Tom Pyman, Grounds and Gardens Supervisor
Meet Tom Pyman, Grounds and Gardens Supervisor. In his profile, Tom tells us about No Mow May, his favourite trees on campus, and new sustainability initiatives helping to change the planting culture at Queen Mary - creating a more light and colourful campus through planting.
Tell us about yourself, Tom.
I have been in the horticultural industry for more than 10 years. I worked as a horticultural technician in Vancouver, Canada for two years and I have been at Queen Mary for four years now - in fact it was my four-year anniversary recently. I have done a whole World Cup cycle here! It’s been enjoyable - I am looking forward to the next four years.
What’s your working week like?
I do like a bit of structure. Typically, on a Friday I will do a big campus walk-around and I’ll plan the works for myself and the four members of my team for the following week. I have tried to break that down into a schedule that covers all areas of the campus, focusing on different areas on different days.
On Mondays we cover the residential areas, Tuesday we move across the Bancroft area and Library Square, Wednesday is the front of the Queens’ Building and Geography Square. Thursdays we move over to the ITL Building and the area around there, and Fridays we go off-site which can include Whitechapel and Dept W. I have tried to break it down so that the team has a predictable weekly schedule, and I cover any reactive work that comes in.
In the afternoons, I often do desk work – admin and project planning, though I am on-call for the team if they need support with anything. We’re a small team of five – it works really well.
Tell us about any key projects that you’re currently working on.
We’ve got a few interesting things going on at the moment.
We’ve developed a conservation area in Mile End that we’re very proud of. One of my team, Jon, is a real tree guy and he noticed there’s a lot of young saplings growing so we have cordoned this area off, labelled the trees, and this has become a wildlife area where we’re promoting biodiversity. We’ve built a dead hedge around the area, giving nesting birds a ready supply of natural materials. It’s an ingenious way of recycling waste wood and twigs.
We’ve created a new allotment space in Maurice Court - and we’ve acquired a greenhouse. We’re growing courgettes, lettuce, carrots, parsnips, tomatoes, beetroot and many different variants of potato. Geoff from my team has even managed to grow some melons! We’re planning to give some of the produce we grow to staff and some to The Curve, as ingredients for the meals they provide to students and staff.
We’re observing No Mow May (an initiative launched by Plantlife in 2019) for most of the lawns to promote biodiversity and food for early pollinators.
We working to regenerate heavy footfall areas (eg around the Bancroft Building), and last year we grew some sunflowers there - some of them grew to around ten feet tall and brought real colour to the area.
For the past couple of years, we’ve been working towards changing the planting culture by introducing more sustainable and environment-friendly herbaceous perennials. We’re working towards a more light and colourful campus through planting.
What do you see as your role in helping the University achieve its Strategy 2030?
As well as all of the sustainability initiatives that we’ve talked about, we also hope that through our planting, we’re creating spaces which people will enjoy and engage with. We hope that the areas we’ve created spark conversations about plants which connect people and help them to feel included. We’re proud of the work we have done to promote a welcoming, warm and inclusive atmosphere in our planted spaces.
What’s your favourite place on any of our campuses?
I have two places that I am especially fond of. I love Geography Square - we’ve planted two new trees there. A liquidambar styraciflua, which is going to be beautiful - kindly donated by a former staff member. We’ve also planted a cornus kousa which will have beautiful blooms. There’s a gingko biloba in Geography Square which is my favourite kind of tree. It’s amazing to think that this type of tree predates dinosaurs and is hundreds of millions of years old. I always think about that when it blooms.
My other favourite place is in the residential area between Selincourt House and Chapman House, there's two little lawns with colourful bedding that the team grew from seed. It’s a peaceful area right by the canal and the team love working in it - I don’t think people realise it’s there.
Do you have any hobbies, pastimes outside of work?
I used to play football a lot. As I'm getting older, I've adopted cycling, and I love getting around and seeing more of the country. I've also got a little dog called Nelly who gets me out walking. I love being outside - which is also a big part of my job!
Is there any training you have done with Queen Mary or externally that you’d recommend?
I definitely recommend the apprenticeship scheme for people who are eligible to apply for that. I did my Level 3 in Horticulture with Queen Mary, which has helped me progress in my career. Although I have 10 years’ experience, the qualification meant I could gain member status for the Chartered Institute of Horticulture, which is an excellent professional network.
Are there any stories about Queen Mary and its history that you know of and can tell us about?
I’m a bit of a space nerd and I am very excited that in 2016 Queen Mary helped lead the discovery of Proxima B, a new planet just outside our solar system, which to me is very, very cool. You can see more information about that along Physics Avenue. I’m a big, big fan of that.