How to change your life with a gardening career

May 6th, 2019
Posted In: Garden trends & design

Even if you love your garden, you may not have thought of a gardening career.

You may think gardening is a profession mainly for young men who can climb trees with chain saws. Or perhaps you think it’s ‘too late’ or that a gardening career isn’t for people ‘like you’.

Arit Anderson switched from a career in retail fashion to garden design at the age of 44.

But garden designer and TV presenter Arit Anderson changed from a career in fashion retail to garden design at the age of 44.

Could loving your garden turn into a career?

What would Arit say to anyone who’s not happy in their current job but who loves their garden?

‘First, bolster your finances,’ she says. ‘It takes time to train and then to build a clientele. Start part-time and let it grow.’

When she first bought a house with a small garden, she thought that she’d titivate it occasionally and let other people advise. But she was soon hooked, and when she was made redundant from her job in fashion, she did some short courses to see if gardening would be for her.

Arit then did a three year one-day-a-week garden design course at Capel Manor College. You can do full-time, part-time and evening courses. While she was there, she (with Sarah Jarman and Anna Murphy) won a Fresh Talent competition at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

As first year Level 2 students at Capel Manor college, Anna Murphy, Arit Anderson and Sarah Jarman win the Fresh Talent prize at RHS Chelsea. ,

‘Find a college that suits your finances,’ she says. ‘You can do one or two days a week. Or you can re-train more quickly by doing a course full-time, but that’s expensive.’

Build your gardening career slowly

Studying part-time gives you the chance either to keep earning money at your old job by going part-time. And you can also start to build your clientele as you study.

As there’s no magic money tree, calculate your finances or study part-time

As well as studying, Arit continued to do fashion consultancy in order to pay for the training. She also started to work in gardens – ‘I started off with a small gardening round, doing gardening for or with clients.’ As her gardening career grew, she did less fashion consultancy, but she still does some fashion.

I also asked the All Horts professional gardeners Facebook Group about changing your career to gardening. Members work in a wide range of gardening and horticultural careers, and many switched to a gardening career in their thirties, forties and even fifties. And many are women.

For example, self-employed freelance gardener Wendy Curtis changed career with long distance learning. ‘I started ten years ago, and am still doing it. And I help out at flower shows.’

Former police office Paul Lawlor  started by combining his studies with freelance gardening. Then he spotted an advertisement for a head gardener and got it. ‘And part of the agreement is supporting me through my RHS Level 3 studies. It’s a balancing act between work, college and my two children, but I love it.’

Emma Thomas‘s business is called Blooms & Greens. She used to be a communications manager. Her ‘top tips are to get an RHS Level 2 qualification and Paul Power’s book Start and Run a Gardening Business.

Note: Links to Amazon are affiliate, see disclosure.

Do you want to be a hands-on gardener or a garden designer?

Decide whether you want to be a gardener, a garden designer or to work in horticulture in other ways. However, most self-employed career changers find themselves doing a mix of hands-on gardening and garden design, especially when they’re just beginning to build their businesses.

Shaun Mooney worked in marketing until he set up his garden design business Potwell. He works on re-designing whole gardens or as a consultant on a particular part of the garden. He also does hourly consultations and he does some hands-on gardening work, too. But his focus is on garden design. Read about his amazing rented garden created entirely from pots here.

On the other hand, Jo Rutherford focuses her business, The Helpful Gardener, on practical gardening, although she also has a garden consultation service that covers design changes. (Read about how she transformed her own new-build garden on a minimum budget here.) She also teaches gardening and wreath-making workshops.

And you could work in a retail plant nursery or garden centre, manage or work in a historic garden or a big garden, such as one of the RHS gardens.

You could be a landscaper (that’s shifting earth, building walls, laying paths etc). And there’s plant science, forestry, floristry, bee-keeping and working in parks and more.

For example, Clare Meadowcroft spent 25 years working as a Senior Biomedical Office in the NHS and is now a Garden Supervisor for English Heritage.  She says ‘get a good recognised qualification and volunteer to get experience. Go for it!’

Head gardener David Hamer worked his way up by working at a plant nursery and doing part-time courses in order to learn more about plants.

And here’s a list of careers in horticulture from horticultural consultant and media influencer Mr Plant Geek.

