Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Gardener

Borde Hill Garden Ltd
Haywards Heath, West Sussex

Posted: 19 May 2025

Deadline: 13 Jun 2025

Compensation: £14,286 per annum (3 days per week)

Living Wage employer

Paid Part-time Permanent

Job description

About Borde Hill Garden

Borde Hill (BH) is a magnificent Grade II* English Heritage listed Garden set within 383 acres of Parkland and Woodland.

Created in the early 1900’s with plants gathered by the great plant hunters from their travels to the Himalayas, China, Burma, Tasmania, the Andes and North America, the Estate contains over 70 champion trees and 8,000 trees and shrubs listed by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. In addition to the living collection, Borde Hill also has an extensive plant archive which allows us to better understand the plant collection and social history to engage our visitors about ‘the world in one garden’.

The Stephenson Clarke family have been custodians of Borde Hill for five generations, and are at a stage of generational change that is seeing new energy, opportunities and ideas aimed at broadening our visitor demographic and ensuring Borde Hill is sustainable for future generations. This includes new business initiatives of field to fork dining and the restoration of our walled kitchen garden, a biodynamic market garden and a rejuvenated family parkland offering with improved infrastructure, better horticultural interpretation and plant management, with a focus on climate change.

We are looking for an additional Gardener to join our Garden Team, who has horticultural expertise coupled with floristry skills, as creating visually stunning botanic displays for the House, Restaurant, Reception and for events/workshops is key to this role.

You and Your Role

As a hands-on Gardener, you’ll assist in making sure that high standards of presentation are maintained, and you’ll be proactive and knowledgeable about the varied plants within the Garden. 

You will also undertake a wide range of practical horticultural tasks to enhance the Garden, helping with hard and soft landscaping and general horticultural maintenance. Your practical knowledge of pruning, machinery, propagation and border work will be put to good use working with the wider team and Garden volunteers.

You will be happy to work collaboratively with the Garden Team and Garden Volunteers under direction from the Senior Gardener, but can also use your own initiative to problem solve and motivation to work at pace.

You will also have the opportunity to create stunning floral displays for the House, Reception and Restaurant as well as for events and workshops, both small and large scale.  You enjoy keeping up to date with floral trends and using this knowledge to create both fresh and dried arrangements

A basic knowledge of relevant Health and Safety procedures would be useful, but training will be given.

Knowledge, skills and experience needed

(Please provide evidence in your Covering Letter and CV)

• Horticultural qualification equivalent to NVQ level 2 or above or equivalent experience
• Trained as a professional gardener with a good level of theoretical and practical experience
• Knowledge of the cultivation of a range of herbaceous and temperate woody, plants; including pest and disease control and use of horticultural machinery
• Ability to create seasonal floral displays
• Experience in the care and presentation of an historic or botanic garden open to the public (desirable)
• Confident to interact with the public (desirable)
• Basic knowledge of health and safety issues in horticulture (desirable)
• Able to carry out manual tasks such as digging, lifting and carrying
• Able to demonstrate a flexible approach, with good team working and interpersonal skills

Borde Hill has a Family-led small, dedicated, professional and friendly team who embody a ‘one team’ culture. We want everyone to feel valued and fairly rewarded for the work they do and your package includes:

• A Borde Hill annual family membership allowing free entry to the Garden and Parkland
• Discount in the Borde Hill shop and catering outlets
• Free tickets for selected events throughout the open season
• Free access at selected times to our Partner Gardens (Chelsea Physic Garden, The Newt, The Lost Gardens of Heligan and Sculpture by the Lakes)
• Free entry to selected RHS events
• Free access to our wellbeing programme
• A flexible working pattern where possible

Please note, applications without a CV and Cover Letter will not be considered.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.

Application information

Please send your CV and covering letter to manager@bordehill.co.uk

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