Gardeners

Gardeners providing services to homeowners and business owners where gardening, landscaping and horticultural maintenance is required.

Gardeners can be employed on an ongoing regular basis to look after the wellbeing of residential gardens, the common areas of blocks of flats, the landscapes of office blocks or employed on a permanent basis by councils or organisations where the maintenance of public parks and large green space requires the full time attention of a gardener of a team of gardeners. There are many and varied tasks that make up the role of a gardener. Lawn mowing and edge clipping, pruning, trimming, planting, watering and fertilisation are just some of the jobs that are ongoing in the day to day role of a gardener. The tasks of clearing leaves, cleaning gutters, mulching and refuse removal are also necessary aspects of garden maintenance that are undertaken by a gardener.

Freelance gardeners may be contracted by the hour for smaller one-off jobs but are more likely to tend to the wellbeing of a garden over repeated long term regular sessions. Homeowners may employ a gardener to look after their gardening needs over regular short periods. Larger gardens such as those attached to public buildings or office blocks may employ a gardener to fulfill a broader maintenance role that includes low level building repairs and body corporate requests. Most gardeners are trained horticulturalists and undertake tertiary study or an apprenticeship to gain the necessary skills to offer gardening services. Gardeners are expected to tolerate all weather conditions, physically demanding work, exposure to snakes and spiders, risk from prickly and poisonous plants and dangerous tools and machinery. In addition to ornamental gardens, some gardeners specialise in agricultural gardens such as those growing vegetables, fruits and other consumables.