Leeds Craft Gardener crowned Apprentice of the Year

Meet Leeds Craft Gardener Chris Cole who was recently crowned ‘Apprentice of the Year’ after sowing the seeds of his new career.

Transcript

00:00I was 31 when I applied for the apprenticeship and I were a bit worried of as to whether I was a bit old for it.

00:07Because you think of an apprentice as somebody who's 16, 17 maybe, leaving school, not 31, with a dog, married, a daughter now.

00:18And yeah, I was 33 when I finished it and best thing I've done.

00:23But never too late to start something new and that old thing of you can't teach an old dog new tricks, I think you can.

00:32Having worked in the music marketing industry for around 12 years, the Covid lockdown saw Chris Cole take up gardening as a hobby.

00:41His passion for it blossomed during an apprenticeship with Leeds City Council's Parks and Greenspaces team,

00:47where he looked after the grounds at Stanningley, Roundhay and Horsforth Parks, as well as at Lawnswood Cemetery.

00:52Chris passed his Ascombrine College studies with distinction,

00:56and recently won Apprentice of the Year at the North Yorkshire Apprenticeship Awards in the Public Service category.

01:02He's currently based at the historic Kirkstall Abbey, which is where we met Chris and his colleague James Johnston,

01:08to find out what it's like to have this as your office.

01:11Gardening for me, it's been brilliant, like just the physical difference I've noticed, the mental difference I've noticed.

01:19And, yeah, you learn something new every day.

01:23I really like gardening for other people, which is a big thing for us here,

01:28because obviously you do it for your own enjoyment as well, but the fact that members of the public will see it.

01:33We do get more often than not people saying it looks really good.

01:36To work down at the Abbey's absolutely amazing.

01:38I say to people about being a gardener down here, and there's a lot of, I don't know if it's jealousy,

01:46but, you know, like people are actually surprised about it.

01:49And at the moment, there's only two of us down here, which we can really put our mark on it.

01:55We both say that it's like the jewel in the crown of the city, but it's a bit, not forgotten about,

02:03but under the radar compared to Golden Acre and Roundy Park, which rightly so, you know, amazing spaces,

02:10but they don't have the Abbey like we do.

02:15So, like behind me, we've got an order coming of loads of plants,

02:19and we sort of want to come up with loads of really interesting, exciting planting ideas for these beds.

02:27Use of knowledge we've both learnt on our apprenticeships and sort of grow more plants from seed.

02:31We've got the rugby pitch for Burley Rugby Club.

02:33We have to cut the graveyard up at St Stephen's Church, work here in the herbaceous borders.

02:41A lot of stuff I did on my previous placements has actually come in good for working on the Abbey.

02:45The weather can be hit and miss.

02:48I remember when I left my old job and everyone said,

02:51oh, that would be amazing working outdoors in summer.

02:55It is, but it's also really challenging because it's too hot sometimes.