Landscape Gardener / Garden Designer

​Qualifications required

Gardener

• First and foremost, a genuine passion for plants, nature, and a continuous willingness to learn.

• A solid understanding of plant biology and horticulture is crucial.

• This includes knowing how to care for various plants, understanding soil composition, and recognising signs of diseases or pests.

• Practical, hands-on skills are essential, encompassing tasks like planting, pruning, and using gardening tools effectively.

• Physical stamina is necessary for the often labour-intensive aspects of gardening, requiring activities such as lifting, bending, and kneeling.

• Attention to detail is paramount to create visually appealing and well-maintained gardens.

• Time management and adaptability are vital for planning tasks around seasons and weather conditions.

• Problem-solving abilities to address challenges that may arise in the garden.

• Communication skills become important when working with clients or collaborating with others in the field.

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Landscape Gardener

Includes all of the above (Gardener), plus:

• Expertise in hardscape elements, such as designing and installing pathways, patios, and other structures.

• Strong design sensibility, creativity, and an eye for spatial arrangement contribute to creating visually appealing landscapes.

• Practical skills in using a range of tools and equipment, along with physical stamina for hands-on work, are crucial.

• Effective communication skills are necessary to collaborate with clients, understand their preferences, and convey design concepts.

• Time management and organisational abilities help in planning and executing landscaping projects efficiently.

• Adaptability to different environments and a passion for creating harmonious outdoor spaces round out the key skills and talents of a landscape gardener.

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Garden Designer

Again, all of the above 2 skill sets, plus:

• Creative flair and a keen eye for design principles enable garden designers to conceptualise unique landscapes, considering factors like colour schemes, focal points, and spatial arrangements.

• Strong communication skills are essential for collaborating with clients, understanding their preferences, and translating those into cohesive design plans.

• Technical proficiency in design software and an ability to create detailed blueprints contribute to bringing visions to life.

• Flexibility and adaptability are key traits, allowing designers to navigate varying client requirements and site conditions.

• Ultimately, a garden designer's talent lies in seamlessly blending artistic vision with practical knowledge to transform outdoor spaces into personalised and visually captivating gardens.

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Rules and regs

Although there is no specific government legislation for working within the horticultural field, there will be licences that you'll need. This link gives some great intel on what's involved, including machinery licences, waste disposal, use of skips etc.

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Licences, which will require additional training, may include:

• Chainsaw licence - By law, if you are operating a chainsaw, you must have received adequate training and must be wearing chainsaw protective clothing. When it comes to tree work with chainsaws, you will need to have obtained a relevant certificate of competence or national competence award. Find out more about the requirements for using chainsaws on the Health and Safety Executive website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/treework/safety-topics/chainsaw-operator.htm

• Use of pesticides is of course a biggie, so gem-up on these, here:: https://www.gov.uk/find-licences/pesticide-approval, and indeed, here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/pesticides/resources/C/Code_of_Practice_for_using_Plant_Protection_Products_-_Section_2.pdf

• Waste carriers licence: If you plan to remove garden waste for your clients, then you will need to be registered as a waste carrier. While getting this registration will cost you about £150, not being properly licensed could result in very high fines if you are caught. To understand more about becoming a waste carrier, check out the UK Government Website: https://www.gov.uk/register-renew-waste-carrier-broker-dealer-england

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By having all of these licences, it will indicate that you take the law, environment and safety seriously. They show that you are dedicated to garden maintenance as a career, that you are worth your fees and that you are obeying the law.

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Insurances are also necessary, to cover your safety, any workers you hire's safety, and indeed any clients that are on-site with you during your work. Primarily this insurance will be (as always on TWW) a Public Liability Insurance, which can be obtained with many insurance brokers. Some examples are here: https://www.comparethemarket.com/business-insurance/public-liability/gardeners

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Remuneration framework

Pay is a tricky one, because as always, fees vary depending on skill, experience and reputation (which yes, yet again also means ‘social reputation’, so whether you want to or not, ‘be’ active on social, particular instagram for visual representations of your work). Fees also vary hugely by location (cities vs rural etc).

