Job change in horticulture

[Pippy2022]

Anyone had a job change in horticulture in their mid 40s? I'm interested in any aspect: floristry, growing cut flowers, gardening, nursery etc. Just curious to hear other people's stories and if they sought qualifications first. And if they're subsequently happy.

I'm 38, but I went from academia to horticulture a bit over a year ago, and I have a couple of colleagues who were older than me when they changed career. We all work in a plant nursery, and at least one of the garden designers who comes to us for plants re-trained after having children, though I'm not sure what age she was. She did formal qualifications, but none of the rest of us have. I suspect for garden design you need either to be extremely good at self-promotion (and willing to work your way up), or you need quals to impress clients. But I may be wrong.

We're all very happy. It's a lovely area to work in. Plus, free gym.

Nursery sounds great! How did you impress at the interview? Did you have any previous experience of any kind, like volunteering for example? Or did you apply completely fresh? Thanks!

The Royal Horticultural Society does short courses in horticulture etc, and so do agricultural colleges. You may also find that if there is an English Heritage or National Trust property near you that they do sometimes have opportunities for volunteers in their gardens. You can learn a lot from doing that, as the gardeners will train you how to do what needs doing.

@SarahAndQuack I am an academic who dreams of moving to horticulture! Was it difficult to find work? I am thinking of doing RHS level 2 this year and volunteering in a local gardens, but it does feel like a pipedream. I'm in my early 40s and worry I would be too old. As with the OP, I'd be open to lots of possibilities. I am so very tired of the problems of higher education and don't see it getting any better in the short to mid-term.

It is great! I didn't actually have an interview. I have been going to my local independent nursery since we moved here in 2018, and I loved it, and would chat to the owner. A couple of years ago my mental health took an absolute nosedive to the floor; I was suicidal and really struggling to get through the days, and I couldn't work. My brother is a gardener and I knew it really helped his mental health. So I just went along to the nursery (with my toddler DD in tow) and asked if they had any part-time work. And he said, what days can you do? I said whenever you like, and he said ok, you come in on Monday, do a couple of weeks, and we'll see how it works out. Then after that he asked me what I'd done before and why I wanted the job, and I said I'd been an academic but my mental health was awful and I thought it might help.

And that was it. I got a 20% payrise last Christmas, and it's not always smiles and roses - I have been yelled at when I get things wrong - but on the whole I like it. I didn't have any volunteering experience (it didn't occur to me it might be polite to offer to volunteer for a bit to learn). I did have a decent amount of plant knowledge. I wasn't remotely physically fit, though. So I am enormously grateful to have had the chance!

I've partly answered this above, but - definitely you're not too old! So many people go into gardening or nursery work as a second career. It is really common. The only thing is, it is physically very hard. When I started I would get home and fall asleep - and I only worked three days a week, 9-3 (so I could pick up my daughter from school). I've become much, much stronger and fitter and that it one of the things I love. I now work longer hours and it's fine (and I thoroughly enjoy hefting about heavy loads in front of men who've told me they'll need the help of 'a strong young lad' ). But most of my colleagues are female and older than me, and it works well.

I looked at the RHS courses and TBH, they are limited. I don't feel I'd learn anything from them I couldn't pick up for myself. I guess this is the downside of academia - we are pretty good at sorting things out for ourselves! The main value would be in being able to say you had the qualification, and I think if you are in certain areas of the country, or if you wanted to work in (say) a national trust property or a posh nursery, you might need to do that. But if you wanted to work on ordinary people's gardens (even perhaps quite large and fancy gardens) you might find that gaining the experience practically was just fine. I've had some offers to do gardens, and I think I will probably get into some freelance work soon; most of my more senior colleagues do a bit, and they've done interesting, large projects without any formal qualifications. For example, I know someone who's doing landscaping for a new development of offices; I know a few people who work on big country houses with acres of designed gardens; I know someone whose other job takes her to a stately home.

I think my set up and my boss are both pretty unusual (and there's good and bad there!), but my experience is that there's no downside to approaching a busy independent nursery. You learn so much. And, I got to keep one foot in academia - I still freelance bits of teaching and I'm slowly publishing the things I wanted to get finished, and I'm actually really excited because the hands-on experience at the nursery gave me the idea for a new article!

thanks so much for that @SarahAndQuack , that is a very inspiring story and does give me some hope that it's not just a wild escape fantasy but actually something I could do. I hope you are in a better place now? Academia is hard on MH. (I've deleted a whole rant here about the problems of HE - am sure the OP doesn't want to hear it!)

It's great that you feel there are synergies between the two careers - that's one reason I'd like to do the RHS and maybe other qualifications, as I am also interested in the science/research sides of horticulture but I don't have any background in science, even basic biology. So I'd like to understand a bit more about how plants work!

I did a career change into horticulture in my thirties. I did the BTEC Nat Certificate part time and worked part time. I chose the BTEC over the RHS qualification because it’s more hands on practical. I then did an internship at Kew, which was amazing, and continued as a volunteer there for some time afterwards.

I then got a job in a historic garden, which I loved, although the head gardener was a bully so I moved on after a couple of years. I had various other gardening roles in different types of garden, including an office plant watering job which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would - could write a book about my experiences doing that! I learnt a huge amount in all these jobs.

