Career profile: Horticultural Supervisor, Outdoor Biome

What does the Outdoor Biome team do?

We are one of three Outdoor horticultural teams and we look after a couple of exhibits, a couple of large landscape areas on the perimeter of the pit and 160 acres of farmland outside the pit. There is a good bit of horticulture involved with the areas inside the pit and with some of the formal planting outside. Our farmland contains both woodland and wetland, which tend to be more conservation and habitat countryside management. We do a mixed range of things so it is difficult to class our team like you can the other horticultural teams.

My team is responsible for making sure the grass outside the pit is cut, the beds are clean and that the hedgerows and fields on the farmland are clear and cut. We also have to ensure the bridle paths that surround the site are safe and have good access for the public. There are a lot of big, mature trees on site and it is our responsibility to make sure that they don’t fall and we are also in charge of clearing up all the invasive weeds on site.

On top of this mixed range of jobs we help out other horticulture teams when they have big jobs to do or if there is climbing work to do inside the biomes. We do a lot of rope access work because we maintain the cliff walls around the pit, so a lot of my team is IRATA trained.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

There is a huge amount of variation in my role, which I really enjoy. We don’t do the same thing everyday and the site is always changing. In certain respects the site is closer to a permanent events centre in the way that it is run, than it is to a garden. I worked for a company who did the set up for rock concerts and festivals and there is always a great vibe and a buzz around them because they are always changing. You get that here with the Time of Gifts and the Eden Sessions and so on, and everybody is involved. It is great working in a garden that is so varied and being able to watch it change through the seasons. Last year was the first year we had a true, proper autumn colour through the site and it showed just how much it has matured in the last 6 or 7 years, which was fantastic to see.

What do you like most about working at Eden?

It is nice to work for a place that tries to do things right and tries to live up to what it says it does. One of the great things about working here, which you discover when you become involved in the recruitment process, is that Eden doesn't’t just look for people with the skills, background and work experience. It tries to recruit people with the right attitudes towards Eden, other people and the concepts that Eden talks about. Everyone here is very friendly and is thinking along the same lines, whatever department you work in. This makes it very easy to get to know people and has created a great community vibe around the place, which is great for Cornwall. I think Eden has done wonders for this part of the world.

Tell us a bit about your background prior to joining Eden…

I grew up in a nursery and my dad is a landscape gardener and horticulturist. I don’t have any formal training but when you grow up involved in it you get to know what you are doing. I spent about five years in construction and decided to go back into horticulture. I went into conservation and habitat management and did a course at Merrist Wood in Guilford. Part of the course involved a field trip to Eden. I’d been aware of Eden since 1999 as I had very good friends here in Cornwall. I decided this is where I wanted to work and when we came on the field trip I left my CV with the curator of the Outdoor and Mediterranean Biomes. When he said he was going to give me a job I threw everything in the back of the car and came straight down! I love it down here and Eden is a very good place to work.