If I wanted to be a professional gardener...

[Windflower92]

Where do I even begin? I'm thinking of a complete career change and have started looking at places like RHS, National Trust as a gardener. I'm hopefully getting myself onto the RHS Horticulture course in September, and am looking at volunteering to get some experience. In the meantime, I am interested in doing some gardening work for people in their own homes. For anyone here who pays someone for this, what sort of thing do they do? How much knowledge/experience would you need them to have, and how much do you pay them? I know quite a bit from working in my own garden and wouldn't charge as much as a trained professional, but would that be enough? If anyone does this as their job do you have any tips in getting started?

Gardeners range from highly qualified and professionally experienced to those who just started by mowing lawns and doing some weeding. They charge a similar amount, around £25ph. Some take garden waste away and others expect customers to put it in their own bin, some have insurance, others don’t.

By all means make a start by word of mouth, adverts on social media. You’ll most likely get customers fairly easily. Some customers will want their gardens kept tidy while others will expect their gardener to know about pruning, dividing plants and so on.

You can certainly set up your business just now then gain qualifications later. With more knowledge you could move into garden design and landscaping, maybe taking on others to do the heavy work.

Where I live in the central belt of Scotland, there’s lots of house building and most new owners buy in landscaping for their garden, so there’s a huge market for anyone competent and knowledgeable. However, few people offering garden services are really knowledgeable and this is where there’s a gap in the market.

Please factor in the need to look after your health. My gardener who I used for heavy work damaged his back and had to give up his job. You’ll be expected to work in most weathers during March - October but then have little work over winter.

I’m sure you’ll do well and have a hugely enjoyable job.

I don't have any knowledge but just wanted to say, depending where you live, gardeners are hugely in demand in some places! We just have a little garden but crowded with lots of beautiful mature plants... we practically have to beg our gardener to come and he says stuff like "oh I might have a free afternoon in 8 weeks". He does about 3 days a year for us and I'm lucky to get it.

What I'd say is, it's good to have the knowledge obviously but also the majority of your gardening day is just sheer physical lifting and carrying and digging and holding huge shears and power tools and that kind of thing. So I'd only do it if you're pretty strong.

Ps my gardener charges around £100 for an afternoon but that includes clearing away the waste too.

Thanks everyone! We have a good mix in my area - lots of big houses with lovely gardens and some that could do with some love! I had been thinking of starting at £20 an hour; I'm Hampshire if that makes a difference. I guess I'll get some business cards printed out for after Christmas!

Our local age uk offers a paid for gardening service, I did some work for them as an amateur and was extremely popular as I was a real gardener who could chat about gardening and be trusted to weed. Depending on where you are they cover some of north east Hampshire too so might be doable. https://www.ageuk.org.uk/surrey/our-services/gardening-service-016ae711-2732-ef11-a81c-000d3a2d27e7/

To clear away waste, you need a waste licence and take it to a tip that takes trade waste, paying trade waste prices.

Strictly, it should go to trade waste if you pay someone to produce it for you, even if it’s in your own brown (or whatever colour) bin. I don’t imagine many people adhere to that one!

Maybe have a look and see whether there are any National Trust or English Heritage places near you which are looking for volunteers to work in their gardens.

Are there any agricultural colleges in Hampshire? There's one near where I live that does all sorts of horticulture & garden design courses, and forestry, arboriculture and tree surgery too.

Kingston Maurwood near Dorchester does several horticulture courses... If you are near the Dorset. Border it might be a possibility?

https://ols.kmc.ac.uk/WCFWebSite/KMC_OnlineServices/coursesearchresults.aspx?directory=true&value=S1000031252111

I've used 2 types of gardeners lately.

Firstly, someone who only mows the lawn, I pay £20 for 20-30 minutes' work (uses own equipment but doesn't take the green waste away).

Second type of gardener/tree surgeon/qualified horticulturalist did some work and their hourly rate was £32 per hour.

I guess there’s three types

1. man with toys who does lawns and hedges, and also general pruning into rounded mushroom shapes with no regard for correct pruning time for the species. This is what many people like - it makes the garden “tidy”
2. qualified arboriculturalists
3. qualified gardeners

The second and third categories are more expensive. And the third are like gold dust! (Most people acquiring horticultural qualifications seem to be headed for garden design)

My friend retrained as a gardener through the WRAG scheme (www.wfga.org.uk/wrags), and also did her RHS exams.

There are also community gardens who usually do workshops which you can go on and if you can, volunteer for them to gain experience and a good reference.

I used to be a professional horticulture trainer, I had been gardening for a decade in my own garden and allotment, I tried to learn as much as I could about my area which was organic gardening and I ended up working for a national charity and teaching across the country.

