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?

Oh and pay - we charge £30/hr for general stuff, more if it involves hedge cutting etc. Design work is usually per job not hour.

Wow you are all brilliant thank you. These lovely contributions make me well up with joy.
I’m feeling very positive given I know the difference between weeds and perennials. I’ve had the experience of a “gardener” digging up my plants and trying to tell me they were weeds and kindly declining any further time from the bloke who said he’d clear the weeds with pesticides…You are right there is definitely a shortage!
I’ve got my DBS from volunteering with the RDA and I love a cuppa and a natter.
Website nearly ready! Cards to be ordered going to get my steps in flooding the neighbourhood 😎

No don’t stop! You have no idea how helpful this has been. I’ve spent 5 months worrying about the demise of my career and wish I’d posted this before now.

Just chiming in, because I am building my business in this area too. I started out with pretty good plant knowledge, then worked for a bit over three years in a large, busy plant nursery. I learned a lot there. My plant knowledge is very good now, and I can rattle off basic plant care/planting recommendations, and I started doing a bit of planting plans/design. I went freelance not quite a year ago and now have a mix of regular maintenance work and planting work (I wouldn't say design because I have no design quals).

I really enjoy it and if I weren't 6.5 months pregnant I'd be drowning in work; I get more queries than I can accept and so I've paced myself.

Might just be my area and my background, but I've not found websites/online stuff necessary. All my work I've had, I've had through word of mouth and contacts from the nursery I used to work in.

My biggest tip is: always make it easy for a prospective client to say no, you're not what they are looking for.

I don't mow, trim hedges, do large-scale garden clearance (waste removal) or do hard landscaping; I don't have a spraying licence.

If they want any of that, I have a short list of people to recommend (and I always point out that getting someone who will mow the lawn once a month will be a much cheaper rate than me).

I will do planting plans, draw them a garden design and plant it for them. I explain I learned to do this at [local nursery]. I don't have a design qualification. If they want a qualified designer, I have a short list of people I can recommend; if they want references for my work, I have a list I can give them.

If it's very heavy work (eg. taking out a mature hedge or putting in big rootball hedging - upwards of 5 ft, say), I will point out I may not be the quickest person for the job and I can recommend someone else.

I've not actually had anyone take me up on any of this! But it makes me feel a ton better because then I've been totally honest, and they can take it or leave it.

If you have a local garden centre you frequent, drop your business cards down there. They often get people looking for help.

YY, agree. When I worked in the nursery it was brilliant getting people's cards because we were constantly asked for contacts.

Would also say, get to know your local indie nurseries really, really well. Aside from things like trade discounts, it's so good when you're freelance to be able to go to someone else knowledgeable for advice (and of course it's good for them too as they will hope you spend lots with them). I know that one of the big things my customers rate is that I usually have a pretty good idea of what plants will be available when, what could be sourced for them if they really wanted, where to get the best price, etc. IME a lot of people are really reliant on chain garden centres with terrible overpriced stock, or online retailers like Crocus, which are unimaginative and charge a bomb. It's lovely to be able to steer them to something that they can trust will be in good condition and properly priced.

One of my relations volunteers at Hatfield House, they love it!

This is a really useful thread, thanks for starting it. Good luck.

@SarahAndQuack thanks for the nursery tip I was thinking that today as so many have closed (Marchants was fab) and I need to go and see who’s left in my area now as I do try to avoid the big GCs.

@ConflictofInterest there definitely is huge demand for organic, wildlife gardening. I've never used chemicals and I'm sure that and the fact that I'm a woman have been real advantages for me. The only power tool I use is a hedge trimmer and I pick that up as infrequently as I possibly can.

In my experience people absolutely are looking for 'quieter' more nature focused gardening now. The burly bloke, deafening strimmer and indiscriminate hack days seem to have passed.

Worth checking if there are smaller trade nurseries that you perhaps don't know, too? I have two small trade nurseries within two miles of me, and I didn't know one of them existed until I started working at the nursery I was based at (the one I worked at was trade and public, and sourced some of its bedding/basket plants from the trade nursery, who specialised in those). Also worth knowing the delivery radius for a nursery. Where I worked they'd delivery up to a 50 mile radius as a routine thing and if you'd been doing a whole garden it could be worth it. But will depend on who will let you have a trade discount - they will probably want business cards and may want a minimum order or evidence that you're spending regular high amounts.

I agree with this.

Years ago, a friend got a gardening apprenticeship with the National Trust. Might be worth a look?

Bear in mind they will likely pay less than NMW.

Illegal

Sorry, I meant living wage - you're absolutely right!

How much are you planning on charging op? My friend is a gardener and he has plenty of work but the going rate is £20 which isn't much when you factor in petrol, tools, tax and no work in the winter.

Ps use next door website to find customers, every day someone posts on there looking for a gardener

In our part of SW London there are never enough gardeners. Rates are £40-50 p/h + VAT.

Hi, my DH was self employed doing gardening work for just over 20 years, he had some customers that he went to every week throughout that whole period. He loved it but I would say that if you want to make serious money out of it think again. It's great if you want a second household income but it's very difficult to be a self employed gardener if you are the main earner.

The fundamental problem is that everyone thinks they can garden, it's not seen as a trade like a joiner or electrician. This caps the hourly rate that you can charge and also means that there are a huge number of people doing it who are not very good, which gives the profession a bad name. There are a lot of elderly customers who need someone reliable to go every week which is great but they often don't want to, or can't afford to, pay much.

Many customers will like to do the nice stuff like gentle weeding themselves and will want to pay someone to do the difficult or heavy stuff, like cutting massive hedges or scarifying lawns. There is plenty of work so you can pick and choose, but be aware of that.

Winter is an issue, you can't work outside when it's dark and even if you have work that you can do it's often boring and difficult and being outside day after day in the cold and wet is not easy. Long periods of heavy frost and snow can mean work is impossible. We used to accept that in January and February DHs income was almost non-existent. Then in summer you are flat out working long days.

Think about how you will transport bigger pieces of equipment around, you will need to carry a lawnmower and strimmer as well as smaller tools. Waste disposal is tricky, DH used to sometimes ask that the customer sorted it, sometimes with a skip, especially for big jobs.

You do need a level of skill, DH was trained and did an apprenticeship learning his trade in a horticultural business before going it alone. He was never interested in being a professional designer, although he did plan and design many gardens.

DH loved it, some of his elderly ladies said it changed their lives and enabled them to stay in their family homes after their husbands had died. Seeing a garden change and grow is so rewarding and there is nothing like being outdoors doing something you love. In his mid fifties and after some health issues DH closed the business and got a job gardening at a stately home, finally being on someone else's payroll!

I do the taxes of several gardeners.
I have told all of them to not be "busy fools"
Every one has raised their rates to a level where they can afford to take holidays.
None of them lost out by raising the hourly rate for good service.

If you actually know about plants you’ll be ahead of the game and can charge decent rates. £20-£25 an hour is fairly standard. I nearly choked a few weeks ago however when someone quoted me £54 an hour! I would be working more than full time to pay my gardener at those rates and I earn very good money. Pitch it correctly. If you charge £25 an hour your customers will have to earn 40% on top of that if they are higher rate tax payers.