Gardening as a career

[Dolphin78]

Afternoon I’m tired of the corporate world and it’s been a tumultuous few years with redundancy and other unexpected career events. I’ve had enough of eating my life applying for soulless jobs for the last 5 months so I bought a domain set up a website and about to buy done cards and possibly sign up for a design course.
I’ve got a freedom fund and a ton of knowledge but I’m a single parent of teens and I’m scared…
Am I mad?

I'm in the South West and charge £35 an hour for regular maintenance (min 2 hours).

For one off jobs like garden refurb, laying out new gardens, getting a garden ready for a house sale for example I charge for the finished job rather than by the hour. I found I was charging by the hour and the finished result looked worth much more than it had cost.

For materials and plants I have a trade account with my brilliant local garden centre. They give me 10% discount and I add charge my clients full price plus 10%.

I run a van, am insured and provide all my own tools, fuel etc.

@MrAlyakhin said about providing a garden advice service. I do this, especially in winter. IDing plants, explaining about their care advising on how to improve lawns, providing lists of plants that will thrive in the clients garden soil and orientation, teaching people how to prune etc. I love that side of it. £70 ph. A designer would be much, much more expensive.

I hope that helps but do please DM. I'm happy to help.

@SherbertsHerberts Yes, I'm busy all winter. People do major refurbs then and there's always masses of maintenance. My January is almost all pruning. I have two weeks off at Christmas but otherwise it's full on 12 months of the year and there are as many people on my waiting list as I have clients on the go.

Most of my regular clients are lovely elderly women who have adored their garden but find it too much now. They bring me tea and coffee on breaks and often sit with me or work alongside me whilst I'm gardening. They've all become friends really. It's a fantastic way to earn a living.

About the fear. Don't have any. I sort of envy you the start up @Dolphin78 because you have a thrilling time ahead of you. The RHS course is wonderful and you'll meet great people there from all walks of life.

There is a lot more work available than good gardeners to do it. You'll thrive.

Sorry to go on, but another service I provide is taking clients to the garden centre to help them select plants they'll love that will work in their garden. Again £70 ph , plus the mark up on the plants (and they always buy me a coffee and cake in the cafe 😀 )

One more thing and then I'll stop wittering.

I'd recommend volunteering in a great local garden. I volunteer in my local National Trust garden and have learned so much about plants, horticulture and commercial gardening from them. Again you'll meet lots of gardeners, both professional and keen amateur) who will have a mine of knowledge amongst them and will be keen to share.

What I found when I was doing teaching gardening for a living is that many people expected you to rush to do stuff for free just because. I had one person tell me they had a lady client who couldn't do the garden, neither could her 4 sons, but wanted me to clear it for her for nothing. Which included getting rid of the waste.

And getting rid of the waste is a big issue.

So make sure you don't get roped into doing stuff for free, after all you have paid to do the qualifications just like any other professional, and make sure that you get waste disposal included into the quote if it goes over the amount they can dispose of through their brown bin collections etc.

To be honest if I hadn't left the UK and moved to France, after taking my early retirement its exactly what I'd have done. I did have a decade of teaching organic horticulture and RHS Qualifications already but most people just want mowing, weeding and pruning regularly.

@PottingBench That’s great advice. My local NT house has volunteer gardeners. You would learn but obviously not much on design.

This sounds so brilliant and your enthusiasm is infectious! I'd love to do something like this but don't know enough yet. I'm pretty confident in my own garden but I know my own soil and conditions. I wouldn't feel confident advising other people, at least not as a professional! Having said that, I do feel I could at least weed a bed without pulling all the wrong stuff up. 🤣

Older ladies who are keen gardeners and love their gardens but want someone to help them and chat about plants sound like ideal customers.

I'm also worried I've left it too late - I'm in my early 50s and maybe I'd be too knackered. 😫

Might look into the RHS level 2 stuff anyway.

Also, I'm not really interested in design. I like getting my hands into the soil and working with plants, mostly.

@SherbertsHerberts . I'm sure you've not left it too late. I only started gardening professionally in my late 40s. It is hard work but it makes you fit so it gets easier with time. I'm in my 60s now and still have plenty of energy for it.

The key with gardening professionally is to only do what you're good at. If weeding without pulling up someones prize hostas is your skill - sell that. It's a rarer skill than you would think. Most people who've had bad experiences with gardeners will tell you they employed someone who professed to be a gardener and then weeded out all their perennials and butchered their roses. Those sort of gardeners also offer pressure washing or gutter clearance and aren't really gardeners.

I don't do mowing but there's a guy in my area who just mows as that's all he feels confident with. If anyone wants mowing I give them his card. If anyone wants gardening he gives them my card. There's room for everyone of all skill sets.

If you're a keen gardener you'll love the RHS course even if you never put it to use professionally.

Garden design : No money in it at all

Garden maintenance : hard work but steady income stream

Garden care : somebody who can prune accurately, knowing what the plants are, particularly fruit bushes and flowering shrubs
DESPERATE SHORTAGE - you will make money

Most people who've had bad experiences with gardeners will tell you they employed someone who professed to be a gardener and then weeded out all their perennials and butchered their roses.

