Project management

It was during  my time at Barters plant nursery that project management skills were properly developed .
I learned how to plan timelines, provide fluid budget estimates, manage contractors and other resources - all tracked on spreadsheets and communicated to the purse-string holders on a regular basis.

This project (below) was to build a smart, self irrigating area for the cultivation of plants, shrubs etc in pots.
Prior to my involvement, the process was to hand water every pot, sometimes twicw daily - this took a large share of available hours, costing the company £££.  There was a rudmentary sprinkler system used on other areas of the nursery but this had issues - uneven watering arcs and lots of wasted water onto paths etc.

Initial works included levelling an area 100m x 50m, planning paths around three 70m long 'beds' (raised, weed-free for 1000's of pots).

Digging deep trenches for drainage, water-pipes & kilometers of cabling.  All linked by 30 solenoids to 100's of sprinklers connected to a Hunter Industries brain which was fully programmable for various zones & took input from rainfall sensors as well as weather forecasts.

Unfortunately I have few photos of the work - these are after the trenches were refilled, showing water supply stanchions but before the beds were installed.  They do give some sense of the scale.  The black sheet would be a bed, the white sheets would become gravel roads suitable for mini tractors.

Automated irrigation in Frome BA13

Time taken: 4 months prior planning -  3 months work.