In May this year, two students from the College of Amenity Horticulture in Dublin’s National Botanic Gardens – Chélirs Brecq and Aoife Hester – took part in HortiChallenge 2024 in Estonia.
HortiChallenge is a EUROPEA International competition which aims to bring together students from across Europe studying within the green sector. Chélirs had just completed the Level 6 Landscape Design and Construction course and was about to head off on his placement at Ballynahinch Castle, Co Galway. Aoife had just finished her Level 5 placement with the Office of Public Works (OPW) in the National Botanic Gardens. The two students were accompanied by Deirdre Walsh (assistant principal of Teagasc’s college) and myself.
The HortiChallenge competition consisted of 20 tasks aimed to test the students on a broad array of horticultural skills and knowledge. The tasks were based around different topics, such as propagation, which included grafting, sowing seed, pricking out seedlings and taking cuttings; identification of plants, seed and cones, as well as pests and diseases; maintenance, including planting according to a planting scheme, setting up an irrigation system and tractor driving; as well as more technical skills such as soil pH testing, fertiliser calculations and robot programming.
Thankfully we had been given the list of tasks in advance, so were able to do some preparatory work. We took walks in the Botanic Gardens to sharpen the students’ identification skills, as well as doing workshops with members of the teaching staff from the college. We also took a trip to Ravensberg Nurseries in Co Offaly, where Jan Ravensberg himself gave us a fantastic tutorial on taking cuttings. Joan Rogers, gardener in the National Botanic Gardens, also kindly assembled samples of seed from the OPW seed room for the students to examine to find the seeds’ identifying features. Chélirs and Aoife felt much more prepared after getting this valuable training from such experts within the Irish horticulture industry.
The competition was held in Räpina, an idyllic rural town on Lake Pihkva in the south of Estonia, surrounded by beautiful birch and pine forests. At the opening ceremony, the principal of the host college, Kalle Toom, gave a warm welcome to Team Ireland, as it was our first time taking part in the HortiChallenge competition, and of all the other European teams in attendance, we had travelled the furthest to compete. There were 14 teams altogether from 12 countries across Europe, all keen to show off their horticultural skills. The countries represented were Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, and Romania, with Austria and Estonia entering two teams.
After the opening ceremony, the students prepared to head off and begin their first tasks. The nerves were palpable, but by the first break Aoife and Chélirs were feeling calm, confident and had started to get to know some of their fellow competitors. Over two days, the students moved from station to station across the college campus, completing all of the tasks as a team. They were evaluated on the quality and speed of their work as well as their ability to work together.
After two days completing the tasks, there was an awards ceremony in a beautiful wooded area of the college grounds, followed by a celebratory dinner at Sillapää Castle, overlooking the lake. We were absolutely thrilled when Kalle Toom announced Team Ireland as achieving third place. There was a huge cheer from the crowd – a telling sign that Aoife and Chélirs had won hearts over the weekend.
As well as coming third place overall, the Teagasc students came first place in the seed and cone identification and personal protective equipment donning rounds, and came in the top four in grafting, robots and programming, fertiliser calculations and plant identification. Aoife and Chélirs certainly set the standard for new entrants into the competition and wowed the judges with both their performance and personalities. The students were delighted with their result and it was wonderful to see their confidence soar.
HORTICHALLENGE 2024 IN ESTONIA. ABOVE: SARAH SIMPSON, DEIRDRE WALSH WITH CHÉLIRS & AOIFE AT THE AWARD CEREMONY.
The competition gave Aoife and Chélirs a great opportunity to show off all they have learnt from their courses, as well as the chance to exchange knowledge with students from across Europe. This experience will no doubt be something they’ll carry with them into the next stages of their education and careers.
We knew that Aoife and Chélirs would be great candidates, as they had shown real dedication to their chosen programmes from the get go, as was reflected in their fantastic grades. They not only performed incredibly well in the competition, but also carried themselves in a warm, friendly and professional manner. They quickly became very popular among the other teams and were proud to explain some of the uniqueness of Irish culture, such as the great game of hurling. They were not only fantastic ambassadors for Teagasc, but also shining representatives of Irish horticultural education and the industry as a whole. ✽
SARAH SIMPSON is a college technician based in the Teagasc College of Horticulture in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin.
