On 6 Mar 2006 07:47:02 -0800, "Gardening_Convert"
wrote:

All,

I am interested in getting out of the IT corporate rat race that
I'm currently up to my neck in and doing something completely life
changing

As my username suggested I have become a Gardening convert so much so
that I have a desire to make a living out of it and get out of the
office and away from the PC and corporate S**t that I have to deal with
on a daily basis.

The main problem is that I do earn a pretty good wage in IT and that
has to currently support my wife, 2 children and the Cat.

Stay in IT until your kids have grown and you've seen them
through uni.

Is there really a living to be made in horticulture

Hardly.

Think about. The best you can do is to discover some niche
market where you'll be able to sell your produce at a price that
allows you to make a living. But you are competing with tens of
thousands of others who would all like to do the same.

or am I stuck with
the IT corporate hell that I suffer at the moment.

Hey - if you think corporate IT is hell just try the insecurity
of free-lancing or contracting. If you think working in IT is
hell then you haven't actually lived. Just try working in a
secondary school for a day and discover what true hell is - or
as my doctor said to me when I complained about being stressed
"I'm stressed too and I've got a cold - but I still came into
work today" Being a doctor is a notoriously stressed job. My
personal experience tells me that the worst thing about
corporate IT is that the hours can be longer than 9-5 - but that
is true of many well-paid jobs today - in e.g. a sales manager
can easily work 70 hours per week but still get paid less than
you do.

Of all the jobs I've ever done I found corporate IT to be about
the cushiest.

I'd rather shovel S**t for the flowers , fruit and veg where it does
some good rather than shovel it at work !!

Look at the rates of pay available to horticultural workers,
farm workers and look at the current depression in the UK farm
industry. These farmers have vast areas to grow things on, are
experienced in both industrial agriculture and in getting every
EU grant going but they are still finding it hard to break even.

Would I need to re-train or could I jump straight into something?

I would look to move away from Berkshire going further south , is there
any particular areas that would be advantageous for this sort of move ?

The West Country has the mildest weather in the UK but some of
the worst employment prospects.

The best advice I can give you is to find some niche in IT which
allows you to work 20 hours per week to support yourself while
giving you more time for your gardening.

The kind of niche I suspect could make money would be in growing
nursery plants but ... prices for mainstream nursery plants in
B&Q are pretty low now so it would really have to be a niche.
The market for a niche is, by definition, small and there are
many other countries with much lower average labour pay rates
than the UK where plants grow much faster. So - think about it
again - why would you be growing these plants in the UK rather
than, say, Costa Rica, South America or West Africa?