Volunteering is key

Many people who are thinking of changing to a career in gardening start by volunteering at major gardens. You learn a lot from the professional gardeners there, and you’ll also get a good idea of whether this is the life for you. Ask whether there are opportunities for volunteers at any professionally run garden close to you.

Garden designer Daisy Hayden says that ‘volunteering at Audley End was great for building confidence.’ She formerly worked in infection control for the NHS. ‘I studied in the evening for two years, then went part-time in garden design and then full time.’

Jason Gozzett worked in an office until he was 36, and then took a two year full-time course at Writtle College. He now works at the Beth Chatto Garden where he also mentors students and volunteers. The Beth Chatto gardens have RHS level 2 and 3 courses available, and they also have opportunities for student and volunteer gardeners.

Lori Day left the corporate world aged 51. She then volunteered at Thrive (the charity for people gardening with disabilities). While working on a freelance contract, she did a City & Guilds qualification. She followed this with an RHS Level 2 qualification and then went onto work at a plant nursery.

And gardener Annie Morgan changed to gardening by doing RHS courses at Merrist Wood, volunteering at RHS Wisley and helping a professional landscaper. She started getting her jobs through Age Concern. Her practice has built through word of mouth.

Link your new career to your old one

Many people use their former careers in some way in gardening. Kirsty Holden, for example, was an Occupational Therapist with the NHS. Now she works as a ‘social and therapeutic gardener, mainly working with older people.’ She gardens for and with people, helping them to carry on gardening. Her company is Gardening With Me.

And what about the problems?

Everyone I spoke to said that they loved their new lives and didn’t regret stepping off the corporate treadmill. Many had been lawyers, doctors, accountants, journalists and more: ‘I was a credit controller and got sick of the windowless offices and corporate bullshit’ said Jamie German, who now runs his own company, Magnolia Garden Maintenance.

But gardeners are often underpaid and seen as manual labour rather than professionals. It can be difficult to get clients who will treat you and pay properly. There’s more about this in my post on How to Find a Gardener Who’s Perfect for Your Garden.

Multi-award winning garden designer Katharine Crouch warns that it can be difficult to make a living purely as a garden designer ‘if you’re solo and outside London.’ Certainly garden designers I know here in Kent, such as Posy Gentles, combine garden design and renovation with consultancy and maintenance.

And if you’re worried that you don’t know enough about gardening to start a career in it, then maybe read Australian gardener Richard Harrison’s book,the Export Gardener, on how he started a gardening business in the UK while not knowing a weed from a wisteria. It’s all too easy to delay making a change until you feel you have the skills – sometimes it’s better just to jump in and learn as you go along.

Please note that links to Amazon are affiliate, so I may earn a small fee if you buy through them, but it doesn’t affect the price you pay. See disclosure for more detail.  Other links are not affiliate.

Garden designer and consultant Posy Gentles mixes garden design, consultation and garden maintenance

Although horticulture contributes around £6bn a year to the UK economy, a career in horticulture is barely mentioned by most careers teams in schools. There is, as a result, a skills shortage in Britain. So when you are building your horticultural career, price yourself carefully. Make sure you can make a living. Don’t under-price to get the work.

Many people who work in horticulture found themselves there by accident, like most of the gardening professionals in this post. It’s time for this to change and for careers such as catering and horticulture to be recognised as valuable contributions to the UK economy.

More about changing to a gardening career:

The RHS have lots of information about their courses, which take place around the country.

And there’s more about horticulture, agriculture and conservation careers here.

Many horticulture professionals also trained under the WRAGS scheme. This is Work and Retrain as a Gardener. (thank you, ‘All Horts’ Carron Nightingale and Helen Williams.)

Start and Run a Gardening Business by Paul Power has been recommended by gardening professionals.

See Arit Anderson on BBC Gardeners World as one of the team presenting the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show and in the latest series of Garden Rescue . Or find her on Twitter at @diamondhill2012 or Instagram.

Horticulture teacher Lara Hurley says ‘almost everyone I teach at Myerscough College has changed career and they often achieve better results because of their life experiences.’

And, as Arit Anderson says: ‘Go for it. Gardening is an extension of what you love.’ The All Horts professionals agree.

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