Helping to bring nature to life, Hans Neher is a ‘Special Person’

Jul 21, 2019 News, Special Person

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“To be a landscaper, you have to read a lot and dream a lot; you shouldn’t copy what other people do, you must dream and you must be able to convince people of what you are giving them.”

By Sharmain Grainger

“Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience,” is perhaps one of the most interesting and thought-provoking maxims known to mankind. This is in light of the fact that it amplifies the well-known notion that having “patience is a virtue” and by extension a quality that can truly set people apart.

Among those blessed with this outstanding quality is a man by the name of Hans Neher. Neher is a landscaper, and as you can imagine, he has long been able to embrace that virtue of patience, as without patience, he may never be able to help bring to life designs that essentially provide his clients with their own little piece of nature.
Despite being a well-trained and successful engineer who has many outstanding projects under his belt, Hans believes that he was born to have a close relationship with nature. “Since I was a kid, I wanted to be a gardener…gardening was always in my heart; I grew flowers, trees everything,” said Hans, as he reminisced on his young days back in Bavaria, Germany – the land of his birth. Had he been able to have his way, he would have embraced that ingrained passion since then, but it simply wasn’t an option as, according to him, “everybody had to be an engineer, you didn’t have a choice about that.”
Fast-forward to today, Hans, having adopted Guyana as his homeland, has been the creator behind some breathtaking landscaping work which many, over the years, have grown to appreciate. But it hasn’t always been an easy task to get people to appreciate nature, he confessed during an interview. Moreover, in the fac

e of some harsh criticisms, which are often balanced out by the appreciation of those who stick around to see his handiwork eventually come to life, Hans continues to embrace his passion without reservation.
LIFE IN GERMANY
On February 27, 1949, Hans was born to parents Julius and Christel Neher as the eldest of three children, which their union produced. He remembered learning that his mother, before uniting with his father, was a refugee from eastern Germany after the war.
His father was a respectable engineer who worked with the City Council in Germany who insisted that he become an engineer too. As an engineer, Hans recalled working with a number of big name companies. He was becoming very successful too. But underneath all the success, there remained his dire need to be one with nature.For Hans, at times this even meant embracing the simplest form of gardening. Moreover, finding time to connect with nature in this way became more of a hobby, even a favourite pastime of his.

As he grew older, took a wife and started a family, Hans yearned to expand his horizon. This saw him venturing outside of Germany to conduct some major engineer projects. He recalled heading to Trinidad and then Barbados, and was even required to travel to Guyana a few times as he was a lead engineer attached to the German federally-owned international cooperation enterprise – GTZ, which was in fact responsible for the Moco Moco Hydro plant in Region Nine. This saw him becoming very familiar with this part of the world, so much so that he fell even more in love with nature.
As he recalls it though, Barbados was the island nation that he completed his last major engineering work. He hadn’t a desire to return to Germany, and so he had to make the life-altering decision to choose a new home.
CHOOSING GUYANA
His ultimate choice was Guyana, since by then he had made a great deal of friends from his travels here over the years. He was also convinced that it was the best nation for him to truly see his nature-inspired visions materialise and thrive.
“I chose Guyana; I could have gone to Jamaica, Belize, Trinidad, but because of my passion for horticulture, I chose to come to Guyana, and it was because of my many friends here too,” said a smiling Hans.

He arrived back in 1990 with his wife Heidi and four children – Astrid, Kerstin, Bjoern and Brita – in tow. However, it wasn’t long after their arrival and decision to settle that two of his children, Astrid and Bjoern, decided that Guyana wasn’t the best home for them. They returned to Germany. Kerstin and Brita remained, along with his wife. Brita has since evolved to take the lead of the company her father was eventually able to establish – Hans Neher Landscaping – which currently has an office on Sheriff Street opposite the Survival Supermarket. The business is one that has taken on board a number of Venezuelan migrants. Doing this comes natural to Hans, as he often calls to mind his mother being a refugee back in the day. “Helping them is close to my heart when I think about what refugees go through. They need work and a place to stay and I help to give some of them that,” said Hans.But it wasn’t the easiest task to establish a landscaping business in Guyana, Hans recalled even as he revealed, “I’m more in the background these days, organising and planning the whole thing.” This disclosure was, however, especially modest, as Hans is more than often in the forefront putting in the needed landscaping work.

