What first drew you to gardening, and how did you find your way to Murray Edwards?

Keith: As a child, I spent so much time in the garden and on my dad’s allotment, learning about vegetables, fruit, and flower growing. My first job was at Madingley Hall before I moved to a plant research group at the University’s Department of Biochemistry.

Caitlin: I’ve loved gardening for years so I enrolled on RHS Level 2 Horticulture. Through this experience, I discovered the WRAGS training course and worked at Madingley Hall with the wonderful gardeners there. I later volunteered at Murray Edwards and helped to plant the beautiful bulb lawn display in Orchard Court. After that experience, I really wanted to work here.

What do you love most about gardening here?

Caitlin: We garden for the students, growing flowers and vegetables for them to use. We want the students to feel welcome, so creating spaces for them to work and relax in is a way of doing that.

Catherine: We love the container displays at the front of college and having lots of wild areas. We also do workshops with the students which allows us to get to know them.

“We want the students to feel welcome, so creating spaces for them to work and relax in is a way of doing that”

How big is the gardening team?

Team: We’re a small team – six people with some of us part time. Two of the staff have been here nearly 30 years! Our trainee Charlotte is also studying RHS Level 2, which is good for us because we can keep up with changes in horticulture!

Do you have a favourite memory from your time working at the college?

Caitlin + Catherine: When we made the peace sign for the 2023 Murray Edwards Garden Party, themed ‘Summer of Love’. It was over two metres tall and we grew the flowers to decorate it with. We created it using hazel stakes, oak branches, and leaves from a fallen tree, and received the most wonderful feedback!

Charlotte: We’ve had foxes in the wild area – last year they had cubs! We were lucky enough to see them playing on the compost heap and digging tunnels in our mulch heaps.

Peter: We hosted 1960s model and photographer Patti Boyd at the college. For the evening meal, we created elaborate table decorations using foliage and flowers picked from the gardens.

Keith: The students enjoying the Apple Day event last year, sampling apples grown at the college.

For those who don’t know, what is ‘Apple Day’ and what happens on this special occasion?

Team: Apple Day has a long history at Murray Edwards. It’s to celebrate the apple harvest in autumn. In October, the JCR helps us to organise the event. We have lots of apples for tasting and we talk about the different trees and history of the varieties. We also have apple crumble, apple juice, and hot chocolate! The students arrange a band and we have a fire pit with toasted marshmallows. It’s the most popular event we do.

Is there a fun fact about the gardens that people might not know?

Peter: The gardeners are sometimes called upon to do funeral duties – several cats belonging to past Fellows and a President have been buried in the gardens after they passed away. They include the famous ginger college cat Sam whom many students remember fondly.

Team: We have a glasshouse in the gardens that is over 140 years old. It originally belonged to Emma Darwin, Charles Darwin’s widow, who lived in the grounds. The greenhouse is fully functioning and still has the original fixtures and fittings such as the glass, window vents, and heating pipes. You can feel the history of the building when you work there.

"We have a glasshouse in the gardens that is over 140 years old. It originally belonged to Emma Darwin"

How does your work change across the seasons?

Team: We plan ahead for the whole year, trying to make sure that we plant species that flower late into the season for when the students return in October. We do have a lot of container planting that requires forward planning but now we have more perennial plants to reduce watering and be more sustainable.

Keith: Our work changes continually throughout the year, although weather may impact the work. During the recent very hot weather, annual weeds do not germinate, grass hardly grows and the soil is rock hard so planting is more difficult.

Do animals interact with your work in the gardens?

Caitlin: We see a lot of Muntjac deer – they look sweet but eat our plants when given the chance! It’s lovely for the students because some of them live in areas where there isn’t much wildlife, so to see deer wander past you can be quite special.

Keith: Hardly a day goes by without some interaction. Maybe a fox quietly passing by, a woodpecker scaling a tree trunk, or a swan cygnet appearing one day on a lawn. Bird song is a joy when you’re working away pruning. Blackcaps, Song Thrushes and Mistletoe Thrushes are just some that we hear.

What do you think is special about the gardens at Murray Edwards?

Team: We focus on the student experience and don’t place many restrictions on where they can go in the gardens. They can walk on the grass and pick flowers and vegetables to use. We also run drop-in workshops to help with general well-being, ranging from flower arranging and pot plant care to seed sowing and wreath making. We try to make the gardens and activities we do accessible for students – academic life can be so busy so we aim to alleviate stress where we can.

How would you describe the gardens in three words?

Team: Fun. Informal. Inspiring.