It has been a great people week this week; first off we had our new apprentices start: Harry and Josh - it is lovely to welcome them on board at Harlow Carr for their two year
apprenticeship, and to be part of helping these young people to learn all about horticulture. Both of them are as keen as mustard and I’m sure they’ll do really well.
On Wednesday we welcomed two members of the Arboriculture team from Wisley, who are trained on tree inspections and are able to climb trees to fully assess the health of the tree from up in its canopy.
Over the course of two days they have looked some of the trees in high risk areas: branches over paths and trees near children’s play areas, plus one or two others that we have had some worries about. It is wonderful to be able to call upon this ‘in-house’ skill, and cross-garden working has many benefits for all of us and something we are starting to do more of.
Yesterday Alison (my partner in crime who I share an office with) and I met Karl Stevens, the new Brand Campaigns Manager as part of his induction across all the gardens. I find it so useful to actually meet people doing different jobs across the Society and gaining an understanding of the different roles better helps us all achieve our common goals and it was great to meet him.
Lastly, but in no way least, we have been carrying out 3 monthly reviews on our newest garden volunteers, checking out that they are happy with us and we are happy with them before they had their photos taken for their volunteers' passes; so now they are fully fledged volunteers. It’s great that they are all enjoying their volunteering with us, and we could not manage without them to help us with all our tasks every day. So whilst I help the apprentices settle in this week, plants have taken a back seat and it's people all the way.
Useful links
More information on RHS Apprenticeships
Want to become an RHS Garden Volunteer? Find out more
Find out more about voluntary internships with the RHS
