Career opportunities for qualified gardeners.

There are a wide range of gardening opportunities with the National Trust.

These include maintaining one of our smaller, but no less important gardens single-handedly; many gardeners prefer to work as a member of a garden team, or, with additional experience, to specialise in a particular field, such as kitchen garden production, topiary, lawn care, machinery maintenance and use, or glasshouse plants.

Training and support is offered to those wanting to progress their career. Generally, you will need to progress to assistant head gardener or have a total of five years experience beyond your initial training before being considered qualified to apply for a head gardener’s position.

We employ 90 head gardeners; some have become gardens and park managers, responsible for the garden, surrounding landscape park, livestock and public events.

Those aspiring to manage our largest and most complex gardens will need extensive experience across a range of gardens and period styles, the curation of plant collections and in managing teams and projects.

© Richard Hanson

Branching out

Head gardeners with an excellent horticultural knowledge and skills and wide appreciation of garden history may seek to become a member of our central advisory team. Opportunities include horticultural technician, plant collections curator, gardens and parks adviser or curator for gardens and parks.

The three gardens and parks advisers provide wide ranging advice on garden conservation, restoration, design and management. The gardens and parks curators advise on the overall presentation of properties, their history and interpretation.

With additional experience, these posts offer a route to becoming head of gardens and parks, with overall responsibility for the policy, presentation, restoration and advice in all National Trust gardens and parks.

How gardens are managed

Each property is managed according to its history and traditions.

Generally head gardeners will meet with a gardens and parks adviser and other colleagues once a year to discuss progress and work plans for the coming year.

Head gardeners with the aptitude may take on responsibility for writing the long-term conservation plan for their own garden, which may involve consulting curators and specialists from other disciplines.

Many gardeners are involved in interpreting their gardens, providing garden tours and helping stage events, which often provides opportunities for the feedback of appreciation from the public.