Do permament gardening staff deserve higher pay?

There is a vacuum in the gardening world when it comes to quality of the product and the rewards for the talented people, who strive day in day out to present a garden for the joy and relaxation.

Some gardeners, who may live and work in London for example, are forced to scrape by on the minimum wage and are being penalised for choosing this creative career path.

Nurses and Teachers get a lot of column inches when it comes to how bad we perceive their pay to be but the gardening fraternity would not get a second look.

However, it takes many years of study or experience to build up a reputation and the skills deal with the many facets of horticulture and during the gardening year, many millions of people are able to enjoy the fruits of this attention but rarely get any recognition or reward.

Why, when the horticulture market is worth £5 billion every year, do the garden centres and retailers get to bulk of the profits, yet the very people who consume their products and keep the wheels turning are treated like menial or casual labourers?

Even a garden manager, with responsibilities over hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of contracts can only expect £35,000 per year.

It is true that a gardener has a choice and can turn his creative skills to other things but why should they have to?

I have discussed this on Landscape Juice today and feel it is a serious point for consideration http://www.landscapejuice.com/2008/05/is-horticulture.html

"Plus it doesn't matter if we all know plants are better value. I'd make the point of this to the customer but if they want trough grown at the extra cost that's their choice I'd just do it"

"I've done 5ft Thorne troughs. Very easy to plant just got a mini digger dug the trench then drop them in couldn't be easier however £250 per m does seem expensive. "

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Comments

Susan May 17, 2008 at 10:09am

What do you all get paid those of you working in the industry? And how muych do you pay your staff? Our guys are on £9 per hour plus a good bonus at the end of each job, higher than average for the North, but we feel they are worth it and it keep moral up too.