That reminds me of the gardener I employed on a couple of occasions who spoke rather highly of her prowess in all things garden. I asked her to deadhead a plant I can't remember the name of, amongst other jobs that day. When I went to have a look at what she'd done I saw that all the heads had been cut off, the dead ones, the open flowers and the flower buds not yet opened.

Good luck OP, I would love to do similar but I am worried about it being seasonal. I wanted to specialise in helping people re wild their gardens to help encourage wildlife and native plant species but am also happy to cut grass, prune bushes and weed. I have my own large garden and 2 allotment plots, I have all the tools needed….other than a ride on mower 🤣.

Watching grounds teams using a hedge trimmer to take ALL of the flowering buds off a cistus
or trimming a whole "butterfly garden" just before flowering
is why I am wary of many 'gardeners'

I would always suggest a walk around asking them the latin names and soil choices of plans (with the RHS pruning book under your arm)

Your idea is a brilliant one for all year round work.
I always reckon autumn is a good time for creating a pond (can settle in and fill up during the wet months) and in winter you could specialise in planting bare root wildlife friendly native plant hedges. With your allotment experience I bet you could set up veg plots/raised beds for people too that will be ready to plant up in spring.

Word of mouth recommendation is invaluable too.

Watching grounds teams using a hedge trimmer to take ALL of the flowering buds off a cistus
or trimming a whole "butterfly garden" just before flowering
is why I am wary of many 'gardeners'

Just why?? 😩

I asked her when she thought would be the best time to prune heather and she said "Just before it flowers?". Give her her due, she did make it a question 😄

Grounds teams have an almost total lack of horticulltural knowledge.
Many of them know how tall and wide a plant will grow
but not how it grows or what its pollinators are

THey want it tidy and clear
not full of life

That is true. I have set up nature ponds (recently one in my mums garden). I guess there is only a few weeks of the year that it would be hard (January and February when it’s possibly cold). Autumn is a great time to tidy things up and by March it’s time to get seeds sewn and ground ready to plant.

I was pleasantly surprised today to see that the grass the council had been cutting yesterday had been left where the crocuses had been in flower a few weeks ago. It has me hoping that things are looking up 🤞

This is my dream, I hope you'll keep us updated OP I'd love to know how you get on. I was talked into uni instead of a gardening career because I love nature and wildlife and was told gardening work is all about power tools and pesticides. I really regret it now I'm stuck in an office job. I wonder if there's more scope these days to start up an organic, wildlife gardening, hand pruning/hand weeding type business? This is such an inspiring thread.

Good luck OP! I want to do this but have inflammatory arthritis and am not sure I am up to it. If my new medication has me jumping around like a spring chicken I’ll give it a go.

I was thinking I would focus on older people so got a DBS check sorted. I’ve had a number of allotments and gardens and was thinking about gardening for wildlife and also attractive veg plots in addition to maintenance. Additionally I was unable to walk at one point and have a few tricks up my sleeve for people with limited mobility to still be able to enjoy the garden.

We’ve got an excellent plant nursery nearby with plants significantly cheaper than the big garden centre. Someone posted on our local FB group asking if people would be interested in a gardener and had about 140 responses so certainly here the demand is there.

I often see requests for garden help on Facebook. Most 'gardeners' are blokes with power tools who have little knowledge of plants. They have a very noisy mower, a strimmer and a leaf blower. If you can mow, edge, prune and advise people what to buy and how to care for their garden, then I think you'll be in demand.

I love gardening. I think it’s therapeutic and ensure I have a home working role so I can pop out for 20 minutes in my lunch break. However there’s a huge difference between doing it for pleasure and as a job.

It has been one of the wettest winters in many years where I live. For those I know who do outdoor jobs, gardeners included, it has felt never ending. I wouldn’t switch my role for their warm summers outdoors as I know I couldn’t face the winters. Add in trying to source customers, poor payers and the added worry of no guaranteed income each month from a secure employed role - that’s a lot of pressure. If it’s definitely the route you want, then I hope things work out for you. It may be worth looking to get a part time role alongside as you build your customer base?

And community centres.

Re the DBS and elderly side of things.

I know of a gardener who jumped through the hoops to be on the "use this chap" list for elderly people due to come out of hospital
he pruned and weeded their gardens so they did not feel upset
he then carried on looking after their gardens for the rest of their lives
and their friends gardens
and their families gardens

I have three jobs - a corporate one, a garden design one, and I’m a gardener. The corporate one is two days a week PAYE and I juggle the other two. I started retraining ten years ago with rhs level 2 evening classes. I do the gardening with a woman I met there. I highly recommend that as others have said, you make great contacts.

The design work is a lot of effort and training - I think I make more money gardening as there’s less head scratching, and I’m not interested in the massive landscaping jobs which is probably where the money is. I like gardens that people use and actually live in the house, not spend all their time in Dubai and just pop back occasionally. however, I do love designing.

I have just started gardening again after a winter break. I’m in Manchester so like to switch to design over winter as I CBA with the cold and wet. It’s good to have the freedom to mix it up.

The demand for skilled female gardeners is high! I could do that five days a week if I wanted. I am in my late forties and fit but that would be too much for me. I enjoy sitting at a desk too!