WRAGS at Cambridge

WRAGS graduates Ellie Cooper and Kate Cook describe their high quality WRAGS training at Cambridge University

Ellie Cooper

I’m a WRAGS ‘graduate’ now with a permanent gardening position thanks to my WRAGS placement at Downing College, Cambridge. Having worked for decades in project management in a totally different industry, my route to WRAGS came about after taking a career break to study a Sustainability master’s degree. When the covid pandemic began, in addition to completing my study I took the ‘opportunity’ to volunteer at food banks and crucially at CoFarm where I realised that horticulture was the next step I was looking for.

During my placement at Downing, in return for two days a week of paid employment, I worked within a team of experienced gardeners carrying out seasonal tasks in a variety of horticultural situations ranging from; window boxes to woodlands, lawns to Library borders, boat house grounds to bog gardens and ponds to potting sheds (and more!) across the 20-acre site.

I learnt what to do when and with which tools both through ‘on-the-job’ learning opportunities and regular ‘toolbox talks’ for the whole team. This included learning best practices for propagation, planting out, pruning as well as maintenance of plants, borders, gardens and grounds. Through Downing’s future facing approach to horticulture, I gained experience in sustainable practices such as composting on site, climate tolerant planting and how to use battery operated tools from leaf blowers, mowers, hedge trimmers to tractors.

Former trainee Ellie Cooper and current trainee Tatsiana Ivonchyk at Downing College

WRAGS provides the opportunity for people like me to gain applied expertise through repetition across seasons, immediate access to guidance from experienced gardeners and the opportunity to produce practical reference notes through monthly reports. Part-time working also enables adjustment to physical working and the chance to try working in horticulture for 12 months before fully committing to a career change.

I am very grateful to Jack Sharp, Head Gardener for the opportunity to train and now work at this amazing horticultural site. You’d have to ask Jack about the benefits of WRAGS for Downing College but as Downing has not only recruited me, their first WRAGS placement, as a permanent gardener and have taken on my colleague, Tatsiana as a second WRAGS trainee and gardener, it looks like WRAGS works for Downing as well!

Kate Cook

I couldn’t believe my luck when I joined Emmanuel College in a hot and dry August 2022 and was made to feel at home straight away by the team. Within a couple of weeks, I was up a ladder in New Court pruning wisteria in 37o heat! Later in the year, we skidded and slipped fearing for our tender plants as the temperature plummeted to -10o .

Itchy career feet led me to WRAGS, a perfect solution, enabling me to work and train for two days a week, whilst continuing with my other job as a midwifery lecturer and I was lucky to be chosen by Emmanuel College.

The physical strength needed to work professionally in a garden took its toll on my body in the first few months. I found long reach pruning and hedge trimming hard work, but I feel stronger now than I ever have. Under expert instruction from Brendon the Head Gardener and the rest of the team, I worked through the WRAG scheme requirements.

The colleges, are an established network of gardens with head gardeners, sharing knowledge, swapping plants and even trainees. Brendon is a passionate educator, so I was easily able to complete all the elements of my apprenticeship. If the learning opportunity isn’t there, Brendon will find one for you. I gained my allotment experience at Christ’s College, potting on tomatoes, pricking out sorrel and planting out seedlings.

Sustainability and biodiversity are at the heart of gardening at Emmanuel. I’ve learnt to compost our green waste which goes back into the garden, and we often pause during the day to watch the heron by the pond, admire the mother ducks and moorhens with their chicks, spot jays, bees, and goat moth caterpillars, and not forgetting bold as brass town foxes!

Last August, I participated in the annual meadow harvest at King’s College using the traditional methods of shire horse and Haywain, subsequently scattering the meadow hay back at Emmanuel in North Court. Brendon is nurturing a wildlife corridor for pollinators in this part of the grounds, a favourite among staff and students and a tranquil sanctuary in the centre of Cambridge.

Before my training, I confess to having little knowledge about trees, but I have learned so much about trees especially about fossil trees, and we have incredible examples of these, such as the Ginkgo biloba and the Metasequoia glyptostroboides.. One of my favourite trees here is the iconic Platanus orientalis in the Fellow’s Garden. Planes are known for their ability to remove pollutants from the air, proving handy as the tree is next to Emmanuel Street bus stop. Like the matriarch of the garden, calming and loving and sitting amongst her branches is one of my top things to do.

Kate at Emmanuel College

I’m looking forward to my first Cambridge May Ball this year with the gardening team and can’t wait to celebrate a year’s training with a fantastic team. I’m very grateful to be part of the Emmanuel community and for the opportunity to work in this beautiful garden as part of the WRAG scheme.