Is anyone a professional gardener? Changed career?

I love gardening (obviously!) and after 10 years or so working in office-type stuff I recently lost my job. I realised after a while that I didn't want to go back to the office, I wanted to become a professional gardener. I'm planning to enroll on an RHS Certificate, then hopefully get into the industry either self-employed or by joining a company as an employee when I finish.

Does anyone actually work in the field? What is the reality, on a day to day basis, of the profession? Do professionals enjoy gardening in their spare time still, or do you not want to see another plant for a few days once you get to the end of the week?

Would I stop enjoying my hobby if I had to do it day in, day out as a job - especially at the start when I may be an employee, the gaffer barking at me at 8 o clock on a Monday morning to get a 20 square mile lawn mowed or something!

I realise that the money can possibly not be great, but that's not important to me. I worry that I'm being a bit romantic in thinking that it'd be an enjoyable career, though.

Any pros, cons, words of wisdom or warning, very gratefully received. And be honest!

 

Welcome Andrew, there are several members here who do gardening as a profession, so I'm sure they'll be along soon to offer their words of wisdom

 

Hiya sussexgardener.

Great forum this, isn't it? I've been bumbling around the BBC gardening boards until I found this, but this place is crammed with info and all the rest of it.

 

Hi Andrew. Do you know what you've wrote there could almost have been written by me. The only difference is I haven't lost my office job... yet, although we all know that redundancy is on the cards (as much as management denies it, while all the departments we provided services for are going and there is no sign of new work coming in). I would love to develop my skills in gardening and then go freelance, possibly working for someone else first for a while to gain some commercial experience in the subject.

Good luck with your plans. There is a book I am reading at the moment (or I keep browsing it would be a more accurate statement) that was written by a bloke in more or less the same situation as you and I, and who successfully launched his own gardening business. He makes some very good points that I for one had never thought of. If you are interested, the details are as follows. I got it from Amazon by the way:

Title: How to start your own gardening business
Author: Paul Power
ISBN: 978 1 84528 175 5
Price: £14.95

Whatever you decide, good luck with your plans.

 

Hi andrew. Can't help you with the pro. advice, but there's plenty on the site that can. :wink:
As regards the concern that you might not want to do your own garden. I can say that I do part-time gardening and still love to be in my own garden. I don't think gardeninig is like bricklaying etc., it's not just a job. You'll be doing and getting paid for something that you enjoy, most wage slaves would envy you for that:gnthb: Err! before the pros moan at me for doing jobs that they should be doing, I'm a Gardener/Handyman for the firm I work for.

 

I have a friend whose partner is a landscape gardener. At home, they have split their garden in half. My friend's half is herbaceous perennials, vegetables and fruit in profusion and more tomatoes than you can shake a stick at. His half is easy to look after shrubs and his beloved koi carp ponds.

Not sure if that says anything, but his share of gardening at home is to mow the lawn and look after the carp ponds. Maybe a busman's holiday?

 

Friend of mine's wife gave up a nursing career to become a "Lady Gardener" (a number of her clients need companionship, as much as garden maintenance, which she is well qualified to give of course!). She loves it, has plenty of clients, but has gone from two allotments to none, which I think is rather sad; but I'm sure she has a financial balance to make too, and the strain of working nights and all the rigarmole of NHS was not doing her health any good!

There's a nice yound man in the village here who was made redundant a few months ago, he's done most building trades, over the years, so is qualified "handy", and he too had been working nights, been ill with it and had time off work for stress etc., decided to put a card in the post office window got a few gardening jobs by word of mouth, and now pretty much has a full order book. Lots of large properties and gardens around here, and reliable "grafters" are hard to find, so I'm sure his new employers are chuffed to have found him!

 

That's a good point. The friend I mentioned has some lucrative grass cutting contracts but each Spring he gets undercut by new contractors...until a couple of weeks later when he gets a call from his his ex contracts asking him to come back as the new guys haven't turned up!

Combined with his "little old ladies" who pay him quite well to do their large. established gardens he does fine.

I think it depends how many gardeners there are in your area already and the sort of properties people own. Here, I seem to be always seeing garden and landscape contractor vans around, but there are a lot of big properties, both rural and urban.

