Working in the horticultural industry
brings many rewards while at the same time can bring misery and
uncertainty for those who work in it's various areas. Working with an
enormous range of plants and in the open air is fantastic, even in
the depths of winter when it's freezing cold or p*ss*ing it down.
Likewise you get to enjoy working with a wide range of people from
different walks of life, and indulge your areas of interest, whether
it be the most complicated end of natural sciences or just the simple
day-to-day logistics of running a garden or nursery/garden centre.
Each day brings it's own rewards.
Horticulture also has it's downside;
wages are poor and everywhere you turn you are looked upon as someone
who has gone into horticulture because you are too stupid to do
anything else. Once you get into horticulture you realise that it is
challenging and requires great skill, but try explaining that to
someone on the outside who sees manual work as degrading....
The impression of horticulture must be
changed, and to do that we must all make every effort to show off our
skills- maybe then we will be taken seriously?
The issue of wages is a more difficult
one. Much like the food in supermarkets people do feel that plants
have no real value. A cutting from a plant hasn't cost anything, a
big bag of compost costs just a few pounds, so why should plants be
more than a few pounds to buy? This has bred a 'bargain basement'
culture in horticulture, where products and services have to be
offered and rock-bottom prices to grab the customer's attention. You
can offer plants at low cost by cutting production costs and growing
more solidly reliable plants (which are less likely to suffer losses
during the production cycle). By cutting back on costs nurseries will
offer a smaller and smaller range of plants at ever poorer quality
until they go out of business. This would be a disaster to the
consumer, who would lose out on the enormous range of quality plants
available in UK nurseries.
One of the biggest costs in
horticulture is the people looking after the plants. These people are
needed to care for plants at every point from young 'liner' plant up
to saleable size, to make sure that each plant is given sufficient
water and feed, as well as suitable trimming and weeding to make each
plant the best quality possible. Nonetheless skilled workers are
finding horticulture less and less viable financially each year. If
horticultural staff moved on and worked in other industries for the
better wages the horticulture industry would collapse very quickly,
putting hobby gardeners and anyone who values our nation's parks and
public gardens at great disadvantage.
For anyone in horticulture who gets
into serious financial trouble there is help from the charity
Perennial. Perennial provides free and confidential help for
gardeners to sort out their finances, avoid getting into debt and
generally get into a better position so they can practice their
vocation to the best of their abilities. All this work needs
support, and it is with this in mind that one man is undertaking a
rather unusual challenge.
Phil Voice, founder of the Landscape
Juice Network, is driving from deepest France to John O'Groats... on
a ride-on lawnmower! Phil is hoping that the 1,250 mile trip will
raise £10,000 for Perennial, so that it can continue to do it's
valued work, especially needed during these times of financial
uncertainty. Please donate any money that you can spare- let's help
Phil reach (or even exceed) his target! For more information:
https://www.justgiving.com/Mowerthon
Wages must improve. The Government
recently released the results of a study that said that in order to
have a reasonable quality of life each person should earn around
£20,000 a year. In horticulture people who earn £15,000 a year
consider themselves lucky. The cost of living is going up,
horticultural wages will probably stay the same.
So what can you do to help? Buy plants!
Visit gardens! I'm not saying that you need to set a spending target,
or you must spend money you really don't have, but if you do have a
space in the garden then please do buy a plant. At least if you buy a
hardy tree, shrub or perennial you can be assured of two things; that
you are buying a plant that will last, and you are investing in the
future of a very worthwhile industry.
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