"No Experience Required" My story

I was 18 and I had a five year plan in place to become one of Irelands leading Landscape and Garden design contractors as well as making a name for myself as a designer, my dream was inspired by an Irish garden desinger called Dairmuid Gavin. He was and still is a celebrity designer who takes on the big projects as well as the small. Love him or hate him the man has done a lot for the way the general public view garden design. We have come from a time in the last twenty years were it was not uncommon for people to leave their old broken down dishwashers and other kitchen appliences in their garden to a time were people are heavily investing in their garden, for a some people making the garden more inportant then the house they are living in. Now that for me is a major achievment.

So there I was with my five year plan, year 1 involved getting my cert. in horticulture, then year 2-4 involved me getting my degree in horticulture, all the time working in the industry learning about quantities and materials and implementing garden schemes. Mid way through year four I would begin working for a reputable landscape gardener and spend my money investing in tools, a van and creating a name for myself, bringing me to the end of year five upon which I would go out on my own and set up my own business.

I thought to myself what a perfect plan, little did I know this plan would be majorly disrupted by the opportunity to do a year of work experience in Australia for my horticultural studies. I had to do it, so my five year plan, became my 6 year plan. Upon coming back from Oz, I had to wait 8 months to go back to college and join up with the new semester, well from here to there another opportunity came up, this was a TV show with the one and only Dairmuid Gavin, my hero, the man I wanted to be. It was a TV reality show, with the winner recieving a contract to work with him in his new Dublin based office. Thousands applied and I came runner-up, was I sad, not at all, not one little bit!

Below a picture of Dairmuid Gavin, me and the two other finalists.

Within the first week of the competition I realised what I wanted to do with my life, my 5/6 year plan didn't matter anymore, something happened in the first week of the competition, something inside me clicked, I realised I didn't want to be like Dairmuid Gavin anymore, I wanted to be "Scott Renwick landscape architect", I wanted to rise to the top of my game in a world I knew very little about, and before I knew it I was back finishing my degree in horticulture and ready to begin my education in Landscape Design eventually finishing with the honours degree I have today. My original 5 year plan got altered and I now found myself in the middle of an 11 year plan, which included 8 years involved in thrid level education and a further three to get my landscape architects licence.

Well I'm now in year eight of that plan and ready to begin my career as a landscape architect in Israel with the view of obtaining my licence within the next three years. After this who knows where my plans will lead me, I have no idea, but you can bet it's going to be somewhere great!