 

My sister has a young chap who comes fortnightly ,cuts the grass and edges and the hedge when it needs doing.People ask "will you send him round to my place", he is very reliable and fully booked up most weeks.Lots of folk can manage the pots and borders but not the heavy work.

 

I'm a self employed contractor, Ive been going 7 years, the majority of my work is regular day work in very large gardens. Also a day a fortnight of regular small grass cutting jobs plus on top of this job work eg fencing one off hedge cuts etc then work generated from my sideline business.

The equipment I run is fairly specialized and expensive so I have no shortage of work or difficulty in gaining work charging the comparatively high prices i charge.

The job is damned physical so you'll want to be physically fit, otherwise you'll soon flake out.

Would I recommend It?

Yes and No, To do it properly and charge good money you need a lot of equipment, Ive invested easily £60,000 over the years in vehicles and equipment £12000 initially (this is in the horticultural side). Its not as simple as a cheap mower, spade and fork!

Basicly overall as a business its a deceptivly costly and as an industry, underpaid. I love it but then again I have a hudge variety and other income sources.

I make on averadge between £120-180 a day before overheads.

 

I think you will find Andrew that a majority of professional gardeners have an in built love of plants and doesn't stop at work.

You have to bear in mind that you may not be in a position to choose when you work i.e working in extremes of weather.

As Pro says you will need to invest in equipment and transport so that has to be taken into account.

Some folk are happy with jobbing gardeners just cutting the grass and the ocassional hedge but others will want someone with at least a good knowledge of plants, what they are and how to prune them etc. You can never read up on it enough.

If the comments here have inspired you in any way and hopefully not put you off then I wish you well.:gnthb:

 

Hi there, I have been gardening on and off most of my 44 years ( dad was a landscaper ) After several years landscaping in partnership with my brother, we closed the business after having major trouble with dishonest employees and non paying customers, ( cost us a small fortune ).
4 years ago I started up again on my own, just doing garden and lawn maintenance and small one man jobs. I had a clapped out VW Golf a spade, and a fork. Sold my motorbike and bought a trailer and a mower and I haven't looked back. I now have 3 full days work a week with really good regular customers and make up the other 2 days with extra jobs that come in or just have the time off if its wet. I am earning more than I have ever done before, have alot more free time and no hassle from employees or customers. I t has worked out well for me but then I don't need a massive income, £450-£500 a week is ok for me. I enjoy my own garden but can't get enthusiastic about customers gardens as I do what they want me to when I am there. They have different ideas to me, and the customer is king. I would say that I only have about £1000 worth of tools now and a £2000 van ( all paid for as I went along ) I just bought second hand tools from car boot sales and painted them all red so I don't loose them. The trick for me this time has been to charge a decent price per hour ( if you are too cheap customers don't respect you). Be honest, if I don't know something I admit it. I only work for people I like and if I get a bad feeling about them I don't go again. Most of my customers ask for bills, pay me as soon as they see me, and then put the kettle on. Word of mouth is the best advertising, closely followed by a small cheap ad that says Gardener requires work. Works for me every time. Never got a call from flyers , postcards in shops, van sign writing etc.
If I can help just ask.

 

I lost my job in IT at 62 and couldn't really retire through lack of funds but loved gardening. A small ad in the local freebee soon got me going, a days work here and there kept me ticking overdoing purely maintenance. I find that only going for rural work will guarantee at least one day per week at a particular job because the gardens tend to be big and owners usually have their own mowers. A web-site would come in handy as you may state it in your ad. giving you immediate creadance. Referances may also help. I now have 2 days on 3 acre commercial site and 2 lovely rurals at 1.5 acre and 2 acres repectively and that does me fine.
Best time for your ad. would have been late April

 

As strongy hinted, plant knowledge is absolutely esential and not really something that can be taught, Ive been keen on gardening from a young child and my plant knowledge built up over this time. Youll probably get away with little plant knowledge if your simply cutting lawns but if you are actually doing regular maintance then you need to have a good general tree and plant knowledge, certainly more than the customer!

 

"you need to have a good general tree and plant knowledge, certainly more than the customer!"

Hmmm ... whilst I wouldn't want a novice hoeing up plants, instead of weeds :(, I would be happy to teach a keen youngster.