Reclaiming horticulture’s lost skills

By Patrick Regnault

We want our workforce to be capable, skilled and knowledgeable. However, recent technological advances may result in fundamental horticultural skills being lost as we rely heavily on technology to do our jobs. Are we at risk of ‘deskilling’ our industry in the name of progress? A horticulturist requires knowledge in botany, physiology, soils, plant nutrition, and pest and disease management. Are those skills being taught at a sufficiently high level to provide the workforce with good enough foundations for people to build upon?

Sharing accrued knowledge

A horticulturist’s knowledge is honed through years of experience that require the practitioner to develop observational and interpretational skills backed by evidence or even third-party research. An accomplished horticulturist who keeps their knowledge to themselves works to the detriment of our industry, potentially depriving it of future generations of brilliant professionals. The same could be said of some technical colleges that are churning out mediocre students for the sake of fulfilling a quota of completion. We need to break this cycle to ensure that our knowledge is passed down to the next generation of horticulturists.

Fostering curiosity

There seems to be a lack of curiosity about what has been learnt through history in some areas. How many people know about the benefits of using Buxus as a soil improver? I wrote about this technique, first recorded over 2,000 years ago, in a previous article for this journal (‘The Many Uses of Buxus’, March 2022). A lack of curiosity about historical horticulture, or worse, arrogance in pretending to create new methods from recycled and misunderstood old techniques seems to be a relatively common trend over the last 20 or so years. Let us learn from the past to achieve a better future for our industry.

Cultivating memory

Before books or internet, people passed down a very large amount of information about plants and horticulture. This information had to be memorised and built upon to be passed down the line to the next generation. In these times of technological prowess, we seem to have lowered the capacity of our memory and replaced it with a small yet powerful machine, the computer, which these days is the size of your mobile phone! There is nothing wrong with using technology if it enhances our ability to work as horticultural professionals; however, humans seem to want to replace their innate power with a reliance on an external source. Therein lies the problem. A century of understanding the art of cultivation cannot be ignored and replaced by memory loss. We must work to overcome this memory deficit.

Our plant palette depends upon our ability to recall plants we have seen and used, including details of the soil and light they were growing in. The more we can recall, the greater our choices when it comes to selecting plants. The larger our plant palette, the better it will be for successful planting and the health of human and other species. The over-reliance on a small palette of plants and a lack of understanding of their growing conditions seems to be the norm these days. Fortunately, we have some excellent experienced and new horticulturists for whom plants are not a way to make a name for themselves or to make money, but a partnership to promote wellbeing and encourage other forms of life. These horticulturists enter the industry seeking a purpose beyond the self. We need more people like them working with us.

Neither a Certificate III in Horticulture or Structural Landscaping, or a Diploma of Horticulture Management sets a minimum number of plants that students must learn. It appears to be the same for landscape architecture, correct me if I am wrong. A minimum working knowledge of 1,000 plants including their botanical name and family would be, I would have thought, the bare minimum one could manage to learn in two years. This is deskilling at its finest and the fault lies directly in the ministers who sign off on educational policies, the teaching institutions delivering education, and even the teachers who are not advocating on the behalf of their charges.

The role of employers

Employers have a crucial part to play in improving the horticultural workforce. When institutions fail, every boss can make a difference in the life and skills of their employees. An employer who persuades their employees to improve their knowledge in a way that is both fun and respectful, will gain in both loyalty and productivity, as well as the having the satisfaction of seeing other humans grow into their full potential.

At a time when the lowering of teaching standards, a blind reliance on technology, quick fixes and a lack of long-term vision permeate all parts of society, deskilling is a real risk in the horticultural industry. Learning from the past is vital to meeting the challenges ahead. Now, more than ever, our industry must come together to discuss, share and learn from one another.

Patrick Regnault FAIH RH0062

Interactive Landscapes

E: patrickregnault@hotmail.com