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.

Job description

We are recruiting two energetic and enthusiastic garden assistants; one full-time and one part-time for a private garden in Little Rollright.  The 2 acre Bannerman designed garden is set within a further 10 acres of garden and includes; a walled garden, two productive kitchen gardens, two greenhouses, polytunnel, cutting gardens, formal borders, swimming lake, swimming pool, formal hedging, fruit trees, formal lawns and rides. The wider 500 acre estate is a diverse mixed farm. The family is in residence all year round and enjoys a romantic and wild aesthetic underpinned by solid horticultural and ecological principles.  Lawn care is undertaken by an outside company but regular mowing and watering is in house. 

The basic role will involve lawn mowing, hedge cutting and assisting with maintenance of the formal garden, kitchen garden and cutting garden, with other tasks as seasonally appropriate and required by the Head-Gardener, farm or domestic team. We share a weekend rota during the season. Working hours 07:30 - 16:30 with breaks.

Experience within a diverse range of horticultural settings and previous experience working on an estate would be an advantage.  We are a small team and as such, you will be a team player happy to undertake occasional tasks outside the garden as required. As we are recruiting two assistants, you could lean more towards some skills than others. If you meet all of the essential criteria and some of the desirable criteria we would be interested to hear from you. Training can be provided where required. The position is live-out so candidates will need to live locally. 

Essential - we need you to have all these skills to apply.

• A passion for gardening and growing and a desire to learn and collaborate
• Attention to detail and a respect for the craft of gardening
• Full clean driving license, confident driver
• Strong and physically fit and able to work outside in all weathers
• Able to live locally
• Able to listen, take direction and ask for clarification
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Positive team player able to work independently 
• Basic knowledge of plants, gardening practices and use of garden machinery

Desirable - we would like you to have some of these skills to apply.

• A formal horticulture qualification
• Experience of working on an estate
• Confidence with wide range of machinery and powered tools
• Propagation experience 
• Good working knowledge of fruit and vegetable growing
• Knowledge of composting systems
• Knowledge of irrigation systems
• Experience of growing in protected environments

Application information

Please apply by sending a cover letter and C.V. to Tom@littlerollright.com

We will require references from your most recent employer.

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs