As you walk through the Washington Park Arboretum this summer, you’ll see the horticulture staff out and about doing the many, many maintenance and care tasks that keep the gardens beautiful throughout our sunny weather (weeding, weeding, watering, mulching, weeding…). You may not know that they also take the time to share their work as a practical training opportunity for early-career horticulturists: the UW Botanic Gardens regularly supports paid internships for folks looking to get started in the horticulture field, often students from Edmonds College or South Seattle College.

This spring, the horticulture intern is Amanda Fairbanks, a current student at Edmonds College working towards a degree in Sustainable Landscaping. Amanda is juggling her classes, a job as an administrative assistant, and this internship as she pursues a career change. Prior to starting her degree at Edmonds, she was working as a crisis mental health professional for about 3 and a half years, first down in Longview, Washington, and then in Seattle. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Montana in Missoula before moving to Longview to start working.

It was a tough time to be providing crisis mental healthcare; Amanda worked in the field through the peak of the pandemic, and it felt like she was swimming upstream all the time. She realized the work wasn’t sustainable for her, so she swapped careers into something that gave her peace and a sense of stability – professional landscaping and gardening.

The Arboretum “is such a great space,” she says while weeding in the Pacific Connections Garden.  “There’s lots of plant diversity, and I’m gaining confidence and experience here,” she adds. Each week, Amanda works with a new member of the horticulture staff, allowing her to learn from everyone while also getting to work in every area of the Arboretum. Her favorite plant? Coastal Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), which you can see growing near the Tot Lot on the west side of the Arboretum as well as many other locations throughout the park.

For visitors coming to the Arboretum right now as spring transitions to summer, Amanda recommends checking out the peonies, many of which can be found blooming along the Loop Trail in the southeast part of the Arboretum, near the Witch Hazel section and the Pacific Connection Gardens. Then she recommends heading north to check out the tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera), which should be blooming soon, and the rest of the Magnolia collection. You can see Amanda working throughout the Arboretum for another couple of weeks before she finishes her internship and finds a new place to grow her knowledge!

Peonies in bloom at the Center for Urban Horticulture