Reflecting on how he was able to bring his landscaping business to life, Hans spoke of many persons not understanding his decision to move away from major engineering projects to landscaping on a full-time basis. “Everybody was asking me why…I was making good money, but I told them it wasn’t about the money, it was for the satisfaction. That was the real motivation for me.”
He was prepared for the challenge, especially financially. And it certainly panned out to be the most challenging experience of his life. “It was very bad…surely I went into bankruptcy first. Then after some years after you decide to stay without money or leave without money; we decided we would stay without money,” said Hans as a smile formed on his face. He doesn’t regret that decision.
LANDSCAPING TRADITION
But then people started to take note of his landscaping work, so much so that he was even offered a few projects. Among his most outstanding that he readily recalled was the revamping of the Promenade Gardens, landscaping at a number of other prominent locations including the Caricom Secretariat headquarters, Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry Kingston headquarters, Splashmin’s and Barama.
Barama, he said, was indeed one of his earliest and best projects. In fact, he recalled that there were some who didn’t believe that he was capable to make grass and trees grow there in such a manner to improve the aesthetics. There was even some sabotaging of his work. “This was a huge work…it was 10 days implementation, 183 truckloads of grass, trees, everything…some people just couldn’t believe this was possible and somebody came during the night and cut them [the trees] down to prove a point,” Hans recalled.
But this certainly did not daunt Hans’ spirit, whose determination has caused him to be the landscaper of choice for many established organisations including the Cheddi Jagan International Airport for the past 15 years. In fact, he has even greater plans to make that very airport into a “postcard” view while descending from the air, once approval is granted.
Hans has also been the player behind the planting of palm trees in the vicinity of the Back Road, Georgetown DSL Cash and Carry. “When we did those some people congratulated us, others shouted ‘government wasting money’,” recalled Hans, as he shared his belief that “Many people have not grasped this way of living… You need comfort and comfort is greenery, even when you look into your offices you need inner beautification.”
As such, Hans provides to his clients, as an aspect of his business, greenery suitable for indoors as well. “To be a landscaper, you have to read a lot and dream a lot; you shouldn’t copy what other people do, you must dream and you must be able to convince people of what you are giving them.”
This is particularly important, since, according to him, the beauty of many projects he sets his hands on is not immediately seen. “The project starts with the implementation, but it can take a while to see the true beauty, sometimes until after six months, some after 12 months and some after two years, then you have a full blown project. Landscaping is life, it goes together with maintenance,” he explained.
FUSION OF SKILLS
Realising a landscaping project, he revealed, comes to fruition through his technical expertise, which interestingly incorporates not only agriculture and art, but also his engineering expertise. “My project, is their project….they have to love the idea, if I can’t make them love the idea then it can’t work,” said Hans of his approach to dealing with his clients.
Aside from selling the idea, he noted that there are some other crucial factors that must be taken into consideration when undertaking a landscaping project. “First thing you do is discuss the drainage, once that is solved, you have to look at the water level and if it is high, you know that that can cause a tree to take longer to grow,” he explained.
But Hans has the capability to deal with just about any need a client can present. This can range from him incorporating the most colourful of flowers, a tiny sapling or even a 20-foot palm tree to the landscaping site. “You name it, big or small, I can do it…we have cranes for transplanting…we have everything to do it just right,” he said with pride.
Even as he stressed the need for more of Guyana to incorporate nature, Hans shared his belief that landscaping can do even more than improving the aesthetic. “When you have trees in a city, it will help to reduce crime. This is a proven fact in many of the cities of the world because the shade of the trees help to reduce the heat and heat reduction means stress reduction …it reduces crime,” he insisted.
Until this is fully embraced by all, Hans said that he will continue to play his small part, as like many other Guyanese, he intends to be as patriotic as possible. “I have a dream for Guyana, a beautiful Guyana that can still be here for the next generation and the other generations to come that promotes social cohesion…” said a passionate Hans.
As he caresses the idea of implementing beautification projects along the corridors of the Soesdyke/Linden highway, Hans hopes to continue to help making a difference in Guyana through one landscaping project at a time.
To fulfil this, Hans’ business embraces the motto: “We can transform any space into a BEAUTIFUL scenery, all you have to do is RELAX. Let us do all the hard work…”
But just for today, we at Kaieteur News hope that Hans will take a break from all his hard work to bask in the glory of being name our ‘Special Person’ of the week.

 

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