You definitely need a qualification, go as high as you can in terms of the RHS qualification and learn those latin names, as it will serve you in good stead when an actual professional asks you a question and you can answer with the proper names and the colloquialism. In fact, long before you go on a qualification start learning the names and what different plants like soil, sun, rain wise long before your course. It will really help you when you get the ID parts of the qualification.

Go on a pruning course, a good one run by a professional. Knowing the difference between leaf buds and fruiting buds, and knowing where and when to prune is a huge skill. And in great demand in the winter when not much else is going on.

Learn propagation. Loads of times I worked with people who talked the talk but didn't know how to take a cutting, or how deep to sow seeds, or what compost was what.

And the most important thing in my opinion, is to know your seedlings. Use the spring to ID as many seedlings as you can out and about rather than just weed without paying any attention to what you are taking out. I walked round a new garden a few weeks ago with a gardener who had moved into her new house in the summer, and spotted many plants growing in the weedy patches that she was planning on buying.

Test yourself, get 10 packets of random seeds that you have never grown before, mix them up and sow in a tray and as they germinate and grow, learn to tell them apart from their seed leaves, and then their true leaves and make notes on them to learn about them. Prick them out as they grow, grow them on and learn as much as you can. If you did that over 5 months you'd learn about 50 different plants and you'd have a garden full, and loads to give away which incidentally, is a very good way of getting people to know that you are a local gardener.

My daughter does gardening. Started a couple of years ago doing general tidying etc and now advises customers on what plants to put where etc, does planting and also helps with designing gardens. Some customers even like to work with her in their gardens. She started off at about £12 an hour and now charges £20. She works most of the year and even works when it’s wet and cold and has work during the winter. She’s always got a waiting list. Go for it now. You can always do a course part time or something, she did one day a week at a college. Good luck

My in laws also have 2- a man who just does mowing and another who does pruning, lopping, weeding etc. I don't know the charges though.

Some thoughts on things you could do in the winter months:
-Christmas wreath making classes
-Make a terrarium class
-Floristry type class
-How to take cuttings class

Hampshire has Sparsholt College long time land based industries college with a horticultural department

learn those latin names, as it will serve you in good stead when an actual professional asks you a question Remember that the scientific (some of them are Greek) names reflect the family tree, which plants are related to which, and that in turn has a lot to do with the sexual parts, ie the flower shape. That’ll make identification easier (and allows the cop-out of “It’s a Lonicera, not sure of which one without going to my books).

And the most important thing in my opinion, is to know your seedlings. Yes. I increased my knowledge greatly by never weeding anything until I’d identified it.

There are two types of people needing gardeners

a) people who are not gardeners themselves and just want their garden to be “tidy”. They will do fine with a “man with toys”

b) gardeners who need help (large garden, age and infirmity etc). They know how difficult it is to find a proper gardener, and will appreciate you.

Late to answer, but I'm doing the same thing as you! I started the RHS Level 2 course in September. It's a great course, well worth doing, if a little old-fashioned in some aspects.
I'm planning to apply for a traineeship in a botanic/historic garden, but in the meantime I'm also hoping to do some work in people's homes... I think I know enough, just need to find the confidence. Part of the work is being able to reassure people that you know what you're talking about, and I'm clever but shy!

From my experience in NW england, there are loads of blokes with power tools who'll mow lawns and cut hedges but I wouldn't trust with a barge pole in terms of actually gardening. Plenty who'll do hard landscaping but would barely know a root from a shoot.
Very few who actually know how and when to prune correctly, divide plants, identify and remove pernicious weeds, make appropriate suggestions for planting (and I've had that information from people in those jobs while trying to set up a business myself).

Yep- many of us, as we age, try to move more into the desk based/ more expertise/ less time on the tools- and that included my colleague til recently and he's only 34!

Great if you can get a placement but there really aren't that many
RHS exams definitely a plus
The theory can be done distance learning but they've just rejigged the syllabus so it's not quite bedded in yet (currently one exam away from finishing my L3)

Depending whereabouts you are in Hampshire, Merrist Wood College also does horticultural courses (near Woking).

I pay £25 ph in South West. They do the heavy lifting that I can’t. I’m re-landscaping my garden as It had been neglected for years before we bought the house. They’ve done new lawns, Hedges, dug stuff out that I can’t, heavy duty weeding (was pissed off they removed a lot of foxglove seedlings - agree with PP that you need to know your seedlings!!) For me my gardeners bring strength to the party. That are not qualified but do a great job and follow my very particular instructions with good grace (I am now more careful since the foxgloves 😂)

My elderly neighbours and holiday homes neighbours use them for maintenance, hedges, pruning, mowing, weeding, tidying. They’ve have their business through word of mouth.

Most garden waste goes in our green bins, if they do take it away they charge £15 per bulk bag.

Soarsholt runs the RHS courses and depending on what level training you have already done you may be eligible for help with the fees.

www.sparsholt.ac.uk/subject/horticulture/?f=part-time