Every year, more people find a life for themselves in the world of gardening, some as landscapers, others as arborists and many working in nurseries, helping to grow plants for market.
Here’s a look at some of the success stories; young people who have forged a career for themselves as horticultural professionals.
Matt Vandenberg with his gardening crew.
Matt Vandenberg, a graduate of the two-year horticultural diploma course in 2001 at Kwantlen School of Horticulture in Langley, is now the owner of his own landscape installation company, Vandenberg’s Landscape Design in Aldergrove.
It was natural for Matt Vandenberg to follow the footsteps of his dad and go into landscaping.
His father, Henry, had run a successful landscaping business for more than 34 years when he retired in 1998.
Matt Vandenberg
Matt worked for various landscapers, including Bruce Hunter, one of B.C.’s most well-known landscape professionals. “Bruce had a big influence on me and put me on the career path I needed to pursue.”
After graduating with his horticultural diploma from Kwantlen, Matt worked for another year for Hunter before launching his own company in 2002.
Over the past 10 years, he has established himself as a top-notch landscape installer, concentrating on residential projects and garden renovation work all over the Lower Mainland, “Our specialty is hard-landscaping — paving, walls, stonework — but we also know our plants and know where to find perfect specimens for the job.”
Matt has been a regular participant at the B.C. Home and Garden Show, producing award-winning show gardens that have helped elevate the garden content of the show.
Now a father with four children, he loves his life as a landscaper.
“I say I haven’t worked a day in my life — it is like a hobby for me. It is great when you have a job that makes you feel that way, that it is pure fun and not work at all”
Marina McEwan
Marina McEwan is a 2005 graduate of the nursery production program at Kwantlen Polytechnic’s School of Horticulture.
Since graduating, 28-year-old McEwan has been responsible for growing most of the key flower crops for Amsterdam Greenhouses in Pitt Meadows, including all the tens of thousands of summer bedding plants — marigolds, petunias, impatiens, begonias, many of which get distributed to other garden centres.
“I have always liked plants,” says McEwan, who is originally from Prince George.
“It was a natural thing for me to go into horticulture.”
“One of the reasons I prefer greenhouse work over landscaping is because you are inside in the shade most of the time, out of the summer heat,” she adds.
She is also responsible for growing 30,000 cyclamen, as well as 11,000 pansies for the late-summer/early-fall market, as well as growing fuchsia patio-trees (called. fuchsia standards) for the nursery.
I like doing this work a lot. I can see myself staying and doing this for many years to come,” she says.
“It is fun to see the plants develop from seed and become beautiful specimens people want to buy.”
Jeff Case pruning a tree.
Jeff Case, graduate of the arborists technician level 1 program at Kwantlen School of Horticulture, is now working full time with the tree crew for North Vancouver’s parks department.
Originally from Ottawa, Case, 37, came to Vancouver four years ago after working with the Canadian Forest Service in Ontario on reforestation projects, as well as working with a research scientist on various tree studies.
He already had a forest technician diploma and a degree in forestry before enrolling at Kwantlen to get some technical skills suitable for a career in urban arboriculture.
While he is still working with trees, the switch to working arborist has been a career change for Case, and one that has given him much more individual responsibility, as well as a far more active working day.
“There is a difference in terms of practical application in dealing with trees in an urban environment compared to traditional forestry.
“The Kwantlen courses focused a lot more on practical techniques of arboriculture and taught me basic skills, such as how to use rigging, proper cutting techniques, operate chippers and stump grinders properly, and so on.”
For two years, he was one of the key arborists with Davey Tree in Burnaby, where he was classified as a “ground arborist,” primarily responsible for site cleanup, operating the chipper and working with a certified arborist, whether felling a tree or pruning or hedging.
He is an expert at deep root fertilization, a technique that pumps organic nutrients into the ground around a tree that is failing to thrive or declining because of being planted in impoverished soil.
Case has quickly progressed into the role of a climbing arborist.
“I have a real passion for trees, particularly trees in the urban environment,” Case says.
“And I particularly enjoy educating people about the benefits of trees and the right way to look after them.”
He says even during his years working in forestry, he always had an interest in the “dynamics and synergies” of tress in an urban environment and he also found he was happiest working with his hands doing practical arboriculture work.
“It is important to do cuts properly in order to maximize the benefit to the tree. Any time you do cut a tree, it negatively impacts it, but there is a way of making cuts to minimize that.
“It is exciting, as well as challenging work with a variety of challenges that you need to overcome each day.”
Case plans to continue his education at Kwantlen and will take the next two levels in the arborist program, which will focus on consultation and assessment work as well as advance skills as a climbing arborist.
“I know that in discussions with a client it is often necessary to say what would work best for the tree because we are always looking to satisfy the client while at the same time protect the esthetic integrity of the tree.”
swhysall@vancouversun.com
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