Katrin Kell is bursting with energy, even through the telephone. Her life is all about working with plants and people: „It simply fascinates me. I would immediately study Horticulture again,“ she enthuses. Born in Munich, she has been part of the HSWT since 1989: First, she was a student at the university, and after graduating in 1994, she took a position at the State Teaching and Research Station of Horticulture Weihenstephan, which was later integrated into the university via the Federal Research Station of Horticulture. But it's not as if Katrin Kell never got out of Upper Bavaria. „After my training as a horticulturist specialising in vegetable gardening, I worked as an assistant for three years - six months each in California and Australia. I came back to Bavarian November - that was tough,“ she recalls and laughs. „In Australia, monotonous piecework harvesting in the fields was the order of the day. That was an important impetus for me to add a degree - simply to have more choices in my professional activities,“ she says.

In the thick of things

As an engineer at the Institute of Horticulture at the HSWT, she is currently responsible for the management of vegetable production and the technical management of the allotment garden for vegetables, which is part of the Weihenstephan Gardens. In addition to plant cultivation and the organisation of operational processes, her tasks also include further training for horticultural practice and leisure horticulture.

In addition, the 56-year-old gives lectures, supports university teaching and is involved in research projects. And she is a sought-after expert on vegetable gardening topics in the press. There is hardly a German-language horticultural journal or a Bavarian TV programme on gardening in which Katrin Kell has not had her say.

„I went to the HSWT because, apart from the great team, I liked the tasks of the experimental station at that time: very practice-oriented and close cooperation with companies and nurseries, which we advise, for example. I was and am right in the middle of things,“ she says. Tackling things, thinking practically and being among people - this also applies when Katrin Kell supervises the students in the practical course on trials or supports them in the statistical evaluation of their theses. „I appreciate the exchange between the generations,“ she emphasises. „There, ways of thinking are always being questioned - that challenges you, and you stay alive.“

The areas of responsibility in her position have changed repeatedly over the past decades, but that's not the least of what makes it exciting for Katrin Kell. „I have many obligations but also a lot of freedom to make decisions,“ she says. She likes the variety: „I really have everything from shovelling earth to virtual teaching modules.“ Reconciling this is all the more motivation for Katrin Kell, who attributes her worthy ability to rethink and improvise not least to her interaction with nature. „When working with plants, you are always dependent on the weather. You do not influence it, and it often doesn't stick to predictions. That makes you humble and grounded because you realise that things don't always turn out the way you planned.“

Of people and plants

The best thing about her work? The horticulturist doesn't have to think long: „The people and the plants, often being outside and learning.“ She also has special memories of projects abroad. „Shortly after the Yugoslavian war, we were on-site in Bosnia to find out how the small farmers were doing there and what support options were available. That left a strong impression on me and made me realise once again that many of us are living in a bubble here,“ Katrin Kell recalls. Another time, at the end of the nineties, contacts during a scientific symposium in Canada led to an invitation to China to train the staff of a horticultural institute there.

Contacts and networks are also the focus of Katrin Kell's chairmanship of the Verband Weihenstephaner Ingenieure e.V. (Association of Weihenstephan Engineers). Through this position, she remains in contact with many alumnae and alumni of the HSWT as well as former colleagues.

Plants, people and the passing on of knowledge also play a leading role in her free time. The Freising native loves to go to the mountains and is active as a hiking guide with the German Alpine Association, specialising in alpine flora. That is also where she finds the most beautiful motifs for her other hobby, photography. And when it's not arnica, gentian or chamise root, she likes rims, sprockets and chainrings: „Bicycles are my passion,“ Katrin Kell enthuses, "not only riding them but also repairing them: taking them apart and screwing them back together - that's exactly my thing.