Having worked in the gardening industry for nearly half a century, and being a keen student of its manifold strengths and weaknesses, I have become increasingly concerned regarding the shortage of younger people willing or interested to become involved in horticulture in any form – with the exception perhaps of garden design.
Now that I am reaching my twilight years, certainly as a ‘hands on’ gardener, working for a number of highly valued customers who both respect my work and enjoy my involvement in their gardens, I, along with many hundreds – indeed, thousands – of other sole trader style gardeners are considering how and when to tell their clients they are looking at retirement.
(To be clear, I am not talking here about the thousands of single handed jobbing gardeners who operate ‘under the radar’ when it comes to matters such as insurance and other legal requirements, I am thinking of those sole traders who have a number or ‘round’ of high quality and long term customers and run professional businesses)
The Partners
The customers themselves, have no wish to think about the inevitable day when the subject of finding a new gardener will have to be discussed. The usual route is for one or both parties to raise the prospect of perhaps reducing the number of hours worked, finding someone else to carry out heavier duties, mow the lawns, cut the hedges etc; and somehow gradually withdraw from that relationship. Many gardeners and customers have been together for many years, and finding suitable replacement labour is becoming increasingly difficult. Plus, of course, the breaking of the methodology, trust and working techniques/regime that have evolved over those years often means that the new gardener has to strike up a new and perhaps different/less comfortable relationship with the client.
I have been considering a new approach to this subject, one I call Mentoring Partnerships. (The title may change, as it is more of a Formula, which involves a Partnership or Agreement, written or verbal, between the customer (hereafter referred to as ‘C’) and the existing gardener, or Senior Partner (hereafter referred to as ‘Senior’) and a third party – the new/replacement gardener or Junior Partner (or ‘Junior).
The Formula
Initially, the prime person in the Formula is the Senior, as the desire to begin working on the process of handing over the garden will be made by them in the first instance. Beginning with a request to discuss the future of the garden maintenance, Senior will propose to C that he/she finds a suitable person to start a bespoke training programme, specifically for their garden (This Formula will be repeated at each client’s garden). In many ways similar to an apprenticeship, except that the training will be for their benefit, with the end of the one/two/three year period, Junior will have been fully trained by Senior to the precise wishes of C.
This Agreement will mean that C pays Junior a basic rate (minimum wage) together with Seniors usual rate, but the extra hours may be adjusted if required to negate any increase in costs to C.
Senior will agree not only to train Junior in the skills and methods learned over a lifetime, no doubt Junior will be able to advise Senior of some of the latest techniques. Senior will also ensure that proper accounts are kept, insurances and other legal requirements are met, site etiquette and customer relations learned – so many things that Junior could never learn outside of such an arrangement.
Summary
To summarise the Formula; The Customer does not lose the benefit of the skills of the Senior gardener and enjoys the continuity of an unbroken line of expertise whilst retaining contact with their old and trusted guru.
Senior Gardener gains the use of an extra pair of hands to take on the more arduous tasks, whilst at the same time training a new person to enjoy the skills and techniques so that they are not lost to the world, plus the opportunity to carry out some of the more difficult jobs acting as Consultant to their old client (and gaining more consultancy work post retirement age).
Junior Gardener has a unique opportunity to learn at first hand, from a highly experience professional, in the grounds of a property that they will be taking on at some stage – (instead of a standard apprenticeship which normally ends with the apprentice either being absorbed into the company, or often moving on to pastures new and therefore ‘lost’ to their mentor, if not to the industry through loss of motivation.
They will not only have had a sound period of training, specific to each individual garden/client, they will also have inherited (and earned) a well grounded professionally based business which may grow beyond those existing original customers (and indeed, employ the services of a known and trusted Consultant!)
Even if you have no desire to see such an arrangement in your own business, I would appreciate any comments – Pro’s or Con’s – if you consider this could be a way forward to entice more people into our industry.