RONTOGIANNIS M.NIKOLAOS
AGRICULTURE-GARDENER
It was August of '80 when my parents, fighters with solid values in the difficult arena of bio-wrestling, but also beautiful people of hard work and non-negotiable honest love on the difficult cobblestones of life, having escaped the trap of exile in faraway Canada decided to return to our homeland, to the place where they were born and raised. So at that time I knew for the first time my grandfather Nikola, my grandfather Nisos, my relatives, my fellow villagers but also my village, Tsoukalades Lefkada a beautiful and very hospitable village, a village with very beautiful people, educated and renowned scientists in letters, arts, culture and sports.
Among the experiences I had as I grew up, I typically remember my grandfather getting up early every day, picking up his shovel, a shovel in which he placed his ax, a sharpener, his pruner and some bread and cheese with water, loading them on the donkey to go where his heart and soul rested. My joy was great every time I saw the plants in our garden grow, the flowers bloom, the birds and butterflies fly in the garden with the help of my grandfather, who never stopped, conforming and grooming his yard with muscardines, sardines, basil and roses, to day his fields, but also to spread more and more his olive and vineyards to ensure for his family all those products that resulted from the blessed crops of olive and vineyard. So as I grew up downstairs with my grandparents Nikolas and my grandmother Nisos, my childhood and adolescent souls began to be grafted into both the daily experiences I grew up with, the countless stories he told me about their lives in inaccessible and uphill road of their life, as well as from the immense love they nurtured for mother earth, for the flowers, for the olive tree and the vineyard.
The memory becomes cool, as figures of loved ones pass, who had the characteristics of fighting spirit, patience and perseverance, humanity but also faith for a better tomorrow and when my own expectation was fulfilled and I finished Agricultural Technologist in Heraklion, Crete , with a postgraduate specialization in Organic Agriculture and Garden Architecture, I started working in the Construction and Maintenance of Gardens and Green Areas with Panagrotiki of Crete, while in 1999 I obtained a certificate of work experience, as an on-site employer and employer section of Kastelli junction (ch. 8 + 400) to the junction of the eastern exit of Hersonissos of B.OA. Crete no. project 9471504 D.E “budget 120,000,000 drachmas. from the Directorate of Construction Control of Works of the Region of Crete. My postgraduate specialization in Organic Agriculture contributed to the continuation of my professional career in the period 2001-2003 as Organic Crop Controller at the Institute of Certification and Control of Organic Crops when I was born in 2003, while my specialty was in Greece. I staffed with the specialty of Agronomist TE the Development Lefkada SA OTA for the implementation of the OPAH program (Integrated Rural Development Programs) but also the Local Program "Implementation of the LEADER Approach".
Feeling that my life belongs to the care and protection of a green world and guided by the words of my dear fellow folklorist poet and writer Lambros S. Vrettos who in simple, sleek and attractive language states: “to go further, further, he must know what has happened, and the better and deeper he knows it, the better he proceeds safely with knowledge and depth ", I created from the need of joy that the opportunity to share Garden Care offers you.
Considering that the garden is a great place for emotion, thoughts and beautiful dreams and in fact as beautiful as flowers, Garden Care is a beautiful group of beautiful people who are united by the need to express themselves through their love for nature and the man and at the same time a specialized, well-trained and trained human resources with the necessary agricultural knowledge that seeks the continuous and further improvement of his knowledge and skills by the continuous attendance of seminars of the School of Garden and Landscape Architecture.
The people of Garden Care have created a strong, full of smiles and positive energy dream Team, a team that knows its job well, having all the necessary means to implement it quickly, easily and completely successfully. Garden Care is for each of its partners a second family, a very important School of life, one
