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The gardening team at Highgrove frequently takes on trainee gardeners, enabling those seeking a career as a professional gardener or horticulturalist with the opportunity to gain practical skills in the workplace.
Rosenwyn works full-time at Highgrove and has recently graduated with distinction from the Professional Gardeners' Guild Traineeship. She is our gardener under the spotlight this month and, throughout her year of training at Highgrove, was given the exciting project of curating the Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library (HSL) border in the Kitchen Garden.
Rosenwyn works at Highgrove Gardens full-time and has just completed the Professional Gardeners' Guild Traineeship having graduated with distinction.
“After nearly three years of training, I feel like Highgrove has allowed me to develop into the gardener I want to be in the future,” says Rosenwyn.
Working with organic practices and learning skills like willow weaving and hedge cutting makes it easier to turn my hand to many different jobs.”
As part of the traineeship, Rosenwyn works as a regular member of the gardening team and undertakes a diverse range of hands-on duties and develops a full range of craft skills.
"Working in every area of the gardens has definitely been the most interesting aspect of the year," explains Rosenwyn.
"Being involved in a range of projects and seeing the gardens throughout the seasons is great as well."
"Getting to work with and learn from such a talented team of gardeners has made this final year of my traineeship exceptional," she continues.
"I learn from the team every day and it's the combination of every individual's specialisms that makes the gardens work as a whole."
Rosenwyn has spent much of her traineeship working in the Kitchen Garden.
“It has really captured a part of my imagination. I love how in this area, form and function have to co-exist perfectly to allow for a beautiful yet productive garden.”
Alongside her regular garden duties and training, Rosenwyn has been given her own project: curating the Heritage Seed Library (HSL) border in the Kitchen Garden, where she chose around six HSL seeds (curated by charity Garden Organic) to grow.
The Heritage Seed Library project aims to conserve vegetable varieties that are not widely available to growers. They consist of mainly European varieties, including rare landrace varieties, heirloom varieties, and varieties dropped from popular seed catalogues over the past decade.
Each year, approximately 150 varieties within the HSL collection are chosen for inclusion in the HSL Seed Catalogue, where members, such as Highgrove Gardens, can pick six packets of seeds to grow by the end of the year.
Growing HSL seeds comes with many benefits, particularly helping to maintain genetic diversity within vegetable crops and increasing biodiversity in your garden, but it also comes with its challenges.
“Saved seed isn't always guaranteed to have a high germination rate, meaning we could have fewer plants to fill the border with,” explains Rosenwyn.
“I have made a sign to explain the function of the HSL border, as we aren't used to seeing plants being left to seed in the gardens at Highgrove, and as the season draws on and the plants go into senescence, the border will gradually look more tired and, to some people, messy.”
As we head into the full force of July, the peas are podding up nicely, the lettuce is bolting, and the border is filling up with produce and colour.
“Now is the time I keep a close eye to see what seed is setting,” says Rosenwyn.
“I make sure I collect and store it carefully when it's ready and dry, ready to be shared amongst HSL members and grown for many years to come,” she continues.
“It's important to carry out projects like this one here at Highgrove. As a place of learning and conservation, food security is a vital matter; being part of a system that actively checks if saved seed is viable is crucial to keeping as much diversity in our food production as possible.”
The gardening team at Highgrove would like to congratulate Rosenwyn on completing the Professional Gardeners' Guild Traineeship and has graduated with distinction.
Congratulations, Rosenwyn!
The sale of Highgrove Products, Garden Tours and Events support and enable the life and work of The King’s Foundation.
