From catwalk to compost: Model gives up fashion career to get closer to nature
telegraph.co.uknew love of gardening and the great outdoors.Having spent the past eight years gracing the covers of glossy magazines and strutting down runways in fashion weeks across the world, the 23-year-old has given it all up to become a horticulturist.Ms Gardner is one of a growing number of people who in recent years have quit their jobs to embark on careers that bring them closer to nature.For the former Harper’s Bazaar model, who grew up in the Outback in Australia, it was the devastating bushfires of 2019 that forced her to reconsider her impact on the planet.“It really hit home for me,” she said. “I realised how disconnected I was from my upbringing and how me flying for work every week was incredibly unsustainable.
I decided I wanted to look into alternative jobs and a job in nature really appealed to me.” When the pandemic struck, her modelling jobs began to dry up.
So she started volunteering at Painshill, the 18th-century landscape garden in Cobham, Surrey, before starting formal training as an apprentice.
She now trains at a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) garden in nearby Wisley.The RHS said that applications for apprenticeship programmes have soared since the start of the pandemic, as people have been reappraising their lives and livelihoods.In a typical year, the RHS said it receives about 250 applications, but that figure more than trebled last year to 800.
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