Horticultural worker

You would grow plants for decoration or to produce food, sell plants in a garden centre or look after plants in parks and gardens.

You could grow plants for:

• production horticulture, where you’d produce and sell plants either for food or decoration

• garden centres where you’d sell plants to the public

• parks and gardens where you’d look after plants in private gardens, public parks and green spaces, historic gardens or botanic gardens

The day-to-day tasks would vary depending on the season. Your tasks might include:

• sowing seeds and planting bulbs and ornamental plants

• growing plants from cuttings and by grafting

• taking care of plants by watering, weeding, pruning, feeding and spraying

• mowing grass, cut dead growth and branches and doing general tidying

• laying paths and looking after ornamental features

Depending on the job you could also pick, sort and package produce to be sent to retailers. If you work in a garden centre you could sell plants and other products and advise the customers.

You’d need to be enthusiastic about plants and follow health and safety regulations.

Green job    

In this job you could be doing work to help the environment. You could: 

• manage the use of water in green spaces effectively to reduce waste 

• care for green spaces that help to protect the environment by storing carbon and improving air quality 

Find out more about green jobs. 

• Royal Horticultural Society - Careers information from this UK charity established to share the best in gardening

• Botanic Garden Edinburgh Education - Courses and internships

• Lantra Scotland - Training and skills for the land-based, aquaculture and environmental sector