SAMGUS meeting in Hafnarfjörður

The Annual and Spring Meeting of SAMGUS – the Association of Garden and Environmental Managers – was held in Hafnarfjörður from 6th to 8th April 2022. The conference in Hafnarfjörður began with a 70th anniversary conference for around 80 people on the first day, and around 40 people continued to attend throughout all three days. Many took the opportunity to make themselves comfortable in the hotels of Hafnarfjörður during these days and enjoyed everything the town has to offer in terms of its surroundings, experiences and cuisine. 

^{The SAMGUS group in the cloister garden of the Carmelite convent at Ölduslóð. Here with the nuns and Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, the mayor of Hafnarfjörður.}

The festival began with a 30th anniversary conference.

The SAMGUS days began with a 30th anniversary conference in the High Hall of the Hafnarfjörður Church parish hall on Wednesday, 6th April, which was entitled: Green Areas and Climate Change – from Design to Maintenance. The conference covered topics such as trunks and stones, the significance of nature's magic, nature in the built environment, wild growth and mowing, carbon sequestration in mown grass, area planning, and street trees. The Folk Museum and the Sívertsen House on Vesturgata were visited; the exhibition was viewed and the history was told by Björn Pétursson, the town's heritage officer. The group visited the City of Hafnarfjörður's premises at Norðurhellu 2, which houses all the departments of the Environment and Planning Directorate. The group viewed the town's impressive and relatively new premises and was given a presentation on its operations by Björn Bögeskov Hilmarsson, Director of the Service Centre. 

^{The SAMGUS celebration began with a 30th anniversary conference entitled: Green Spaces and Climate Change – from Design to Maintenance.}

A visit to the Carmelite Monastery in Hafnarfjörður

The nuns of the Carmelite Monastery on the Sound have had a great influence on the community of Hafnarfjörður and have been woven into the town's culture and life for almost 80 years. The Carmelite Monastery received the 2020 Award of Excellence for its magnificent monastery garden. The nuns gave the group a warm welcome and proudly showed them the garden, which has been almost entirely designed, laid out and cultivated by them, with a little help, guidance and instruction, including in paving, from the staff of the City of Hafnarfjörður. Thus, the council's staff got the nuns started on the task of paving the first few metres of the garden. The nuns then carried out the majority of the paving themselves. Furthermore, one of the nuns studied electrical engineering and subsequently installed the electrics and lighting in the garden. It is safe to say that the garden plays a major role in their lives, as it provides a place of refuge for each of the nuns, along with small prayer houses. A great sense of peace and tranquillity rests over this beautiful cloister garden. There is a great variety of trees and plants, alongside vegetables and berry bushes grown for their own use. Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, the Mayor of Hafnarfjörður, met the nuns and the group in the cloister garden and gave a short speech about the group's visit and the value of the Carmelite convent to the community of Hafnarfjörður.

^{The nuns gave the group a warm welcome and proudly showed them the garden, which has been almost entirely designed, constructed and cultivated by themselves with a little help, guidance and instruction, including in paving, from staff at Hafnarfjörður municipality.} 

A tour of Hafnarfjörður

The group made good use of their time in Hafnarfjörður, taking a coach tour and visiting the town's main recreational areas, the Hafnarfjörður Botanical Garden in Hellisgerði, and new housing developments in Skarðshlíð, Hamranes and Ásland 4. The FH club facilities at Kaplakriki were also visited, where there has been extensive development and major construction in recent years. The harbour master of the Port of Hafnarfjörður informed the group about the port's operations, the development on the harbour front, and its exciting vision for the future. The group concluded their celebration in Hafnarfjörður by holding the SAMGUS annual general meeting in the Sörli riding stable on Kaldársel Road, and formally ended the visit and the general meeting with a visit to the Hafnarfjörður Forestry, where they viewed the tree collection and the forestry's headquarters.

The City of Hafnarfjörður sincerely thanks the „SAMGUSURUM“ for their visit!