Studying with Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden

Hello there, I thought I’d tell you today a little bit about my horticulture studies, which I am doing purely for the love, and as usual, share some Long Mizzle Garden pictures and cups of tea…but I'm afraid I've ran out of ginger biscuits!...

Since September 2019 I have been enjoying studying online with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh... all the way from Cornwall (I am not the furthest flung student, they have students all over the world). Having wanted to do it for a while and with my kids off at nursery and school, I thought it a good way to use my two days off during the week.


September through to November was great, lots of lovely quiet days spent with coffee and getting my head stuck into the course material. December and January saw an unexpected restructure at work, which led me to swatting up on all things Information Technology and applying for another job, which I started in February. The Christmas 2019 period had seen family, friends, work colleagues and my own little household getting terribly ill – maybe it was just the flu or maybe the virus was already here…

The first Royal Horticulture Society theory exams I was to sit were ‘Plant classification, structure and function’ (R2101), ‘Plant Nutrition and the root environment’ (R2102). Having not sat any actual exams since my A levels, I was nervous to say the least. 


The day came where I drove 40 minutes to sit the exam as an external candidate at the Duchy College Cornwall, Rosewarne site. They couldn’t have made me feel more welcome. From the helpful exams team to the tutors providing kind last words of advice and support not only to their own students, but us externals alike, everyone was lovely. There was even a big tray of donuts on arrival and we were allowed to take a look around the site if we wanted to (I didn’t as it was blowing a gale and I needed to get back home). 

That was the start of February 2020 and the Corona virus was something that had only just started to threaten our shores – the news filled with the story of a Brighton ‘super spreader’ having recently returned from a Singapore business trip via France. Little did I know that by the end of March, the schools and nurseries would close (that was a sad, tear -filled day full of goodbyes to teachers and parents) and we’d all be on lockdown. 

Then ensued a manic few months trying to get my head round my new job whilst home schooling the kids and watching of the daily rising death count. But we were safe, if we stayed at home, and we had the garden to escape to. The gardening theory would have to wait and practice took over.


 There’s a line in Margaret Atwoods’ ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ that resonates -

“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.
We lived in the gaps between the stories.”

This is how it has felt sometimes, an unreal haze watching the news. But then you’d find out about someone that'd had it, or knew someone that knew someone else up’t country that had died of it, and local people lost their jobs and livelihoods and bit by bit we all became the people in the print.

The RHS June 2020 exams were cancelled and pushed back. The summer brought an easing of restrictions and a wave of tourists in Cornwall (we avoided the beaches and anywhere we might contact with them). Some time over the summer, I got my results back from the February papers – I had passed both exams ‘with commendation’ and this gave me the boost I needed to get stuck back into my studies and sign up to the September exams.


Again, I sat them at the Duchy College, who were hugely helpful and I greatly appreciate them being able to cater for external candidates in such a crazy time. It was a different affair though, fewer candidates sat in an airier shed like building, with masks and hand gel and social distancing measures in place. 

I am awaiting the results of those exams – ‘Maintaining Plant Health’ (R2103) and ‘Understanding Plant Propogation’ (R2104), which will hopefully complete the certificate (RHS Level 2 Certificate 1 Principles of Plant Growth, Propagation and Development).

This week I received confirmation that I am booked onto the February 2021 exams (lockdowns pending). I am a little behind with my studies and exams (I had planned to take more in one sitting) but I am not going to be hard on myself. This certificate is all about plants and garden design and when I get chance to get properly stuck into it, I absolutely love it.

I can’t think of many things more exciting than learning about plants! (Monsieur can). There’s an incredible amount of latin names to learn and plant profiles – what conditions plants grow best in, the speed of growth, the size they reach, their characteristics… how to put them all together, how to achieve interest across all seasons…

I have really enjoyed studying with the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh – the videos and online course material is all well presented in lovely Scottish accents. 

Although I have never been there, I feel like I know it a little, having seen Kirsty on Beechrove Garden touring the long herbaceous border and grounds. Maybe one day when all this craziness is over, I will get to visit in person.



Anyhow,  I'm going to pop the coffee pot on and crack on with it.

This weekend I will using my mam's lovely 1970's Bernina sewing machine to make some Chrimbo presents.