After a while I decided to move into garden design, as it’s less physical and I was developing a bad back. I did another course to top up my skills and then set up my own company. I now do a mix of design work and maintenance work, and I love it. I choose my hours, so it fits around kids, and I only work for clients I like! I don’t earn loads, but it’s a very rewarding way to live. There’s plenty of work out there. I never have to advertise, it’s all word of mouth, and I’m turning down work all the time.

A friend moved into maintaining people’s gardens once he retired - he’s mid 70s. Seems to be doing well at it, his clients think the world of him. He’s that difficult thing to find, a “gardener” who isnt simply a wielder of power tools. It amused me when he started because he called me into identify all the shrubs in one of his gardens.

@nothingeverhappensinstmarymead - glad it was helpful! Yes, I'm doing much better now. I've found that I can generally figure out the science as I go, and it's really helpful getting the practical experience. I've kept a university affiliation so I have library access, so if I come across something in the nursery I go and look at research papers on it afterwards, and end up understanding more of what's going on.

@VenusClapTrap - your career sounds amazing; I'm so jealous! What course did you do for the garden design? My boss does garden design on the side and is self-taught, but he's suggested I look at a proper course as he has friends who've done it and found it absolutely amazing.

@MereDintofPandiculation - it's so funny, isn't it, people go into being 'gardeners' knowing nothing about actual plants! We get them a lot at the nursery. I had someone the other day who wanted dozens of nepeta walkers low. He'd been looking under 'm' because he thought it was a type of mint, and asked me doubtfully 'but it won't come back next year, will it? I'll need to plant more?' He was doing a big posh garden, too!

Yes it’s amazing how bad some gardeners’ plant knowledge is. I was round at a friend’s house the other day, she has a gardener and her borders were absolutely full of weeds, perennials that had taken over and in dire need of division, and the wisteria clearly hadn’t been pruned in years. The gardener spends hours there every week but apart from the lawn being cut (not that massive either) it was a mystery what he’s actually doing.

@SarahAndQuack my garden design course was another BTEC cert of some kind. I can’t really remember! It was at the same Hort College where I did the Hort cert. I didn’t actually complete it in the end, because ds arrived on the scene, but that was fine because I did it for my own knowledge not a piece of paper.

@SarahAndQuack Well, if he was thinking of Nepeta being in the mint family, he had some logic on his side, except for the fact garden centres and nurseries aren’t known for arranging species in taxonomic order. But if he’s going to plant a particular plant,he should know a few basic facts about it. The rest of us may buy on a whim, then find it’s totally unsuitable, but that’s why you have a gardener!

@VenusClapTrap Sounds like my garden! Except I don’t mow my lawn, and I do prune my wisterias.

I think if that’s the look you’re going for, then that’s one thing, but if you want borders that are more varied than a five metre swathe of Crocosmia monoculture with a few dandelions poking through, and you’re paying someone to that end, then it’s not great really.

You are crediting him with far too much knowledge! It turned out he was just thinking of the common name being 'catmint'. But you'd expect most people with a vague interest in gardening to know whether nepeta's perennial.

Oh yes to buying on a whim though ... I have spent the last couple of weekends trying frantically to reduce my 'shameful unplanted' section. Far too many things looked like a good idea at the time ...

Hi Pippy2022,

Go for it!

I have worked in the horticulture industry (outdoors) all my life and there is no job like it. No to days are ever the same.

My advice is to explore all the avenues within the industry to see what interests you.

Happy Gardening
TheSustainableGardener

Its such a wide field! I career changed in my early 40's, to a horticulture based role. To an extent, it depends on where you live - is there a brilliant botanical garden or plant-collectors garden a commutable distance? Is there a great plant nursery near? Or is it more commuter-belt?

Loads of people need someone to cut hedges, shift concrete slabs, do general heavy work. Its unlikely that someone 50 plus would have the physical strength of a 22 year old man, so that type of work is probably not a great fit?
Then theres the weeding, lawn mowing type work - pay usually a bit crap, all seperate customers so an amount if admin etc. Doesnt strike me as a profitable business nor as being that pleasant if you can earn more doing something else and go part tkme or retire earlier.
But a whole bunch of other people "inherit" a garden when they move house. So they want someone to prune, weed, label, and suggest how to make it work for them. So not a real garden redesign, not every day maintenance, not all heavywork, but a reasonable level of knowledge and an ability to spot what the person needs and wants from you.
Then theres NTS, also botanic gardens, that type of thing - generally badly paid but interesting.

I am not a natural designer, nor have I come across any particularly good ones. Generally, people want a jaw-dropping garden year round, with country cottage flowers from March to October in their north facing space, but ultra-low maintenance, all fully grown immediately, with all overlooking windows obscured, and a budget if £1 per square metre. Oh, child and dog friendly too, with red squirrels and hedgehogs. Because thats what theyre paying you for!!

I couldnt be doing with that.

In terms of courses, dont do the rhs level 2. Its pointless. You could sign up for the exams, use past papers and the rhs website and reading lists, but dont pay for a course.
Consider a chainsaw course though, as thats really useful for picking up odds of work from other gardeners.