Bridie Franks

2024 | Horticulture

“Incorporating sustainability into my career path is important to me because, as we all know, the planet is suffering at the hands of the human race, with future generations depending on us taking action in the present.”

Being new to the horticulture industry, I am in a position where I would love to invest in my career and find something really worthwhile to pursue in the horticultural sector. I believe the Global Footprints Scholarship could be an invaluable opportunity to explore this!

 I am keen to take all opportunities that I can, particularly as I near the end of my horticultural studies and am at a point where I could choose from various different paths. I would like to extend myself and put myself out there, to find work that is meaningful to me.

I have taken a bit of a wandering journey to get to horticulture. First, I studied agricultural science at university for one year, though the 17-year-old me didn’t find it quite what I was after. The following year I worked as a teacher’s aide. Then, I completed a degree in laboratory medicine, and worked in clinical diagnostic laboratories for a year, but this too didn’t feel quite right. I found the clinical laboratory environment very sterile and unchanging, and I didn’t like being indoors all day! I then studied computer programming for a year, and this was definitely not a good fit.

Finally, I decided I would try something entirely unlike anything I had tried so far: a Certificate III in Horticulture. It was practical and hands-on, outdoors-based but still related to biology, which I am interested in. Starting this course felt like a breath of fresh air. It has been both exciting and a relief to discover this.

The thing I find myself most strongly passionate about is doing my bit to care for the planet. Since starting studying horticulture, I have always hoped that I could find some sort of horticultural work that also had an environmental focus.

A Global Footprints Scholarship is your opportunity to do more of what you love. What have you done at work that you are proud of or passionate about?

 First, I am very proud of myself for making the difficult decision to drop my laboratory job, in which I had invested a lot of time, effort and money, to follow what I believed was best for me. Second, as well as studying horticulture at TAFE this past year, I have picked up a job as a gardening assistant. I am proud of the improvement in my skills, such as hedging, and of always working to a high standard. I also find satisfaction in helping things grow and making spaces more beautiful. I am motivated to learn lots about horticulture, and would love to become an expert.

I am pleased to bring some of the knowledge I have gained during my studies to my workplace, especially being able to gently encourage more sustainable practices. For example, my boss was planning to remove spiders from a hedge with pesticide. However, I suggested that spiders are not hedge-eaters, and may actually be beneficial in predating those insects that are. Thus, the biodiversity and ecosystem structure were hopefully maintained in some small way.

I also have pride in the fact that despite being a smallish female, I am quite able to pull my weight using power tools and doing hard physical labour.

I have always liked gardening. This is inherited from my mum. So, aside from the career perspective, I am really enjoying learning more about horticulture just out of personal interest. I enjoy talking with Mum about things I have come across at work or study, as does she.

Lastly, I am both proud and honoured to have received two awards during my time studying horticulture: the Nursery and Gardens Institute of South Australia Student of the Year Award; and the Playford Trust Memorial Scholarship. I feel humbled and grateful for this recognition, which has also boosted my confidence in my career.

A Global Footprints Scholarship is for you if you are passionate about creating a sustainable future. Describe something you have done at work or are working on, that helps the environment. Why is it important to you?

Although I have not yet really worked in a sustainability-focused job, I have always cared about looking after the environment. I ride a bike, shop second-hand, limit my consumption and waste, etc. For a long time, I have recognised that a career in sustainability would likely be the most fulfilling for me, if I can find a way to incorporate it into my career path. This is important to me because, as we all know, the planet is suffering at the hands of the human race, with future generations (and even my generation) depending on us taking action in the present.

During my horticultural studies at TAFE SA, I put my hand up to be involved in an extra-curricular project assessing the viability of peat-alternatives in raising plantlets from tissue culture. For example, the use of coconut coir, which is a biodegradable, recycled waste product. Peat moss is a non-optimal potting media as it is not renewable and is harvested from very unique and fragile ecosystems, releasing carbon dioxide during the harvesting process as well. This is especially poignant to me as I grew up bushwalking in Tasmania, and have seen sphagnum moss (the precursor to peat) growing in some very beautiful and wild environments that are precious to me.

When I studied agricultural science in 2016, I was lucky enough to be selected to participate in a cultural and environmental conservation field trip to Indonesia. This was definitely an eye-opener and fuelled my passion for doing my bit to help the environment.

