Horticultural students take provincials
A pair of Fanshawe's horticultural students took home the top prize at the provincial championships.
Brian Bailey and Erin van Dooren, both second-year students, took part in the annual competition in Toronto at the Canada Blooms Festival, and not only won, but left their closest competition in the dust.
“It's the National Skills Landscape and Garden Construction competition,” said Michael Pascoe, the coordinator for the horticulture technician and apprenticeship programs.
“Over three days they had to build a garden,” Pascoe continued. “And everybody has to build the same garden. And they have to use all of their skills that they would normally have to use to build a garden including plan reading, construction, paving, building retaining walls, working with water, wood and even safety and teamwork.
“So they're judged while they're building and then again at the end.”
The pair, who had never worked together prior to the Provincials, underwent about five-weeks of training to help prepare them for the competition. Their training more than paid off when they finished an easy 20-points ahead of Humber's second place team.
“It was pretty high pressure,” said Bailey regarding the Provincials. “It was a lot more intense than I thought it would be. You had to really think before you did anything and we were always really cautious because there were always judges watching.”
But despite having never worked together both Bailey and van Dooren credit their teamwork with a large chunk of the win.
“We just had class together,” Bailey said of the team. “We didn't really work together in class at all so it was surprising how well it worked out. We were actually the only team that finished the whole thing, no one else was even close.”
“The competition happens once a year,” continued Pascoe. “And this means we'll be representing Ontario at the Nationals in Calgary in May. And this year is going to be particularly tough because it's the competition for the Worlds.”
As for preparing for the Nationals the pair, between their regular studies, will continue to work on their overall skills to make sure they have all their bases covered.
“We're going to go over what we did at the Provincials,” explained van Dooren. “Probably work on our woodwork more because neither one of us have much experience with that. Brian knew a lot of the stonework, and I've installed a lot of ponds- we just kind of balanced off each other.
“Quebec sends their teams over to France to train, so they should be our toughest competition, so we'll have to see when we get out there.”
Brian Bailey and Erin van Dooren, both second-year students, took part in the annual competition in Toronto at the Canada Blooms Festival, and not only won, but left their closest competition in the dust.
“It's the National Skills Landscape and Garden Construction competition,” said Michael Pascoe, the coordinator for the horticulture technician and apprenticeship programs.
“Over three days they had to build a garden,” Pascoe continued. “And everybody has to build the same garden. And they have to use all of their skills that they would normally have to use to build a garden including plan reading, construction, paving, building retaining walls, working with water, wood and even safety and teamwork.
“So they're judged while they're building and then again at the end.”
The pair, who had never worked together prior to the Provincials, underwent about five-weeks of training to help prepare them for the competition. Their training more than paid off when they finished an easy 20-points ahead of Humber's second place team.
“It was pretty high pressure,” said Bailey regarding the Provincials. “It was a lot more intense than I thought it would be. You had to really think before you did anything and we were always really cautious because there were always judges watching.”
But despite having never worked together both Bailey and van Dooren credit their teamwork with a large chunk of the win.
“We just had class together,” Bailey said of the team. “We didn't really work together in class at all so it was surprising how well it worked out. We were actually the only team that finished the whole thing, no one else was even close.”
“The competition happens once a year,” continued Pascoe. “And this means we'll be representing Ontario at the Nationals in Calgary in May. And this year is going to be particularly tough because it's the competition for the Worlds.”
As for preparing for the Nationals the pair, between their regular studies, will continue to work on their overall skills to make sure they have all their bases covered.
“We're going to go over what we did at the Provincials,” explained van Dooren. “Probably work on our woodwork more because neither one of us have much experience with that. Brian knew a lot of the stonework, and I've installed a lot of ponds- we just kind of balanced off each other.
“Quebec sends their teams over to France to train, so they should be our toughest competition, so we'll have to see when we get out there.”
