Thank You

I have been back for two weeks now and enjoyed the warm days we have had.

I would like to thank everyone who followed my blog and I hope you enjoyed my posts and pictures.
I would also like to send out a big THANKS to everyone who sponsored, donated, and were involved in the trip, without your help I would have missed out on one of the most memorable experiences.

Thank You

Amsterdam

Floriade

Today was our last visit. We took a two hour drive to Venlo where the 2012 Floriade world horticulture expo was being held.
It occurs every 10 years in the Netherlands, covering 66 hectares with 5 unique worlds showcasing different garden designs, flowers, outdoor furniture, world gardens and much more.

We too a cable car ride over the site, to see what was on offer. After walking around exploring for 4 hours it was time to head home. Enjoy the photos that I took.

Well the visits have come to an end, I am lucky enough to be staying on an extra week. I will continue blogging my journey from London to Scotland.

Metazet demonstration nursery

Today we travelled in true Holland style via bicycle. We hired bikes from the hotel and set off towards our destination, we were lucky the weather held off.
The demonstration nursery is a place where they show the latest technologies for nursery growing. From the machines you use to the packaging you use to transport,they also run trial for chemical companies, have trial glass houses for students.
They also have an area set up growing tomatoes in water instead of soil, it was still early stages but the system is looking towards being more sustainable.

Dry Hydroponics

Our second visit was to see how dry hydroponics worked. It was all a very simple system, the company build ponds about 50cm deep and put raft systems on the water. On the rafts u place the produce (lettuce) and then let it grow. There is no flow needed, no chemicals just water movement, this is done for 10 minutes every hour in each pond. Very low energy needed, the ponds are flushed out about every 1-2 years.
At the moment the predominately have grown lettuce but they are now trailing, basil, leeks, bok choy and cabbage.

Grape Museum

Our last visit today was to the Museum which showcased the history of the Westend Horticulture. We watched a video on the history dating back to the ice age and how the area became a significant horticulture area.

The museum had many artifacts including tools, machines, pots, knives ect. They also had the old vines which were first grown in hot houses, the vines we saw today were still in glass houses.

They also had a replica of the old Dutch Auction System, which was really interesting to see after we saw the modern version this morning.

Van Winden Tomato Growers

Van Winden is a family owned business who export tomatoes all over Europe. They run two glass houses with a total of 11 hectares of glass, within these they grow two different varieties.
They pick roughly 550kg of tomatoes every hour and harvest once a week. Whilst we were there they were harvesting and packing for supermarkets in Spain.

Their market is 80% supermarkets around Europe. It takes roughly (depending on location) 2.5 days from picking to reach the shelves.

0.5-1% of tomatoes are thrown out because of defects. During winter they collect rain water and store it in tanks to use in summer.