I currently volunteer for SA Water at their reservoirs, which involves tasks such as weed removal, planting natives and habitat restoration.

Everyday across the globe, people make breakthroughs for a more sustainable future. What have you seen or heard about that you find inspiring, and why?

As already alluded to, I have grown up bushwalking, snorkelling, kayaking, and camping in Tasmania, which has made me passionate about preserving natural environments. I spend a lot of time in the outdoors on rock-climbing trips, both in Australia and overseas, and I have come to value both the beauty of nature and how vital it is for us humans. As such, I feel especially pulled towards re-wilding or re-vegetation efforts. I think helping plants grow, restoring habitat and nurturing biodiversity must be one of the most rewarding endeavours. Growing plants, assuming it is done in a sustainable way, is one of the few things I can think of that is wholly good. Except perhaps if they are weeds… but even weeds can be good.

The concept of microforests in cities and other urban greening projects such as green roofs is exciting. Urban greening is inspiring as it not only has many environmental benefits, such as cooling, minimising stormwater runoff, improving air quality and boosting biodiversity, but it also has a positive impact on mental and physical health, and of course has aesthetic value. In Singapore, they even tried putting green roofs on buses.

I also find carbon sequestration technologies inspiring, such as using seaweed or mangroves to capture ‘blue carbon’. These schemes go one step further than simply achieving zero net carbon emissions. They actively remove carbon that has already been put in the atmosphere, hopefully reversing the effects of climate change.

Another key area of focus in regard to horticulture is finding ways of sustainably feeding the world’s growing population. During my studies I have come across two quite opposing approaches to this: permaculture/regenerative agriculture related systems, and intensive hydroponic growing. I think it likely that while these are very different solutions, and many more exist, a multi-faceted approach will be the best strategy into the future.

As a BBM Scholar you can choose to go anywhere in the world. Where do you hope to travel with your Scholarship and why?

I am very interested in rewilding projects in places such as Scotland (The Scottish Rewilding Alliance), India (Rewilding India), Africa (Justdiggit, Eden Reforestation), Brazil (WeForest) and many more. While travelling to English-speaking countries would in many ways be more straight-forward, visiting places like Kenya, Brazil or Tanzania (all places where re-wilding is occurring) could be a very rewarding, eye-opening and unique experience.

My attention has also been caught by the Knepp Estate in England, a significant rewilding and regenerative farming eco-tourism hotspot. Along with thousands of acres of degraded farmland-turned-wilderness habitat, the Estate also includes a 3-acre organic regenerative market garden and an experimental ‘Rewilded Garden.’ I think it would be absolutely wonderful to see and learn from such an inspiring place and inspiring people.

If I were to visit these sorts of places where rewilding is occurring, I would hope to learn more about how different ecosystems around the world function, and ways in which people can effectively influence nature to promote recovery of wild places and bring benefit to communities and the planet. I would love to learn more about regenerative food production techniques at somewhere like Knepp Estate, and I find it exciting that more and more sustainable approaches like this are becoming the norm all over the world. Not too long ago, environmentalism and sustainability were considered delusional and laughable pursuits for tree-huggers. How far we have come!

In regard to the greening of cities both on the ground, through micro-forests, and on rooftops of big buildings. Some inspiring organisations that I have found include Acacia Eco in India, GWS Living Art in Singapore and Urban GreenUp (Europe).

All around the world countries are embracing the need to make cities greener, to reduce the urban heat island effect, improve biodiversity, reduce pollution, limit flooding and remove carbon from the atmosphere. For example, there are laws requiring green roofs on new buildings in Basel (Switzerland). There are similar policies in the Netherlands, subsidies for green roofs in Hamburg, and green corridors being installed in Medellin (Columbia). In addition to all these places, ‘Gardens by the Bay’ in Singapore would also be incredible to visit.

Lastly, I don’t think any horticulturalist could fail to put Kew Gardens on their wish list. The biodiversity, garden design, seed bank and Wakehurst wild botanic garden would all be wonderful to see, and coming from a background of laboratory work and science, the research performed at Kew would also be very interesting to me.

It seems to me that Australia is a bit behind in both rewilding and urban greening, and so going overseas to see countries and organisations at the forefront of innovation would offer a rare and invaluable opportunity.

“Bridie is enthusiastic and passionate and obviously has broad  interests… She has clear goals aligned with the scholarship’s objectives.” – Assessor Panel