Garden memories with Philip De Luca

“When I first arrived,” says Philip, “it felt quite daunting. Wolfson was the biggest place I’d ever worked at, and I thought: how am I going to remember everyone’s names? There was little of interest in the gardens around the College – everything was well-maintained, but the Head Gardener at the time was more into the lawns and such.”

Philip, who started at the College in the summer of 2000, says it wasn’t until the next Head Gardener arrived that students began to spend time in the gardens, as the focus shifted from tending the lawns to cultivating new plants, like the wisteria pergolas and the mulberry tree. “We used to have a chef who would go out and pick the mulberries,” says Philip. “He’d make tarts and desserts.” 

Twenty-five years on, Wolfson’s gardens are a riot of colour and diversity, with Philip and the rest of the team under Head Gardener Oscar Holgate spending much of their time looking at biodiversity and sustainable practices, to ensure that the gardens continue to thrive. 

When Philip was a child growing up in Sawston, just south of Cambridge, he used to watch and record all the birds he saw, and still now watches the blue tits and wrens come to the boxes he’s got set up for them at home. And Philip has noticed, as the climate changes, that the number of birds has declined.

“I’ve also noticed over the years how all the plants and trees have been getting stressed,” he says. “With summers getting drier and winters getting warmer, we’ve been growing plants that are more adaptive, like limiting plants that really need water. When you’re growing a plant or growing gardens, you’re benefitting the world. So many habitats have been destroyed, and gardens are so important. It’s nice to think even in a small way I’ve done something for wildlife and insects and the world.” 

As someone who, in small ways and large, has done his own growing up among the gardens, it’s not surprising that Philip has noted all the ways in which they’ve changed. 

But that’s also part of what makes Philip such a good gardener, and such a good colleague: he’s attentive and thoughtful, with a talent for creativity that goes beyond the gardens.

“I play the cello,” he says, “in an orchestra where people who have other jobs play on Thursday evenings. I’ve actually played the cello since I started secondary school.” Philip also was one of the poets included in last year’s WolfWords, writing about his memories of the Wolfson gardens. “I thought I’d give it a go and see what happened,” says Philip. “It was my first poem!”

In his poem, Philip writes “When I first started working at Wolfson / Outside in the beautiful gardens / I never did imagine / I would still be gardening here / Twenty three years on.”

And yet here Philip is – now twenty-five years on. So, what’s made him stay? 

“There’s more to Wolfson than just the job I do. When I was furloughed during the pandemic, my confidence went downhill. Then Oscar came and it was almost like I’d come back full circle, just the two of us again, and now we have a very good team. I’m not a very confident person but I find it helps being here. Wolfson is all about the people, and to me it feels like a family. At first it seemed like a big place. It doesn’t feel like that now.”

Richard Fraser Photography

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Philip’s poem, “Garden Memories”, from the 2023/2024 edition of WolfWords:

 

When I first started working at Wolfson 

Outside in the beautiful gardens 

I never did imagine

I would still be gardening here

Twenty three years on

 

I’ve endured the cold winters

Sweated out the hot summers

Watched all the trees in time and place

From blossom through to leaf fall

And finally to silhouettes 

Hide away the memories 

Of my time spent in the gardens

 

The future looks uncertain 

With our winters getting wetter

Summers getting dryer

But one thing I know is certain

I will still be gardening here 

Twenty three years on

Writing another poem 

About my time spent in the gardens