“I eventually decided I had enough of working in an office and it was time to pursue my dream,” says Catherine Clancy.
Over the years her interest was furthered by taking part in evening classes, designing and building her own garden, growing fruit and vegetables on her allotment and through designing gardens for her friends. But for her desired profession, she needed to find ways to retrain while in full-time employment.
“I did most of my training at evening and Saturday classes,” said Catherine. “It took years, but enabled me to earn a living at the same time. As an IT Project Manager, I received a lot of management, planning and financial training, which proved invaluable to setting up my business. To increase my horticultural knowledge, I trained with the RHS (general horticulture), English School of Gardening (design), City and Guilds (general horticulture), KLC School of Design.
“I also participated in a five-month programme of informal learning devised by Diarmuid Gavin as part of a BBC TV series which followed eight career changers wishing to take up gardening professionally. This gave me the push to break away from IT employment and move into garden design and gardening full-time.
“All this training has been invaluable in giving me a firm foundation to work from. The RHS courses are excellent for general horticulture. I believe that the RHS course, with practical application was the most effective part of my learning, alongside extensive project work. Completing a course at any of the horticultural colleges around the country is a fantastic start to a career, but practical experience is also vital to be able to build gardens properly. A course in garden design will teach to you draw, and think, but you need to follow up by reading, researching, practicing, looking at other gardens, learning from the great gardeners of our time and looking at garden history.
“I firmly believe that you need to be a gardener before you can design and build gardens; to enable you to combine practical horticulture with your design training. A combination of practical and theory work is very effective, as is having a mentor to bounce ideas off when you get stuck.”
“I think its so important to keep learning and taking training courses. Unfortunately, some of the professional training courses can be expensive. In 2008, Lantra's Women and Work project provided funding for a Vectorworks CAD training course, which has been a huge benefit to my design practice.”
While Catherine has been successful in her own career, does she have any advice for others?
"Completing a course such as the Diploma in Practical Horticulture at one of the RHS gardens, or any of the other horticultural colleges around the country, is a fantastic start to your career. This should be followed up with a specialised garden design course and some further practical experience.
"In order to have a successful garden design business, I think it is really important to have good people skills. You have to listen to your client and understand their requirements; a lot of your future work will come from recommendations. Practical knowledge is a must too – so that you know before you start what will, and won’t, work.
"The best thing you can do is to get training alongside practical experience. Look to organisations such as Lantra for help with training. Learn from others and find good partners to work alongside, whose skills are complementary to yours."
