Why are Horticultural professionals SO devalued?

[Stere]

For the last few yrs inflation has being a load more that most wage rises so its worse than ever.

[scbk]

Gardener Job in Peebles | Greycoat Lumleys

WWW.GREYCOATLUMLEYS.CO.UK

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Gardener Job, Peebleshire, Scotland  Greycoat Lumley’s client are seeking an experienced Head Gardener to look after a beautiful, much loved established family garden in...

 

Accommodation:  4 bedroom property on site. Council tax included, logs for wood burner provided by the Estate

Car also provided

Salary:  £30,000 GPA

 

 

 

 

Seems a decent enough package to me?

[Joe Newton]

Sounds like you'll have to choose which is more important to you. Wealth or remaining in your chosen field.

 

Its a conundrum most of us have considered. 

[Greg Thompson]

It's not really true that people think any less of people in Arb or in gardening jobs. It is a combination of lots of people in the industry who are unable or unwilling to charge enough. Perceived value of what is basically removing green waste from the property however complex the skills/logistics are. The paying public don't care how new your chipper is, if you are Arb approved or really well qualified. They want what everybody wants.....the 3 magic ingredients- cheap-fast- quality. Any business doing this will fail so you choose two of the three. As long as our industry is fragmented and under represented, employers can't charge enough to pay people well as machinery suppliers and insurance companies or yard rents for example are charging more and more especially since covid. They are riding a wave of high prices set by supply chain issues but hoping nobody notices. Maybe we should follow their lead. The only thing to do is to do the thing and stop talking about it because low wages in Agriculture/Horticulture/ Arb is as old as the hills. 

 

[eggsarascal]

21 minutes ago, scbk said:

Gardener Job in Peebles | Greycoat Lumleys

WWW.GREYCOATLUMLEYS.CO.UK

---

Gardener Job, Peebleshire, Scotland  Greycoat Lumley’s client are seeking an experienced Head Gardener to look after a beautiful, much loved established family garden in...

 

Accommodation:  4 bedroom property on site. Council tax included, logs for wood burner provided by the Estate

Car also provided

Salary:  £30,000 GPA

 

 

 

 

Seems a decent enough package to me?

I’d jump at that if I was a young groundsman, gardener.

[sime42]

25 minutes ago, scbk said:

Gardener Job in Peebles | Greycoat Lumleys

WWW.GREYCOATLUMLEYS.CO.UK

---

Gardener Job, Peebleshire, Scotland  Greycoat Lumley’s client are seeking an experienced Head Gardener to look after a beautiful, much loved established family garden in...

 

Accommodation:  4 bedroom property on site. Council tax included, logs for wood burner provided by the Estate

Car also provided

Salary:  £30,000 GPA

 

 

 

 

Seems a decent enough package to me?

Yes, very decent when you consider the considerable perks. I'd've been happy with that a few years back.

[Mick Dempsey]

8 hours ago, Trailoftears said:

Its nice to see the Employers union of 'the lazy fekkers' should all be happy to work for a bowl of rice plus a new pair of boots once a year are alive and well on the forum 

Getting back to your first post, horticulture is not arboriculture, they often get lumped together.

Mowing lawns, weeding beds, planting and spraying are low skill tasks, people pay you to do them because they don’t want to do them or haven’t the time to do it themselves, the equipment needed is cheap and often the clients have it themselves for you to use (I know, I’ve done it)

 

Taking down or trimming trees is different, people pay you to do it because they CAN’T do it themselves, there is also risk (both to life and property) and the machinery is expensive and needs to be transported to site, and often large quantities of waste needs to be removed. The jobs are often one-offs (not once a week) so filling the diary is harder.

 

So the money in trees is much higher.

I’ve no interest in the National Trust thing, if you don’t like It, don’t do it.

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Mick Dempsey

[Mike Hill]

Mick covered it.

 

If you stopped 100 folk in the street,95 of them could do your job.Its common sense and low risk.

 

That's why the pay is low.

 

On the other end of the scale crew on a Red crab boat in the Arctic Ocean make about £5000 a week over a two month season. Common sense job but very high risk.

 

The latter option is available to you after just a one week course and a medical certificate. Time for a change mate?

 

[Anno]

9 hours ago, scbk said:

Gardener Job in Peebles | Greycoat Lumleys

WWW.GREYCOATLUMLEYS.CO.UK

---

Gardener Job, Peebleshire, Scotland  Greycoat Lumley’s client are seeking an experienced Head Gardener to look after a beautiful, much loved established family garden in...

 

Accommodation:  4 bedroom property on site. Council tax included, logs for wood burner provided by the Estate

Car also provided

Salary:  £30,000 GPA

 

 

 

 

Seems a decent enough package to me?

Good luck with that, be about 800 candidates, there will be a pile binned off for poor qualifications then its a lottery if you even get an interview.

[richyrich]

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Getting back to your first post, horticulture is not arboriculture, they often get lumped together.

Mowing lawns, weeding beds, planting and spraying are low skill tasks, people pay you to do them because they don’t want to do them or haven’t the time to do it themselves, the equipment needed is cheap and often the clients have it themselves for you to use (I know, I’ve done it)

 

Taking down or trimming trees is different, people pay you to do it because they CAN’T do it themselves, there is also risk (both to life and property) and the machinery is expensive and needs to be transported to site, and often large quantities of waste needs to be removed. The jobs are often one-offs (not once a week) so filling the diary is harder.

 

So the money in trees is much higher.

I’ve no interest in the National Trust thing, if you don’t like It, don’t do it.

 

 

 

Yes arb equipment is expensive - mainly chippers, but garden machinery is expensive. My plumber often states how he has high business costs and equipment. He says how gardeners' wages have increased relative to plumbers. However the costs of running a gardening business I suspect are greater than a plumbers, and charges probably half as much.

It's all largely dictated by market forces. Also gardening is repeat work whereas plumbing is more one off stuff.

Back to arb- where I am between Leeds/York there are loads of firms. Recently I was booked in to remove a Beech. Customer wanted stump grinding as well. I got them 3 quotes. A few weeks later got a message to say another firm was doing the job- including grinding. Moral of this- let  the potential customer find their own stump grinder. Don't go out of your way to help them.