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Head Gardener for Gardener's World wanted
Janet Baraclough wrote: The message .com from "Sacha" contains these words: I was looking at the Abbey Gardens site yesterday and saw that while Mike Nelhams who is the Curator of the garden does many lecture tours, as we knew, so does the Head Gardener *and* the Propagator does cruise lectures. Obviously, these can be jobs with both more interest and more lucrative interest than many of us had realised! Hm.. they can certainly involve some interesting travel, (one I know advises to China's botanical gardens, and cruise tours come to him and his gardens - but according to him there's little money in it; he does it for the love and is glad to break even. True, they get tied houses, (usually in a beautiful place but invariably somewhat decrepit and expensive to heat), but it means their home is hostage to employer, health, and eventually, retirement. Unless they bought property before the 80's price boom, there is little hope that the savings from such modest wages will buy a place of their own on retirement; and highly qualified undergardeners earning 12K have little chance of raising a useful mortgage. Obviously, I can't go into detail but I will say that of those I know who do this as a 'sideline', I know that not only were they wise enough to invest in their own property at the right time and let it, the tied houses are really lovely in themselves. Talking of the Tresco estate, it really is very well run and I think it's fair to say that those employed there are extremely well treated and have been given the opportunity to take part in the forward planning, in the sense that they have been able to say whether they want to stay on the island or leave it when they retire. If they opt to stay, they're housed, even if they have to move out of the house they occupied while working. Whether they do or don't pay rent, I don't know. In the case of another totally different location, the head gardener and his wife who was housekeeper, were left the house they live in for their lifetime, rent-free. After that, it reverts to the owners of the main property. -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon |
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