Sole Gardener
A wonderful opportunity has arisen for an experienced Sole Gardener to maintain and manage the gardens of a beautiful private estate in Godalming, Surrey.
The grounds extend to 35 acres including fields that are looked after and maintained by horse owners who keep horses in the fields. The 18-acre gardens comprise of expansive lawns requiring care (except in the summer), a small kitchen garden, the rockery is one of the most important and labour-intensive parts of the garden including acers, shrubs and some annuals, two greenhouse, mixed borders on the terrace and around the tennis court, and roses are grown in the fruit cage that also has apple trees, some soft fruit bushes and a cherry tree.
The current Gardener will be retiring in October, the owners are now looking to recruit an experienced gardener/horticulturalist with the skills and knowledge to maintain the gardens to a high horticultural standard. Outside contractors are employed for seasonal/occasional jobs such as hedge cutting, clearing of the wild valley twice a year and tree surgeons.
The successful candidate will be a well-rounded and experienced private estates gardener with an academic horticultural qualification and/or extensive experience. Enthusiasm, energy and physical fitness is paramount, as is your understanding of seasonal horticultural practices and plant identification. The ideal candidate will possess spray certificates and a chainsaw certificate is a requirement. A diesel garden tractor to pull the trailer, a Saxon wide sit-on mower and a push mower for the area around the pool are available onsite and the gardener looks after the basic maintenance of these, but they are serviced elsewhere annually.
As this is a Sole Gardener role, you must also be willing and able to undertake typical garden-based duties as well as other estate duties. The property owners are genuinely friendly, amenable, and passionate about their garden. As such, you will need to have good organisational skills and be willing to plan your day effectively.
Additional non horticultural duties include but are not limited to feeding the chickens and doves every morning, collects eggs and cleans out the chicken house on Fridays. The owners have a dog and therefore the Gardener must be comfortable with dogs and occasionally letting the dog out when the owner is away.
A competitive salary is provided based on a working week of 37.5 hours. Working hours are 8 – 4 pm in the winter and 8 – 5 pm in the summer with 30 minutes for lunch each day, and two 15-minute breaks for tea/coffee.
SALARY: Circa £35,000 DOE
LOCATION: Godalming, Surrey
JOB No: EC47082
If this Sole Gardener vacancy is of interest, please apply or contact Sara Yassin on 01233 733510 or info@englishcountrygardeners.co.uk.
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Thank you for the interest you have shown in this Sole Gardener vacancy. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applications that we receive, it is not possible to respond to every one. Therefore, unless you hear from us within the next 14 days, your application for this Sole Gardener vacancy will have been unsuccessful.
