Published : Mon 15th Apr
Poppy joined us as a Horticulture Apprentice in September 2022 and has just graduated from her apprenticeship with a well-deserved Distinction grade in March 2024, before securing a role locally on the site she trained at. We asked her to share her experiences of the programme, and she has done this by writing a poem. This is what she told us…
- Dug a hole, dug many holes, planted trees, shrubs, bulbs, perennials, planted in the green, sowed seed
- Bucket hats under a holey roof
- Painted benches, painted my clothes, painted the cat
- Shared stories, plants, conversations with visitors, staff, friends, sharing the buzz of Wallington
- Moth mornings, insect inspections, bat evenings, surveys celebrating life within the gardens
- The lives of worms, of the soil, of composting big and small
- Mowed lawns, mowed off lawns, left lawn to grow. Used fuelled, electric, ride on and pedestrian
- Practised the border dance
- Marvelled at frosted seed heads, grasses glint and gleaming in winter’s light, garden’s architecture
- Felled a tree, or three
- Drove a tractor down the overflow carpark
- Drove the lawnmower away down the haha
- Adopted the zombie strimmer stance, sculpting nature’s curves
- Mulch on the ground, mulch up my nose
- Spuds in a fire
- Lost some hair, a few eyelashes, peppered brows in whipping flame
- Made a wonky wreath
- Helped in Christmas cheer and heralded in spring!
- A lost welly in the beaver enclosure
- Storm checks, looking UP, DOWN, AROUND
- Biosecurity, the future of our plants
- Designing spaces, sourcing material
- The art- theatre of life and death, seed to dust
- Lifted, divided, replanted. Observing contrasts between those divided and left to their own devices. Those between a Chelsea chop, discussion over the affect on a plant’s personality.
- Winter interest, the colour pop in the bleak, the delicate in the storm’s bluster
- Leaf clearing and feathered edges
- Weeding, the creative’s edit
- Leaf blew the lot (until it blew back again the following day)
- Watching time, measuring it differently, making decisions
- The art of cement, of block paving, slabs and pebbles. Artistic license and leaving legacy for the next generation, the contrast and harmony between hard and soft landscape.
- Tarmac, safe ways of travel (not trying to bury a body)
- The subtle differences between a daff and allium shoot
- Noting plant patterns, their behaviours, the contrasts and similarities amongst families.
- A shared sunrise on owl house steps, pastels scoring the sky
- Tree care, lifting the canopy, broadening the canvas beneath
- The difference between a spade and a shovel (yes that really was the baseline…)
- Patience and reciprocity, creativity, nurturement
- Collaboration in team, with teams, with plant, space and time
- Working with and for nature, for people for the future
- Made a home, made friends, went on many an adventure, a splish splosh each long light day
- Working for longevity, it’s a marathon, not a sprint
- Observing how one paints with plants, extends and celebrates the theatre of the seasons. To sow the seed of an idea, to knit and weave, to cast a song that will build over time.
- Storytelling, poetry evolving rather than flat static imagery. It moves, it breathes, it sings and dances.
- Being part of a team who cares deeply, an unwavering commitment and enthusiasm for place, to conserve, protect and imagine fresh means of moving forward
- Listening, learning, finding an answer… that asks more questions…
