A passion rewarded

By Tania Martin
MONBULK’S answer to Jamie Durie is already making his mark on the landscape garden industry.
Jake Ryan has always dreamed of pottering around the garden, but the budding designer never expected to receive an award in his first year as a trainee.
“I was shocked but excited to be named the winner,” Jake said of last month’s award as First Year Horticulture Trainee of the Year.
He also won the Excellence Award, which is usually given to a second-year trainee.
It was the first time since the awards began that this honour had been given to a first-year trainee.
“It was amazing … I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” he said, explaining that landscaping had been his passion for as long as he could remember.
His first job was working at Olinda’s award-winning Greenmark Landscapes at the age of 14.
Since then, he has had a growing passion for the industry, although the budding green thumb has also been concentrating on studies.
Last year, he returned to where it all started, at Greenmark, for a traineeship in landscape design and horticulture, doing the course alongside his Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) as part of the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL).
Jake said it was “awesome’’ to be doing what he loved most.
“I just love being out in the garden,” he said.
He said the past 12 months had been a learning curve.
Not only did he finish Year 12, he got his bobcat licence and also had his first taste of living away from home when he was part of a team working on a garden in Seymour for several months.
“It was an amazing experience,” he said.
His boss, Phil Johnson, said Jake had shown great maturity and talent for landscaping.
“He has been an asset to the company and an inspiration to all of us,” Mr Johnson said.
Jake was also part of the Greenmark team that won the 2008 Victorian Sustainable Landscape Garden Award.