20-06-2003, 03:08 PM
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Proffessional Gardening
omeat (THECHILLIS) wrote:
Hello THECHILLIS
T I'm thinking about trying to get into gardening
T proffessionally, does anyone have any advice about where to
T start, any relevant qualifacations etc. Cheers, Doug
My suggestion: Ignore qualifications if you want to be self employed.
They don't mean a lot to your customers, but experience and past
references do. Quallies *can* be useful if you want a senior
position in a firm or estate, so look around to see what a local
Agricultural type college offers. (I got City & Guilds 1 and 2 from
Dartington many years ago - never ever used the paper, but the
techniques were useful.) I have met people who've made a career out of
getting qualifications (state funded, naturally) and who are unable to
do a single days work, so I don't rate such things very highly.
Where to start: Get experience in commercial gardening. Work for
somebody else, doesn't matter if you start at the bottom - even
shovelling muck for 8 hours a day for a week is good experience. Learn
the shortcuts, make contacts, cultivate a good equipment supplier,
learn where to advertise.
--
Simon Avery, Dartmoor, UK Ý http://www.digdilem.org/
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