Italian Brassicas and Herbs

Apprentices at RHS Garden Bridgewater get their own vegetable plot to design, sow seeds and plant up as well as maintaining the plot throughout their time at Bridgewater.

Students are encouraged to choose an area of edible horticulture that they have a particular interest in or connection to.

Simone Bratt, team Leader at RHS Garden Bridgewater, said “It’s important for the students to have an area of the garden to autonomously and creatively explore their own areas of interest. To design, develop and maintain a productive area, with staff guidance that fits within the kitchen garden’s overall design aesthetic.”

Natasha Hall is a first year Level 2 Horticultural Apprentice at RHS Garden Bridgewater, she is currently planning for her allotment plot.

Growing up I spent a lot of time playing out, hiking with Scouts and pottering in my Nonna’s vegetable garden, and as an adult I spend as much time as possible exploring woodlands, beaches, and mountains, so I have never been far away from plants. However, my relationship with horticulture began quite late. I was working as a mental health social worker in East London in 2018 and was lucky enough to work opposite the Hackney city farm. After a few lunch-time visits I began to meet people there rather than in my office. The garden itself is a miniature oasis of calm; seasonal change brought hope, something was always fruiting or blooming, and curiosity about the future returned for the people I supported who were suffering deep distress. Fast forward to 2021, I returned to Manchester a burned-out social worker in the middle of a global pandemic, and found my own solace volunteering in the Hulme Community Garden Centre, helping in the garden and facilitating community events. I left social work after a temporary contract ended, applied for the L2 Horticultural Apprenticeship at RHS Garden Bridgewater and haven’t looked back.

I was nervous about applying for the apprenticeship programme. I do not have an academic background in anything remotely biology-based, did not know the name of a single famous gardener, never mind the Latin names of any plants. However, I quickly realised that my passion for horticulture and desire to learn was the only thing that mattered. My colleagues are from so many different backgrounds and have an amazing variety of specialisms. As a career changer I also had some anxiety about being a student again, but the workload is manageable and learning about plant science has helped me to understand how the garden works.

As I’m a few months in I feel I’m now getting to grips with the seasonal jobs in the garden and am enjoying feeling in harmony with the seasons. At the moment I am designing my own veg plot for the kitchen garden which is based on my Nonna’s vegetable garden and full of Italian brassicas and herbs. This is a new challenge for me, and I have learned about heritage vegetables, successional sowing and companion planting.

The most unexpected thing I have learned is just how much of a haven even a busy garden can be for wildlife. In my first few months at Bridgewater, I have seen voles, owls, hedgehogs and kestrels in the garden. My most memorable animal encounter was seeing a sparrowhawk near the visitors’ car park before the garden opened- it looked majestic in the early morning winter sunlight. These animal encounters are shaping my way of working: I understand that even a small area of water can invite all sorts of wildlife into the garden, and that seedheads we might be tempted to cut back are great food for birds.

I enjoy different elements of each rotation- harvesting tomatoes in the fruit house is a definite highlight of working in the kitchen garden, and seeing the first snowdrops and Iris reticulata in bloom in the Bee and Butterfly garden was great while in the outer wall team.

Although starting the RHS L2 Horticulture apprenticeship was daunting, I would recommend applying. Doing an apprenticeship is a unique opportunity to apply what you are learning directly in a world class garden, and that is something that a classroom course just can’t provide.

Find out more at rhs.org.uk/education-learning/qualifications-and-training/rhs-qualifications

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