As usual, please let me know how you are and what you’ve been up to in the comments section below,

 

Lulu xXx

Latest posts here - https://longmizzle.blogspot.com 

 

Links:

Free RGBE online taster courses available https://www.rbge.org.uk/

Duchy College (RHS approved exams centre) https://www.duchy.ac.uk/

 

Comments

  1. Hello Lulu! I loved reading about your horticultural studies and both Jon and I loved scrolling through the wonderful photos of your gorgeous garden.
    That Bernina is a beauty, please share your makes when you've finished!
    Have a lovely week! xxx

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    1. Thank you Vix! It was a glorious day on Thursday when I took those garden photos. Mam reckons the Bernina was the Rolls Royce of sewing machines in its day, and it is still going mechanically strong. I will share the sewing piccies for sure, but I’d better do it after Christmas, just in case any of the fam see them on here before! Lulu xXx

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  2. HI LuLu, new reader here from Vix's page. I read Edinburgh and had to pop on, and am browzing your other posts. I'm finding blogs are connecting me to travel, since I can't do right now, so a pleasure to find a new to me blog to read. I love the gardens detail. It's like a treasure hunt of features.

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    1. Hello Sam! Thank you so much for popping by and for saying hello. It is always nice to meet people from all round the world, especially ones that find their way via Vix’s wonderful blog. I can see you’ve got a couple of blogs, so I look forward to taking a good look. Glad you like the garden treasures! (beats the sweaty nylon socks I found lurking in the soil when I first moved in!). Lulu xXx

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  3. How exciting to be studying plants. I would not have said those words this time last year but now after finding gardening therapy which has eased our lockdown and let us live in those spaces that Margaret Atwood so succinctly writes about, I have discovered how nature can help to soothe our souls. And this year I am planting bulbs in the garden for the very first time in my 54 years on this planet.
    I look forward to seeing your garden flourish.

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    1. Thank you Jane, bulbs are like the rock n roll rockets of gardening, it will be so exciting to watch! There’s something about Buddhist philosophy, in relation to music, about the importance of the spaces in between. I certainly don’t know what I would do without gardening therapy and it is so good to hear you’re enjoying it too. Lulu xXx

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  4. beautiful pictures of your garden - magnificent light!
    and chapeau for taking up that studies and exams!! i´m a hobby gardener myself but more in a try&error way and by following my feelings........ ;-D
    bernina is the worlds best sewing machine brand, take care of yours.
    found you via vix btw...
    xxx

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    1. Hello, so nice to meet you and thank you for saying hello and your kind words. Trial & error is great, as my ol’ witchdoctor grandad said (he could name every herb and potion going), the books are not always right! I have a special cleaning kit for the Bernina that funnily enough, mam got me…hmmm, think she was hinting about something (?) Lulu xXx

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  5. Hello Lulu. Unfortunately I'm not receiving notification of your posts again. Have come via Vix's blog. you for sharing your horticultural journey. I have not visited Edinburgh's Botanical Gardens in four years (shame on me). Last time was with a school trip which was excellent. Friendly staff and excellent workshops which inspired the children. I love the wee keeks at your garden where your passion is evident. It's bad luck your course is in Covid times so well done you for persevering and I'm sure the rewards will make up for the pressures of studying and exams. Finally I have started clearing my garden though there is still lots of colour in the planters - they can stay till the frosts carry them off. My hyacinth-in-a-vase has an excellent roots system but not greenery yet. Exciting to gauge its progress!

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    1. Hello Catmac, oh no, don’t know what I’ve done to the alerts now (you’d never guess I work in technology would you! – I just sort of press buttons until it works, or doesn’t work). You are very lucky to have visited RGBE and the school trip sounds great. They did a piece on the revamped long herbaceous border on Beechgrove garden. I had to google ‘keeks’ to work out it means peeks. Love them quirky Scottish words.

      Exciting news on your hyacinth! Mine did root expansion for a couple of weeks before slowly pushing up a shoot. Wonder what colour it will be? (we get mixed bulbs, so we never know). Lulu xXx

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  6. Oops - my "thank you" didn't appear for some reason - ME! Careless as ever.

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    1. Don't worry Catmac! I use Teams messenger at work and you'd think we'd invented our own language looking at the strangely clipped and missing words :0 :)

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  7. Well done Lulu that's fantastic. I really admire you for all that wonderful learning about our plant life particularly with climate change being such a hot topic. Well done you!

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    1. Thank you Sue! Interesting news this week isn’t it that the government will be giving wildlife incentives to farmers, to encourage them to flood areas and plant trees. That’s how the landscape was in Ancient Briton times, a big sponge full of goodness knows what type of fauna. Lulu xXx

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