| If you have ever enjoyed a lush garden, fresh | | | | display. Part of the year you may be running a |
| vegetables, a nice park, or a grassy golf course, you | | | | greenhouse, and part you may spend mostly outside. |
| may have thought of a career in gardening and | | | | Perhaps the most demanding job for an individual |
| landscaping. There are a lot of different kinds of | | | | gardener is raising a truck garden growing food to sell |
| opportunities in this field, from actually digging in the dirt | | | | to individual customers and restaurants. You must |
| outside to planning, buying, and selling in an office or | | | | have great skills in all aspects of gardening and |
| store. There are also many places to learn the trade. | | | | landscaping, and management too, to keep a garden |
| Digging In The Dirt | | | | producing enough food in every season to supply |
| Working outside in a natural environment is an absolute | | | | regular customers. High-end restaurants often like to |
| job requirement for some people. Enjoying both the | | | | serve fresh, local, organic food. But they will not buy |
| sun and the rain seems better than a desk any day. | | | | from a gardener that has an erratic harvest schedule |
| Many of these people get into the gardening and | | | | or that produces poor vegetables. |
| landscaping fields. | | | | Places To Learn |
| The easiest job to get, but also the most backbreaking, | | | | There are many places to learn the gardening and |
| is planting and maintenance for a landscaping | | | | landscaping trade. The first is just to take an |
| company. These are the folks who are outside every | | | | entry-level job with a company or city and just learn |
| season planting new flowers around office parks, | | | | on the job. But it is hard to move up to a position of |
| stores, and parks. This work does not pay as much as | | | | more responsibility without some education and not |
| more specialize work, but it is a good way to get | | | | just in how to grow plants. |
| acquainted with this kind of gardening and landscaping | | | | Many community and vocational colleges give |
| task. | | | | gardening and landscaping degrees. Expect to study |
| With some training in botany and plant care, it's | | | | for two to four years, but also expect to learn all |
| possible to get a job with a little more independence | | | | about planting, and how to run a business too. |
| and pay. Places like botanical gardens, city parks, and | | | | Gardening and landscaping is a great field for people |
| college campuses need managers for their grounds | | | | who want to be self-employed. |
| departments that plan, grow, and plant each season's | | | | |