Meet the Designer: Dave Green

The ‘Growing Skills Garden’: what is it and who’s it for?

It’s a garden for both people already thinking of a career in horticulture and those who may never have given it a second’s thought to actually do gardening. Predominantly, that means school groups - mainly older teenagers - from a diverse range of backgrounds, but it’s also for adults looking to make a career change - to date, the oldest person the RHS has had in for work experience was 55. It’ll be a working, changing space that’s completely off grid – it even has a compost toilet!
 

Why is a space like this so important?

It will provide the opportunity for people to try their hand at gardening activities and learn about how the industry – and a garden – works. Once you’re actually in training, horticultural colleges tend to have good facilities, but what about before that? How can you know if you’d enjoy a career in horticulture when you have no experience of gardening? That’s where the Growing Skills Garden comes in. It’s not so much about offering training as offering access; somewhere you can feel safe and comfortable, digging, planting, taking cuttings, turning compost and trying things out. This garden – a collaboration between RHS New Shoots (a nationwide scheme to promote horticultural careers), and the curatorial and science teams -
is just the first one. Another is planned for RHS Bridgewater next year and at other RHS gardens in subsequent years.
 

The horticulture industry is struggling to attract young people - why?

Education and academia, and therefore many attitudes, are focused on theoretical subjects. As a result, a lot of the more practical subjects – not just horticulture but carpentry, stone masonry, metalwork, – aren’t considered in much detail, if at all. There has even, historically, been a fair bit of snobbery towards these sorts of hands-on industries. Things are changing, but there's still work to do to increase awareness of the non-academic jobs out there in which people are successful and have very good lives. That’s where New Shoots is a real force for good; it's nice to be part of trying to change that narrative.
 

Can visitors to RHS Wisley enjoy the garden too?

Absolutely. There's an outer U-shaped path running around the garden which will be permanently open for visitors to walk around. Some inner spaces will be closed off at certain times when activities are taking place, but when open, visitors will be able to visit the inner garden too. They’ll be able to see a full working garden, complete with raised beds, ponds, polytunnels, compost bays, tool stores, and even patches of bare earth for digging practice. It will be deliberately incomplete; more configurable and changeable. That said, it’ll still have visual impact: the garden’s design is inspired by the way a new shoot emerges from a germinating seed.

Is it purely a learning space? Or will there be inspiration for the general public?

Everything in the garden should feel achievable and affordable at home. The garden is subdivided into a number of different spaces. The Home Sustainability Area will be full of different ideas from ponds in pots through to raised planters made from recycled everyday objects, green-roofed bin stores and DIY habitat walls, the whole garden is packed with take-home ideas and inspiration. When the garden is up and running, there will also be a range of adult courses and workshops on offer.
 

Sustainability is at the heart of this space – how does this play out in real terms?

The whole garden is entirely off-grid. Irrigation will come from water captured and stored within the garden. There will be no mains power either; all our electricity will be generated by solar panels on the roof of the garden’s main building. All plant material will be composted within the garden; woodier materials will be used to create dead hedges, providing habitat for a variety of wildlife. The organic matter from the compost toilet - the first of its kind in RHS gardens – will be mulched on our ornamental beds – yes, it’s safe, and no, there’s no smell! After all, urine is a well-known fertiliser, high in nitrogen; it’s nothing to be scared of!
 

The RHS Science team have been heavily involved in shaping this garden, haven’t they?

Yes, every aspect of the garden, from the hemp cladding on the structures through to the futureproof, biodiversity-promoting plants, has been informed by home-grown research. The RHS science team are an exceptional and astonishing resource; the depth of their knowledge, of all aspects of horticulture, is brilliant. We’re using hedges to section off different parts of the garden, with plant selection informed by research from Dr Tijana Blanusa, the RHS’ Principal Horticultural Scientist. We have some beautiful plants planned, but as well as looking pretty, the science and curatorial teams have ensured they’re futureproof in terms of climate change and support a range of wildlife right down to individual cultivars that support moth larvae! It’s very involved.
 

This project is meaningful to you on a personal level isn’t it?

I was a career changer. After a few years of being a business analyst post university, it became clear I couldn’t face a lifetime of being stuck in an office. I signed up for a night class at Birmingham Botanical Gardens and got hooked on horticulture from there. I was lucky to find that course. I would have loved to have had access to a space like the Growing Skills Garden. It needs to be easier to enter our industry; these gardens will help.
 

What are your hopes for the space in the long term?

I hope this garden can help to inspire thousands more people to come into horticulture, or even just to give gardening a go and hopefully develop a love of nature and the outdoors in the process. When you’re passionate about horticulture and gardening, you want everyone to enjoy it as much as you do. Through this space and the future space, we can try to spread that joy and share it as widely as we can.