A head gardener is an individual who manages all horticultural aspects of a property or garden, including staff and volunteers. The properties they manage include historic gardens and private estates, as well as amenity horticulture teams, for example, with a county council. Except in recognised large organisations, the role of head gardener is often amalgamated with site maintenance manager, ranger, dog walker, horsesitter, chef, and other non-horticultural roles. The remit of a head gardener, and the required experience varies between roles and properties, but head gardeners would normally be educated to an exceptionally high level within their field and have many years of experience to support that education. In the UK,

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...

, Capel Manor College and other professional educational establishments run training courses with qualifications enabling the professional development of gardeners.

The Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ( ...

is a one such leader in the provision of horticultural training with many professional gardeners securing diplomas and Master of Horticulture degrees under their training courses. The fundamental horticultural aspects of managing a garden include, and are not limited to, propagation, productive growing, commercial horticulture, landscaping ''—'' both hard and soft''—'', pest, disease and plant health management including a sound understanding of plant passport (import and export) regulations as well as a worldwide understanding of preventing the spread of invasive diseases, plants and pests. Managing a team of volunteers is often an aspect of this role within public gardens or charity spaces such as

The National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

External links

Careers leaflet .pdfAn English Head Gardener's Online Diary
Gardening Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations

See also

External links