Meet Lewis Hollingsworth

When I was younger, I used to help my grandad on his allotment, so my career stemmed from there. At secondary school, I enjoyed media studies, IT and the arts. I am quite creative, and I think that’s why horticulture suited me, because there are many different aspects of creativity in this field. After school I studied a BTEC Level 3 in Horticulture.

During college I visited the John Innes Centre and was shown around the facilities, and it really opened my eyes. Once college finished, a friend of mine joined the John Innes Centre and told me they were looking for someone, so I also joined, initially, for two six-month contracts. My position in horticultural services then became full time.

I start at 8 am and finish at 4 pm. I take care of a few glasshouses and polytunnels on site, primarily growing cereal crops for scientists. I spend a good chunk of my time caring for the plants, so I do a walk round and carry out checks, making sure the watering is all done and that nothing is out of hand. I keep an eye out for pests and diseases that can quite frequently appear on the crops.

I routinely spray the plants and keep them clean and make sure everything is as hygienic as possible, and that, ultimately, means that the plants are happy. I am mainly involved with growing cereals, but I also grow some brassicas, like rapeseed, in the polytunnels.

We also have ash trees, because we are doing some work around the ash dieback disease. The scientists we work with fill in crop requirement forms online for me and other members of the team, detailing the crop they are growing, for how long and where they want to grow it. We then get the tickets for the pots or the trays they need to grow the seeds in. I look after the soil mixing that we do on site, so I oversee calibrating the soil mixes to ensure they are accurate. These get put into the individual pots that get used every day.