Previously a self-employed gardener Rick joined Reaseheath to develop his business and future prospects.
Rick completed his BSc (Hons) Landscape Design and Management in 2014, achieving First Class Honours, after ‘topping up’ his Foundation Degree in Garden and Landscape Design that he’d previously studied at Reaseheath.
Since graduating Rick’s completed a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and is currently working as a Landscape Manager for The Environment Partnership (TEP) a multidisciplinary environmental practice based in Warrington. His role at TEP sees Rick managing a number of large landscape maintenance contracts throughout the North West, overseeing habitat creation and improvement, and long term Landscape Management Plans. Rick also works closely with TEP’s ecologists to design and oversee the implementation of landscape mitigation schemes to discharge planning conditions.
Now on the the pathway to Chartership with the Landscape Institute, he’s hoping to be accredited as a Chartered Landscape Architect this year.
Rick’s design skills were put under particular scrutiny while he was a student at Reaseheath as his abstract design for a galaxy garden was selected for the college’s show garden at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park 2013. Rick and the student design team went on to win a silver medal for the garden, sponsored by St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice.
“My grandfather was a gardener by trade, so it must be in my genes,” says Rick, 30. “I learned a lot about maintenance and landscaping working with him, and from a landscape contractor I used to work with. But there is no substitute to coming to Reaseheath and learning how to do it properly.
“The business modules were really good, such as accounting and marketing and learning CAD (computer aided design) was really useful. Studying at Reaseheath gave me a well-rounded knowledge of the landscape industry and assisted me both in completing further study and in my current role.”