Gardening And Landscaping As A Career
If you have ever enjoyed a lush garden, fresh
vegetables, a nice park, or a grassy golf course, you may have thought
of a career in gardening and landscaping. There are a lot of different
kinds of opportunities in this field, from actually digging in the dirt
outside to planning, buying, and selling in an office or store. There
are also many places to learn the trade.
Digging In The Dirt
Working outside in a natural environment is an absolute job requirement
for some people. Enjoying both the sun and the rain seems better than a
desk any day. Many of these people get into the gardening and
landscaping fields.
The easiest job to get, but also the most backbreaking, is planting and
maintenance for a landscaping company. These are the folks who are
outside every season planting new flowers around office parks, stores,
and parks. This work does not pay as much as more specialize work, but
it is a good way to get acquainted with this kind of gardening and
landscaping task.
With some training in botany and plant care, it’s possible to get a job
with a little more independence – and pay. Places like botanical
gardens, city parks, and college campuses need managers for their
grounds departments that plan, grow, and plant each season’s display.
Part of the year you may be running a greenhouse, and part you may spend
mostly outside.
Perhaps the most demanding job for an individual gardener is raising a
truck garden – growing food to sell to individual customers and
restaurants. You must have great skills in all aspects of gardening and
landscaping, and management too, to keep a garden producing enough food
in every season to supply regular customers. High-end restaurants often
like to serve fresh, local, organic food. But they will not buy from a
gardener that has an erratic harvest schedule or that produces poor
vegetables.
Places To Learn
There are many places to learn the gardening and landscaping trade. The
first is just to take an entry-level job with a company or city and just
learn on the job. But it is hard to move up to a position of more
responsibility without some education – and not just in how to grow
plants.
Many community and vocational colleges give gardening and landscaping
degrees. Expect to study for two to four years, but also expect to learn
all about planting, and how to run a business too. Gardening and
landscaping is a great field for people who want to be self-employed.
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