Amenity horticulturist : Job description

Amenity horticulture covers the design, construction, management and maintenance of living, recreational and leisure areas. These include: country parks; botanic and public gardens; sports facilities; urban tree planting; historic gardens and landscapes; cemeteries and crematoria; and other public spaces.

An amenity horticulturist may be involved in all stages of design, growing and maintenance. The work is increasingly complex, requiring management and technological competence alongside scientific understanding and the traditional skills of cultivation. Amenity horticulture can be a rewarding career choice as it involves making a valuable contribution to conserving the environment and improving quality of life. Amenity horticulturists may also work in education or the media.

Typical work activities

• Supervising and assisting in all stages of cultivation and maintenance.
• Managing pest, disease and weed control programmes against health and hygiene standards.
• Meeting the increasing requirements of organic cultivation.
• Analysing the horticultural and operational costs.
• Considering proposed changes to existing public amenities and leisure locations and assessing their potential benefits.
• Conducting environmental assessments.
• Visiting historical sites, researching old plans and documents and planning restoration programmes.
• Designing and planning planting schemes for the landscape.
• Advising and planning tree planting programmes with local authority arboricultural officers.
• Identifying technical and operational problems and investigating the causes.
• Formulating solutions and planning and organising trials to assess their effectiveness.
• Preparing new or modified operational and business plans.
• Managing contractors and negotiating with suppliers and buyers.
• Managing machinery and equipment.
• Organising presentations, technical visits and demonstrations.
• Taking inventories of stock items such as plants, trees and machinery, using IT equipment such as palmtops.
• Ensuring that UK, EU and international quality, hygiene, health and safety and employment standards and regulations are met.
• Communicating effectively with the visiting public, local officials and elected representatives, working colleagues and professional groups, both orally and in writing, through briefings, reports and presentations.
• Carrying out essential administration including records, budgets and accounts.
• Adapting to industry developments, such as the potential introduction of RFID electronic tags, designed to aid logistics and distribution.
• Keeping up to date in your specialist area and in developments in the whole horticultural sector.

When you reach management level, the work will require meeting agreed deadlines and operating within agreed budgets. More time will be spent on office-based tasks, which will take you away from some of the core activities of horticulture, e.g. the actual gardening.