Frank Bouchier - IE

Tyll was an amazing man.

He was handsome, charismatic, charming and intelligent. He was also an enthusiastic, passionate and gifted teacher.He was quite an inspiration and mentor to this young man who arrived bright eyed at Oaklands Park in 1996, looking to join the garden apprenticeship scheme and follow my path in life. 

Tyll examining a preparation

I feel privileged to have spent those two  formative years under his benevolent guidance and with such an inspiring group of fellow trainees.It was a blessed time. I remember the landscape vividly still, the great trees, the sweeping parkland, the big house and the beautiful and productive gardens we helped to maintain. It was like something out of a Jane Austin novel and it was our classroom and playground. I liked the balance between practical work and theoretical learning we had there. The study groups, tutorials and block courses led us into the mysteries and practices of biodynamics as we did the daily work to feed a large community and supply a local box scheme. Living in a camphill community and being a co-worker, a village, a house parent and an apprentice was a rich experience on many different levels.

Tyll with apprentices

Tyll was our captain and we were his crew. I remember fondly gathering each morning in Juniper yard . Tyll would appear and we would flock around him to hear the plan for the day and be assigned our tasks. He was a good delegator and managed to keep the whole complex structure ticking over and running smoothly at a high level of production. He had an artist's eye and all that he did had a strong sense of balance and beauty about it. He was quite the perfectionist and demanded a high standard of work and attention to detail but he was kind, sympathetic and humorous too. He had a lovely wry smile and I can picture it now as he responded to the many challenges posed by community life. One time he told me “ all you have to do is provide salads and fresh greens all year round and the house mothers will think you are wonderful. Another time after returning from a summer holiday in Greece, possibly summer of 98, a very bronzed Tyll pondered quitting camphill and opening a surfing school on a beach there. I could just about picture him as a beach bum but his sense of responsibility and his commitment to the work won out. 

Frank with fellow apprentices, Holly Gardener, Anna Brindle, Lael Rach, Sebastian Kretschmer and Tyll.

We were a group of six apprentices, diverse, strong-minded and idealistic. We formed a good team and shared the responsibilities pretty equally. Tyll was quite old school in that he tended to be gender orientated in the jobs he gave us to do, eg; women potting on , men driving tractors. In fairness this was also due to our levels of experience in these areas. We talked about it as an apprentice group and went to him with the request that he give the women more experience in the machinery sphere and let the men do their share of the pricking out, potting on and care of the seedlings. It was an interesting conversation and I think that while he was challenged by it, he did make genuine efforts to address it. I suppose I should consult my female colleagues to see how they experienced it….

One of the beautiful annual flower beds in the summer and the walled garden, early season

Since leaving Oaklands in 1998 I have gone on to have an interesting career in agriculture and gardening. I have worked on farms and in communities, mentored participants in Corrigans City Farm, a television series and supported allotments and community garden initiatives.A highlight for me was my role as the head gardener at the Irish Seed Savers Association from 2000 until 2008, which is the main NGO charged with conserving Ireland's native varieties of vegetables, grains and fruit. It is a living genbank on 10 hectors in the wilds of Clare and fosters resilience and food security by educating people in growing their own food crops and saving their own seed. I still teach there occasionaly but my main work now is running a small gardening business and promoting biodiversity through the planting of native varieties of hedgerows, shrubs and trees among other more mundane things. In all this I have been very grateful to not only Tyll but to all the people who invested their time, energy and knowledge in giving us such a rich experience and firm foundation in biodynamic agriculture but Tyll was our captain and will always retain a special place in my heart. May he be at peace. 

Frank these days, in County Clare, Ireland.