A career in Horticulture?

[Flighty]

Hi All,

I was wondering if anybody had any snippits of advice or comments about changing your career for a life in horticulture.

I originally trained as a Zoologist with the idea of working in conservation but the lack of jobs, low wages and rediculous amount of voluntary work you have to do before people even take you seriously has gradually put me off that idea.

The trouble is I still want to work with nature so I am starting to contemplate a move into horticulture.

Does anyone know how easy this is to get into? How long it might take / cost etc. And any tips on how to do it.

Thanks.

[Olly]

You won't get away from the low wages !!!!

I have just started a garden design course and plan to follow it up with some horticultural qualifications to gain formal recognition.

The RHS run several horticultural courses that are suitable for home study, with the Level 2 Certificate in Horticulture being the entry level.

Try the following links for more information:

Royal Horticultural Society - Education: Careers

Royal Horticultural Society - Education: RHS Examinations

Good luck

Olly

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Flighty

Hi All,

I was wondering if anybody had any snippits of advice or comments about changing your career for a life in horticulture.

I originally trained as a Zoologist with the idea of working in conservation but the lack of jobs, low wages and rediculous amount of voluntary work you have to do before people even take you seriously has gradually put me off that idea.

The trouble is I still want to work with nature so I am starting to contemplate a move into horticulture.

Does anyone know how easy this is to get into? How long it might take / cost etc. And any tips on how to do it.

Thanks.

Well apart from the fact that low wages may well follow you into horticulture, you also need to recognise that no matter how well you are trained horticulture may not offer that much opportunity to work with 'nature'.

The main horticultural strands are: commercial food production (predominantly intensive), large scale garden/house plant nurseries, specialist garden/house plant nurseries, large scale commercial landscape management and domestic garden services. Between the demands of business, pressure on public finance and sheer fashion (decking and gravel) your options for work with anything particularly natural may be pretty limited.

If you already have a qualification (degree ?) I would strongly suggest looking at broadening from that base - an MSc perhaps in Environmental Science - and expanding your employability that way. In the meantime maybe taking a Parks job with a local authority or something at a Garden Centre would give you the chance to 'try' horticulture and see how it fits - if you're not happy with the grunt work it's not the career for you.

CM

[Flighty]

Thanks everyone for the advice - it's food for thought. Obviously, any career change is a massive decision and so I'll look into it properly before making any rash moves. I do sometimes think that no matter how 'un-natural' a lot of horticulture is, it has to better for the spirit than working on a computer like I do at the moment.

Cheers.