RHS Senior Flourish Project Officer
Wisley Diploma in Practical Horticulture 2003–2005
Hayley’s passion for
gardening began
while watching her
grandparents tending
their own gardens.
However, her career took a
different turn, studying
Geography at University
and becoming a Town Planner
before having a rethink in
her early 30s.
All through this time Hayley had maintained her interest in horticulture and grew all her own vegetables in her allotment, but decided she wanted to learn more. To this end, Hayley enrolled at night school on the RHS General Certificate in Horticulture (now called the Level 2 Certificate in Horticulture) and met up with other like-mined people who shared her passion for horticulture.
During this time, Tim Hughes (RHS Horticultural Training Officer) came to her college to talk about RHS Garden Wisley and the Diploma course. Not sure she wanted to be a town planner aged 40, she decided to apply and was delighted to be offered a place.
Hayley duly joined the other eager trainees on the Diploma course in September 2003. Now aged 33, she was the oldest in her year, which consisted of a mix of personalities, nationalities, ages and experience. The course now consisted of working in the gardens four days a week, with in-house lectures the other day and an array of coursework and plant identification tests to study for in their own time.
While at Wisley, Hayley got involved with Schools Education and did her dissertation on how horticulture could influence healthy eating in younger children. She helped out on school visits when she could, so when her current job was advertised, it seemed like her dream job teaching children how to grow food.
Hayley now has 11 primary schools on the south coast that she visits for a day, twice per half term, working with particular classes aged from 4 – 11 years. Although employed by the RHS, the project is funded by the Helen Hamlyn Trust, which seeks to increase hands-on learning opportunities in schools, linked with subjects in the National Curriculum.
Expanding every year, the hardest part of Hayley’s job is managing 11 schools, 11 different gardens and about 600 gardeners! She has to work out what can be done in each school, depending on the size of the garden, the soil and the space available and views each school garden as little RHS gardens.
Her training at Wisley helped her with her organisational skills, being tidy and keeping safe, as well as learning all the practical skills and how gardeners work professionally. She is very attached to Wisley and to the high standards it promotes.
‘You get out of it what you want to put in’ and ‘if you really want to learn and work hard, the staff would really support you’.
After 11 years in an office, Hayley now believes she has the best job in horticulture, being able to inspire children with her passion, in a way just as her grandparents inspired her.