Gardening And Landscaping Careers

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.


Jerry Cahill Master gardener and author of gardening related articles. http://gardenlandscapedesigns.com/http://gardenlandscapedesigns.com/dewitt-prospun-6x300-non-woven-landscape-fabric/

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