Discover Horticulture at CAFRE

What opportunities are there in horticulture? What is horticulture?

Ciaran Mulholland, CAFRE Lecturer during a species identification exercise with students.

Ciaran Mulholland, Lecturer at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) demystifies the term horticulture for school leavers, career changers and for those influencing the career choices of family and friends, ahead of CAFRE’s Horticulture Virtual Open Event, on Wednesday 9 March.

Ciaran explains that ‘horticulture is a science, combining biology and the environment with a huge range of opportunities for those studying this profession’.

Horticulture is the study and cultivation of plants for use by us humans in our everyday lives.  You’re wearing a cotton tee-shirt; that’s horticulture.  You’re eating a side salad of lettuce and tomato with a veggie-burger; that’s horticulture.  You’re planting young tree saplings as part of a school environmental project?  Those young saplings came from a tree nursery; that’s horticulture too.  You’ve got a headache?  If you take Aspirin, that’s from plants too; more horticulture.

Horticulture is made up of many different subjects.  Within the horticulture industry there are four main areas. These are; sports turf, ornamental horticulture, food horticulture and landscaping.  The easiest way to describe each of these is that sports turf means looking after football, rugby, hockey, GAA, and golf courses and pitches.  Ornamental horticulture means growing plants that we think a pretty and would buy from a garden centre.  Food horticulture means growing plants for food and drink.  Landscaping means designing, building and looking after parks and gardens for people to enjoy.

Horticulture courses right up to Degree level are delivered in Northern Ireland at CAFRE’s Greenmount campus, Antrim.  Subject to entry requirements students join the two year Foundation Degree Horticulture course, after which they can progress onto the final year of the BSc (Hons) Degree in Horticulture. Both degree programmes are validated by Ulster University. Further education programmes in horticulture for post GSCE entry are also available at the campus. Specific course details can be found on the CAFRE website.

For the opportunity to hear from staff, students and alumni and to see campus footage join the Horticulture Virtual Open Event on Wednesday 9 March at 8pm on DiscoverCAFRE Facebook Live. On-campus tours can be booked via the CAFRE website.

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