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12
Apr
The gardener looking after his 'family' in a magical place
Not many people are lucky enough to love their job as much as Phil Airey loves his. When the opportunity to work at Horticap came along 20 years ago, it was, he says, a “no-brainer”.
Horticap, on the A59 just outside Harrogate, is an award-winning charity whose staff and volunteers help provide adults with learning and other disabilities with training in horticulture and other skills.
Speaking to the Stray Ferret over a coffee in the café, Phil said:
I knew it was right for me. I even took a pay-cut to come here. It was the best decision I ever made. I’ve had so many more experiences here than I would have had anywhere else.
Volunteer Jane with student Timothy on reception at Horticap in Harrogate.
As assistant manager, Phil cuts an imposing figure in all areas of Horticap’s operations, and is one of the people most to credit for the transformation of the charity over the last two decades.
He says:
We’ve got about 25 people working for us now. That’s way more than there were when I started here.
It was a massively different place then. We didn’t have a coffee shop then – we just sold plants – and we didn’t have any presence on social media.
We closed at Christmas and didn’t open up again until April. Now, we’re open all year round. If we had five cars in the carpark, that was a rush!
On the April morning the Stray Ferret visited, there were between 40 and 50 cars, which Phil said was normal for a sunny spring day.
The charity also now has thousands of followers on its Facebook, Instagram and X accounts.
Phil says:
Social is vital to get out our message and information. It's the fastest and cheapest way to communicate. Plus, our students do like to see themselves on the internet.
Spring is a busy time of year for Horticap.
On its four-acre site between Harrogate and Beckwithshaw, Horticap has a commercial nursery, café and garden, bee hives, nature trail and even an open-air stage in the woods.
Horticap employs 25 students a day – 50 in total – and they stay with the charity until they decide to leave or retire. Most come from across the Harrogate district, although five come from the Leeds City Council area, and one from Tadcaster.
But Phil is quick to stress that Horticap is not a baby-sitting service. He says:
It’s definitely a place of work for them, not a day centre. The put on a pair of steel-toecapped boots and they do a day’s work. And at the end of the day, we give them a wage packet with a pound in it so that they have something tangible to show for it.
Some of them go and buy a Happy Meal on a Wednesday evening after swimming, and others go for a pint on a Friday – it's up to them what they do with their money.
Scott is one of the students at Horticap.
But even though the students do a proper day’s work at Horticap, that doesn’t mean they would find it easy to find work elsewhere. Phil says:
All our students need structure. Once they’re at work they need support for eight hours, and a lot of businesses just don’t have the money or time to do that.
One of the things Horticap gives students is a social framework that helps them to judge how to act appropriately in public places.
Phil Airey in the woods along the nature trail.
Phil clearly gets on extremely well with all his students, and shares a joke with each of them as he moves around the site. Humour is a constant. He laughs:
I love working with all our students. They can be very funny. Some of them are autistic, and they’ll look at me and ask, ‘Why are you fat?’. They just don’t have a filter. Some people take it personally, but I don’t.
Phil Airey
Originally from Bradford, Phil left Bingley Grammar School to work for Bradford health authority's gardening team, and was sent to Shipley College – celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh’s alma mater – to learn horticulture.
When his dad died prematurely, he went to work in the family timber yard, but didn’t enjoy it as much, so left to work at St John’s School for the Deaf in Boston Spa. It was his first taste of working with young adults with additional needs, and he was hooked.
After two decades of working at Horticap, it feels like home. He says:
All our students have real characters, and sometimes I just don’t see their disability. After knowing them for a certain time, you just don’t see it anymore. I look at their abilities – what they bring.
The students absolutely love it here – the camaraderie between staff and students, and the banter. That social side is so important. That’s our main aim – to be like a family.
Student Simon and the rest of the kitchen crew at Horticap's café in Harrogate.
Part of Phil’s job is to help boost the “family” finances, and the charity is about to launch a new scheme to help raise funds.
Horticap has several projects in the pipeline which all demand money. There are plans for a new greenhouse and an electric van, and it’s in the process of rebuilding the mess room, where the students change their boots and take breaks.
These three projects alone will probably cost more than half a million pounds.
To help meet these costs, Horticap is about to launch a special fundraising scheme. By raising or donating £100, people can become a Horticap Hero, which will entitle them to a special badge and other benefits. Companies can become Horticap Hero Businesses by raising or donating £1,000.
Phil says:
I'm not a businessman, I'm a gardener, but I do what I can. Our main ambition over the next year or two is to redevelop some of the ageing buildings, and to continue serving Harrogate and the wider region, to show that our students, with a bit of support, can do amazing things.
The pond, with the café in the background.
He is clearly in his element at Horticap, and it's hard to imagine Phil being better suited to any other job, but does he wish he’d done anything differently over the last 20 years?
No, he says with certainty, there's nothing. But then he corrects himself:
If I have one regret it’s that I wish I’d known about Horticap about 10 years before I did. It’s just a really good, magical place to be.
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