PUBLIC PLACES
I presented all these and then was asked to give a public talk at Sheffield Botanical Gardens on a career in horticulture. It was well attended and received, I’m pleased to say!
”
The Team. left to right Daniel Hale, Head Gardener; Edward Watchorn, Senior Gardener; Joel Dibb andMick Grundy, Gardeners. (Not on photo Georgina Yates, Gardens Supervisor)
along with other UK trips throughout the year.
In 2010, Edward took up a job with Anderson Tree Care in Sheffield as foreman and stayed for eight years. Work included domestic council work and emergency 24- hour call-outs. Clients included the National Trust, English Heritage and the Environment Agency. In 2018, and probably wanting to answer his original desires, Edward secured a place on the Historic and Botanic Gardens Training Programme (HBGTP) operated by English Heritage and “luck was with me again” as he said. “I was posted to Chatsworth!” Here he spent a year gaining extensive gardening experience in an historic setting. “I was truly amazed that I got this opportunity as I had a great fondness for Chatsworth and horticulture”. Whilst at Chatsworth, academic work was essential too and he had to produce three projects: 1) Conditioning Survey, 2) Career Development (all about the industry) and 3) Rose Garden. “I presented all these and then was asked to give a public talk at Sheffield Botanical Gardens on a career in horticulture. It was well attended and received, I’m pleased to say!” In September 2019, a well-timed job opportunity came along. “At the end of my
one-year placement with Chatsworth on the HBGTP, a Gardener position at Brodsworth was advertised. I was thankfully successful in my application and started a week after finishing at Chatsworth. After six months of working here, an opportunity came to apply for the Senior Gardener position. After a lot of preparation and an in-depth interview process, I was successful in gaining the position”. I asked who had inspired him; “Mick Brown, the Horticultural technician at Chatsworth, was my main inspiration. His help and guidance convinced me that horticulture was the right choice!”
Meet the team
Dan Hale, 33, has been at Brodsworth for five years and came from Wentworth Castle. He’s been in the industry for fifteen years and gained his qualifications at Askham Bryan College. Before applying for the job, he visited Brodsworth; he likes the formality. Joel Dibb, 26, went straight from school as an apprentice at Alnwick and gained his qualifications whilst there. Returned to Yorkshire and has been at Brodsworth for nine months this time; he had a spell here previously.
Mick Grundy, 41, spent twenty-four years
in the Army and became a volunteer at Brodsworth. Now four months into the full- time job.
Georgina Yates (unfortunately absent on the day of my visit) has been at Brodsworth for four years. To assist the gardening team, Brodsworth can boast forty-five active and keen volunteers at present; This could be one of the largest volunteer bases in the country! Their help is invaluable; I saw quite a few of them out in the gardens, planting in the main, during my visit.
Budgets are set for the whole department, which Head Gardener Dan Hale administers. Alongside the regular budget funding, the department has C.I.P. (Capital Investment Projects). “We need to put up our case and apply and this is not guaranteed. Each year, we’ve received the funding requested, so we must be getting it right!” said Edward.
About the site
The whole site is on a limestone ridge, so there’s always stones in the soil. Compost is produced on site and a tractor PTO driven Seko SAM 5 composting machine is used throughout the site.
Edward responded to the question about additional equipment and lighting: “We don’t
Entrance to Ice House 106 PC August/September 2020
The Fern Dell
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