Gary Edwards says...

As a gardener I have been frustrated to find that no matter how many
qualifications, tools, insurances, licenses I have - my prices will
still be compared to casual labour from the retired or a neighbours
young son looking for pocket money! Is gardening a profession? We think
it is so we have created The Gardeners Guild.co.uk. What should be the
minimum requirement for a gardener?


As "Granity" says, people either need a garden labourer or
a skilled gardener. Typically most just need the garden
labourer - someone to dig the garden, pull a few weeds, mow
the lawn or trim a hedge.

You've got to view these as two different markets. If you
try to compete against the garden labourer you'll lose out
because you can't compete on price. However, if you are a
skilled gardener your market is much smaller but you can
likely earn more using your skill. I am thinking here of
the minority of people who own large gardens that need more
skilled work such as pruning, maintaining flower borders
etc. However, the people who have such gardens tend to be
skilled gardeners as a hobby anyway. Also long gone are the
days when the "big house" had it's own gardener, cook and
servants. This only leaves two market areas as far as I can
see for skilled gardeners:
1. ground maintenance for businesses.
2. landscape gardening, where here you skill base needs to
also include elements of art and design.

--
David in Normandy.
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