COLUMNIST: SCOTT GALLOWAY
Scott Galloway is a Glasgow based horticulturist and plantsman, specialising in kitchen garden production and herbs. He is particularly interested in the cross-cultural relationships people have with plants and how this defines their uses. Working with the National Trust for Scotland, he created a Scottish naturalised herb garden at Greenbank Garden, and is currently writing about plants for the RHS in his role as Plant Profile Writer.
Scott is also building a National Collection of Bergenia in conjunction with Plant Heritage and hopes to be an authoritative voice on the genus.
Horticulture offers many solutions to the problems we face from a rapidly changing climate. From food production to flood prevention, reducing urban pollution to rewilding our historic landscape, supporting biodiversity and re-thinking how we grow, use and consume plants, the industry is well equipped for the challenges we are all facing.
Across Scotland however, we have seen a steady decline in the funding of parks and gardens departments in local authorities, with events like the Glasgow Garden Festival a very distant memory. With COP26 on Glasgow’s doorstep I had hoped to see greater investment in our green landscape: more space allocated to active travel, street tree planting, wildflower corridors and rain gardens.
The garden festival in 1988 was an international exhibition of Scotland’s horticultural talent, showcasing how we can regenerate and repurpose vacant industrial land and inspire people of all ages to grow and reconnect with nature. Today Glasgow has a significant amount of derelict land primed for development but there is little drive to turn this over to long-term, dedicated growing and green space for communities and visitors to the city.
In London, urban farms are increasing in popularity with communities reclaiming land for growing food crops, as well as supporting the introduction of animals into the city landscape. Projects such as these strengthen local communities and support children and disadvantaged people to boost their wellbeing and practical skills through workshops and training opportunities, as well as helping to develop a strong sense of environmental awareness.
It would be fitting to take Festival Park for example, the only surviving ground of the historic Garden Festival, and regenerate it to showcase how we can adapt our green spaces in this rapidly changing climate and how it can evolve to serve the needs of the local community once again.
The park is desperately under-maintained and this shows in the over-grown foliage that has crept up and taken over the remains of the Highland river, loch and waterfall feature that once ran through it. Two children’s play areas attract local families but the general sense is that the space is unloved and uninviting. What a tragic legacy for the city but one that can be easily reversed with targeted investment and a forward thinking horticultural team who work alongside the community to reinvigorate the space for the needs of the people who live near to and use the park.
COP26 is also an opportunity for the horticulture industry to present bold ideas in modern food production. Across Europe, we are seeing hydroponic farms pop up in vacant industrial areas, with factories repurposed to accommodate the installation of fully closed, soil-less growing systems producing year round salad crops, vegetables and soft fruits in a nutrient-water solution under LED lighting.
Vertical farming in a city makes sense and Glasgow’s industrial past has left many suitable, vacant buildings that could be repurposed for a city wide indoor growing programme. Take Sentinel Works in Polmadie or the empty Winter Gardens at the People’s Palace, Tollcross and Springburn - these could be used to revive the city’s reputation for horticultural excellence and innovation, while supporting a new generation of young people into the industry.
Attracting young people is perhaps horticulture’s greatest challenge, even more so in Scotland. We offer world class teaching through SRUC’s academic programmes and traineeship opportunities through the National Trust for Scotland’s School of Heritage Gardening at Threave and the renowned MacRobert Trust scheme in Aberdeenshire.
Yet the horticulture job market in Scotland is extremely competitive and significantly underpaid. Even just 10 years ago, there were gardening staff being paid £12,000 a year for a full time role. With role requirements including higher education qualifications, spraying and chainsaw tickets, a driving licence and previous gardening experience.
Nowadays, a gardening role can pay between £19,500 - £22,000 a year. If we want to attract young people into horticulture we need to improve salaries in the industry. Local authorities could take the lead on this: increasing the job requirements to reflect horticultural excellence, attracting the best in the industry and investing in their horticultural staff with a salary increase.
One area in which we have seen a significant shift is education. The investment in outdoor primary school education in recent years has been a welcome change to the concrete jungle of the 1990s that I grew up and studied in. No longer are children huddled around empty concrete raised beds playing Pokemon on their Nintendo, nowadays they are learning how to grow their own fruit and vegetables, filling all manner of containers with annual and perennial flowers that brighten the school playground.
Inspiring children at this age is critical in reconnecting the lost pleasure of growing your own, but the Scottish Government has to go further and invest in horticulture beyond primary school education. I would like to see the SQA bring in a Higher Horticulture course that rewards our young people with a qualification and equips them with the academic and practical knowledge to pursue a career in the industry.
Horticulturists have a responsibility to promote the broad range of opportunities that exist within the industry, from agronomy to arboriculture, botany to entomology, floristry to gardening, the list is extensive and you can often find yourself falling into a career you did not expect to.
The RHS has a dedicated careers page that is well worth checking out, if you are keen to discover more information about a career in horticulture.
Horticulture is at the front line of our rapidly changing climate and knows well the challenges we face. Inspiring and recruiting young people into the industry is key to solving the climate crisis but we need investment and action within this parliamentary term to change things.
The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society, known colloquially as The Caley, should lead the charge with government investment to bring Scotland’s leading horticultural organisations, groups and societies under one roof to help tackle the climate crisis and define Scotland’s horticultural future in a rapidly changing world.
You can follow Scott on Instagram for more chat and watch his bergenia collection grow on @thebergenlist!