Work experience

I was lucky enough to have two days with Charlotte Rowe and her assistant last week. Full days with site visits, clients, 3d modelling and planting plans crammed in.

Interesting to see a thriving practice on a day to day basis how hectic it is and how much work goes into all those fabulous looking gardens not to mention the PR & marketing of the brand.

Great to learn some SketchUp tips from Tomoko and also to be able to pass some on!

Seeing gardens that have yet to be photographed was a treat sadly my camera card decided to develop a fault so I lost all my images :( I will have to wait to see them in print sometime in the coming year.

Business Linking...for FREE!

Business Link - A well kept secret, well probably not but it was news to me. Charlotte Rowe told us this was one of the best things she did on finishing her OCGD diploma. In need of cheering up and spending NO CASH I just booked myself onto 4 of the 6 courses starting the week following then end of term 3. Exciting and hopefully enabling and I am resigned to remaining an eternal student.

Charlotte Rowe comes to visit

Finally Friday comes and Charlotte (a fellow student not the alumni one) and I trudge up the hill in the morning, parking for only one student car at Cotuit, en route we make the most of practicing tree idents which we have as a test in a week or so. 30 trees to be ID'd from pictures of bark, leaves and flowers.

The morning is spent with Sally Court, the new VP of the college and a practicing (frantically busy!) garden designer. She is busy busy busy and flitting back and forth to Russia to see clients. Full of anecdotes, her lectures are usually short which is good as most of us are shattered from the last 2 days. We talk briefly about the new TV program Landscape Man, no one seems terribly impressed, I haven't seen it so plan to watch it if I have time.

The afternoon heralds the arrival of ex-OCGD student and probably most notable alumni Charlotte Rowe. A formidable reputation precedes her but she turns out to be delightfully straightforward and frank, without the usual mishmash of illusion and relevant exclusions that seem to be the model so far.

Her trademark work rolls on in a background presentation as she talks rapidly and effortlessly about her rise and current business. I am impressed as she is so honest about how she has come so far apparently so fast. Though it's clear it is down in good part to a lot of hard work and good business acumen on her part and not least that she knows how to play to her strengths.

I am inspired, if daunted as I don't have her credentials, but also breathing a sigh of relief that I have taken the chance to do some work experience with her, 3 days in June.

Glad to get home and plan to take Saturday off.