Simon Avery wrote:
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.
Likewise there are those with no qualifications who I would let lose in
my garden without a moments forethought.. There are pros and cons to
both paths..
There are also a LOT of 'man with a van' firms, who I would NOT let in
my garden nor recommend to anyone else, who have gardener, landscaper
etc etc.. on the side of their van/business card etc and advertise as
such.
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.
I do agree with this but there are plenty of smaller quals you can get
and work based learning schemes these days whether you want to work in
domestic landscape, commercial landscape, cropping, etc etc or any of
the areas inside Horticulture. Most of the higher 'quallies' as you call
them incorporate experience or insist on it in any case.. Whether
people retain or use that information & experience is another matter;-)
//
Jim