You’ll work in beautiful surroundings and with people who are passionate about gardens, nature and the environment. Conservation is at heart of what we do here, as we strive to enhance and protect our heritage gardens and plant collections for the future.

We also love to support biodiversity and working with nature to enhance the environment for everyone’s benefit. We work with volunteers and help with the training and development of students and trainee gardeners in a caring and supportive way.

You’ll also be growing plants and crops using sustainable methods, whilst engaging with our visitors and members about our work.

If joining the gardens team at Harewood at this exciting time appeals to you, and if you’re up for exploring the challenge and reward that this role will bring, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

About Harewood

Harewood House Trust is an educational charity that engages with over 250,000 visitors every year through our outstanding programme of exhibitions and events. Harewood is one of England’s finest C18th country houses, with a magnificent collection of fine and decorative arts, set within a Grade 1 designated landscape and garden of special historic significance.

The Trust also has a commercial division that manages its trading operation, including major outdoor events, conferences, corporate functions, cafés and other retail and food outlets throughout the site.

We have embarked on a phased Masterplan, to ‘reimagine’ Harewood and secure its long-term future. The Masterplan encompasses several capital projects, all with the aim of growing our audiences, generating income and providing an excellent visitor experience. This includes the building of a new Adventure Playscape, the development of a new Visitor Centre & Car Park, the restoration of the Walled Garden, and the enhancement of our Gardens & Landscape, with new ornamental planting schemes and woodland walks.

What you’ll achieve at Harewood

As a Gardener, you will:

• Enhance and conserve our beautiful, historic gardens by providing skilled, high-quality garden maintenance and planting.
• Proactively support the senior gardener by the supervising and training of volunteers, student placements and trainees
• Deliver the best possible experience for our visitors by maintaining excellent standards of presentation and interpretation.
• Protect biodiversity by safeguarding habitats and adopting sustainable practices throughout the garden
• Enhance your own horticultural knowledge and broaden your plantsmanship skills through creative, hands-on gardening, horticultural research and problem-solving.

What you’ll deliver as part of the team

Supported by your line manager and providing guidance for others in the team, you’ll deliver excellent standards of garden maintenance, conservation and presentation through:

• Seasonal maintenance of flower borders, shrubberies, formal gardens and kitchen gardens, along with the care of plant collections, including woody plants, trained fruit trees, herbaceous perennials, bulbous plants, and annuals.
• Growing and caring for a wide range of plants and crops, including alpines, woody plants, vegetables and fruit etc., through plant propagation and crop production both outdoors and under glass
• Formative, remedial and rejuvenative pruning of woody plants, including trees, roses, climbers and hedges in accordance with the seasons.
• The use of horticultural machinery, including but not limited to mowers, strimmers, tractors, trailers, hedge trimmers, ATVs and other machinery, including hired-in plant & equipment
• The maintenance of machinery and equipment, including safety checks
• Turf care and maintenance
• The appropriate, timely and safe use of pesticides, whilst providing optimum care for the environment by seeking organic alternatives wherever possible
• The optimum use and management of composting systems

Training and supervising trainees and volunteers

• Whilst guiding team members on best practice, you’ll pass on your knowledge and craft skills to trainee gardeners, apprentices and volunteers

Growing and sharing your knowledge

• You’ll become broadly familiar with most plants growing in the gardens, and be completely familiar with plants growing in areas for which you are responsible
• By developing your knowledge of the history of the gardens and landscape at Harewood, you’ll be able to encourage and deepen our visitors’ interest and appreciation of Harewood

Encouraging and enhancing biodiversity within the gardens

• As a gardener, you’ll take opportunities to broaden your understanding of the natural environment, to enrich and protect biodiversity, by creating and enhancing a range of habitat types throughout the gardens, woodlands and park

Playing an active role in ensuring the efficient operation of the garden team

• In line with our Health & Safety policy, you’ll ensure the safety of yourself and others by carrying out an appropriate range of assessments to recognise hazards and control risks, including Risk Assessments, Manual Handling and COSHH, as directed by your line manager
• As well as taking part in duty weekend rotas, occasionally we’ll need you to help with horticultural operations or events that happen out of hours. These are shared amongst the team, and you’ll get time off in lieu for this.
• You’ll assist with the accurate recording, cataloguing and labelling of the plant collection
• In a busy ‘team’ environment, we’ll need your help with other tasks as required by your line manager
• You’ll undertake day-to-day administration and record keeping

Occasionally we may need to review a job description in order to incorporate any changes or duties needed for this role as identified by your line manager

We’re also committed to providing equality of opportunity, so if you have a disability, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you.