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And of course, every job is different; some are small jobs, some are big; and how much you can earn will depend on your execution mix of these jobs. If you’re doing predominantly ‘small jobs’, it will be a case of how many small jobs can you do a week… If you’re doing predominantly ‘bigger jobs’, it's a case of how many of those you can do in a month/quarter?

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That said, according to Google…

• Gardeners tend to earn between £20k to £50k per annum.

• Landscape Gardeners tend to earn between £30k to £80k per annum, maybe more (and dependant on whether you’re running the show or not).

• Garden Designers can earn between £40k and £150k + per annum. And when you’re at Monty Don, Chelsea Flower Show, multi-Gold Winner, BBC level, the world really is your Oyster.

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How to get started

As mentioned above, there are many horticultural courses available across the UK, to train as a Gardener/Landscaper/Garden designer. Below we have listed a few for reference…

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The Royal Horticultural Society details their RHS courses brilliantly and the RHS in general is a great place to start. With the RHS you can choose to study a range of qualifications from Level 1 through to a Masters Degree and they have study centres throughout the UK and Northern Island. They also have details on work based training: https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning

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• Gardens Illustrated (magazine) has a great list of horticulture courses available in the UK, with links to online training: https://www.gardensillustrated.com/garden-design/horticulture-courses

• The Gardeners Guild also list the different ways to attain qualifications: https://www.thegardenersguild.co.uk/gardening_qualifications.html

• The National Design Academy has a fully accredited online course to train as a Landscape & Garden Designer: https://www.nda.ac.uk/study/courses/diploma-landscape-design/

• The British Academy of Garden Design has courses for home study here: https://www.gardendesignacademy.co.uk/courses

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TJ  gained her qualifications as a Garden Designer with the world renowned Inchbald. Their highly acclaimed course in Garden Design can be found here: https://www.inchbald.co.uk/courses/garden-design

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Associations or official bodies to register with

There are several associations you can choose to register with, below are just a few:

• The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is, of course, the UK’s leading gardening charity: https://www.rhs.org.uk

• https://www.thegardenersguild.co.uk is a national trade network for professionally qualified gardeners

• The Horticultural Trades Association represents gardeners in the horticultural industry: https://hta.org.uk

• https://www.landscaper.org.uk Is the Association of Professional Landscapers and is comprised of accredited companies throughout the UK.

• https://www.sgd.org.uk is the Society of garden Designers and is the only professional association for garden designers, with many national and international Members representing the very best of the industry.

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Job site links

Local gardening jobs are usually advertised locally, so always check your local Facebook groups and similar. Likewise, make sure that you have an active Facebook page and instagram account that others can refer people to (‘I’m looking for a xxx' recommendations posts are common on Facebook, so make sure you’re a name that pops/gets suggested when they do).

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English Country Gardeners list vacancies all over the UK on their website. These roles are for anyone within the Horticultural field: https://englishcountrygardeners.co.uk/?gad_source=1&gclid

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The Society of Garden Designers list vacancies on their website: https://www.sgd.org.uk/courses-and-careers/jobs

Horticulture Jobs list vacancies for gardeners and landscapers: https://www.horticulturejobs.co.uk

And finally the National Trust list vacancies via their website: https://www.nationaltrustjobs.org.uk/where-you-could-work/gardens-and-parklands

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Progression pathway

TJ’s story shows a clear progression route, indeed multiple progression routes. 

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When she started out gardening, she started small and then grew that business by picking up more and more work, recruiting staff, buying more equipment, vans etc. And for some this progression route will be great all on its own.

However, if like TJ, you decide to diversify, then you can progress into landscaping and/or garden design… and/or both. And with both you can progress a business very successfully, by simply growing your client base (at a rate you're happy with) and then recruiting staff etc to service that growing customer base to a high standard.

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Your progression within all fields of this industry will absolutely depend on 3 fundamental things:

1. How hard you’re willing to work.

2. The quality of your work.

3. How cost-effectiveness your work is (i.e. like TJ, running budgets efficiently and effectively)

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Because the combination of these 3 will = your reputation. And you reputation is EVERYTHING in this industry. A good/great one will mean lots of work and lots of chances to earn really good money. A bad one could see you only picking up scrappy, low-paying jobs; or worse, will see you go out of business relatively quickly.