on our return.

The Demonstration Nursery

In to the Dutch way of life today by riding bikes to our visits!

A quick 10k ride took us to the Demonstration Nursery - where we were able to see a large range of technology based equipment, as well as some practical solutions for a range of tasks.

Favorite item being the electric trolleys that the students could ride on!

Early morning start

We hit the road at 6.00am this morning on what was a very busy day.

First stop was to the flower auction at where we witnessed to Dutch auction system and the massive amounts of flower sales.

Next we went to C.G. van Wyndens - an eleven hectare Tomato Farm.

After this we were taken buy our host for the day - Ronald - to a trial nursery site where we tasted Tomatoes and saw the plants growing.

Finally it was off to the Westland Museum to look at the history of the glasshouse industry.

And tomorrow, we are on the bikes riding to our site visits!

The Priva Campus

Our third visit of the day was to the Priva Campus which is the head office of Priva NL. We met with Export Manager Dennis de Witt, and we also had a tour around the facility.

Rijk Zwaan

Two interesting visits today with the Rijk Zwaan company.

The first was to the Tomato demonstration nursery where we were given a tour by the manager, Leo van Meurs, followed by a trip around the RZ seed treatment plant at De Lier.

The picture below will show you all the hygiene PPE that we all had to wear!

Lea Valley Growers Association

This afternoon we spent time the with LVGA Secretary, Lee and President Gary at his property, Valley Grown Nurseries.

We were able to gain a good insight in to the growing processes that Gary uses for his crop, and the issues that he faces as a progressive grower.

VertiGardens at Colgrave Ball

An very interesting morning with a visit to Colgrave Ball to meet Sandy Shepard, who gave us a great insight into the vertical garden system. This is a great system that we believe we can implement on our return to Australia.

Tangmere Nursery

This afternoon we visited Tangmere Nursery - a massive nursery which has 30 hectares of glasshouse producing sweet peppers.

We also got a good view of Priva Fusion in operation.

Hillier's Nursery

This morning we had a real treat in being able to visit one of Europe's top nursery stock and tree production nurseries.

We toured the shrub and tree production sites and met up with Martin Hillier who gave us a good insight as to how the company operates.

Stourhead National Trust 2

A few pictures of this National Trust property and the beautiful grounds

Stourhead - National Trust 1

Today's visit was primarily to look at a wash down system for equipment and machinery that totally recycles the water used in the process. Andy Vincent from Highspeed Group was on site (having travelled some four hours from Keighley just to see us - huge effort Andy), and gave us a guided tour of the "Clearwater Biological washpad water recycling system" in place at Stourhead. This trip was pre arranged by Kate George with her interest in establishing a recycled water wash down area at Woodlands Golf course. The system provides a great solution to retaining and reusing water for machinery cleaning, and the introduction of micro organisms in to the water means that the recycled water doesn't smell. For further details please check out the student blogs, as well as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJm05zFkFCI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Eden Project 3

Some more photos of this fantastic place.

Eden Project 2

This afternoon we ad a fantastic time talking to Dr Alistair Griffiths (the curator of Horticultural Science) and gaining a behind the scenes view of the Eden Project.

Finally Kate Penny, Stuart and Will all took to the skies on the Skywire - a 660 meter long "flying fox" that takes you right over the top of the Eden Project!

At the Eden Project

Today we are at the Eden Project and we have just climbed to the top of the Tropical Rainforest Biome where it was a warm 35C. Some fantastic plants on display.

Capel Manor College

Today we visited Capel Manor College in Enfield, London. Capel Manor offers training in a number of Horticultural courses, and we had a guided tour by the principal, Steve, and two of the senior staff members, Julie and Tom.

Capel Manor have achieved some fantastic results in terms of developing landscape gardens, and also have some great industry sponsorship programs. A highlight being the creation of the Australian Garden which mirrors our own Royal Botanic Garden at Cranbourne.

Tonight we are in Cornwall after a 5 hour drive to get here, and we will be visiting the Eden Project.

For pictures of our travels, check out the students individual blog sites.

Our students are in England and touring already!

After nearly 24 hours flying, our four VET Mobility students finally touched down at London Heathrow, and have started their study tour.

And despite being a little tired, they are all in good health and spirits.

So after meeting staff member, Tony Bundock, it was off to the car hire depot to collect the transport, and then a one hour journey across to the town of Buckhurst Hill where they are staying for their first night.

With bags duly deposited at the hotel it was straight in to action with a visit to three garden centres in the local area. This included visits to Chigwell Nursery, Van Hague's Nursery, and Harlow Garden Centre where they were able to see first hand the range of nursery stock and gardening assessories on offer in the UK.

The weather is fantastic, and with a beautiful 30C the English weather is certainly giving a great welcome to the students.

Lunch time saw a different type of garden being visited, that of the "Rainbow and Dove" public house!

This afternoon is an R and R session to recover from the flight, and tomorrow we are off to visit Capel Manor College, and then a five and a half hour drive to Cornwall to see the Eden Project on Tuesday.

The adventure begins!

After months of planning and fundraising, our students are on their way to Europe!

Their Cathay Pacific flight took off from Melbourse this afternoon and Kate P, Will, Stuart and Kate G are now heading towards Hong Kong. They should arrive around midnight, and then transfer to a flight to London, which should see them arrive at London's Heathrow airport at 6.20am local time.

Staff member, Tony Bundock will be at Heathrow to greet them and then it will be time to head to the hotel for a well earned shower!

As part of the tour the students will be visiting some large garden centres on the Sunday, but an early night is on the agenda so that they can grab some sleep.

We will be posting plenty of photos on this blog, but make sure you follow the students individual links so that you can hear from them first hand.

Felco supporting Kate Penny

Felco have been very generous in their support of one of our travelling students. 

Kate Penny was the lucky recipient of a very generous Felco package to assist her with both her fund raising for the trip, as well as equipping her with some tools and a jacket for her work. As part of the sponsorship package, Kate was presented with a cheque for $500 as well as a jacket and pruning tools.

Kate and Chisholm staff member, Tony Bundock, recently visited Blaise Vinot and Steve Ebbott of Felco for the presentation.

"I am so grateful to Felco for this donation, it really means a lot to me" said Kate. "They have been extremely generous, and I would like to publically acknowledge their sponsorship - it makes a great difference."

 Pictured left to right are:- Tony Bundock, Kate Penny and Blaise Vinot.

And with the trip now only days away, we will also be updating the blog on a daily basis next week so that you can follow the students progress. If you haven't already put your e mail address on the follow by e mail part of this blog site then do so now so that you don't miss any updates!

Great sponsorship from Polyfab

Last week, our travelling students hosted their fund rasing quiz night, and it was a great night with plenty of fun.

In addition to the money that was raised, Barry Jamieson, the Director of Polyfab Australia made a very generous donation of $500 towards the students fund.  This was a really generous offer, and all of us involved in the project would like to publically thank Barry and Polyfab for their kind offer.

                                        

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