Gardeners, horticultural and nursery growers

Gardeners, horticultural and nursery growers plan organize and perform operations to cultivate and maintain trees, shrubs, flowers and other plants in parks and private gardens, and to produce saplings, bulbs and seeds, or grow vegetables and flowers by intensive cultivation techniques, for sale or delivery on a regular basis to wholesale buyers, marketing organizations or at markets.

Tasks and duties

• Monitoring market activity and conditions determining kinds and amounts of vegetables, horticultural and nursery products to be grown and planning and coordinating production accordingly
• Preparing land by conditioning soil, levelling ground and installing and operating irrigation and drainage systems
• Planting trees, hedges, garden plants and grass
• Pruning and trimming trees, shrubs and hedges, installing plant supports and protection, and rolling, mowing, aerating and edging lawns
• Constructing features and facilities within gardens, such as paths or paved areas, walls, rockeries, garden beds, ponds and water features, sheds and fences
• Checking the health of plants and trees, identifying and treating weeds, pests and diseases, and applying mulch and fertilizers
• Producing saplings, bulbs and seeds and raising plants from seeds or cuttings
• Harvesting crops, inspecting, cleaning, grading, packaging, storing and loading products for sale or delivery to market
• Maintaining buildings, greenhouses and other structures, equipment and water supply systems
• Storing and carrying out some processing of produce
• Promoting and marketing products, arranging the sale, purchase and transportation of produce and supplies and maintaining and evaluating records of activities and transactions
• Training and supervising workers in production, maintenance duties, and health and safety precautions and hiring and discharging workers and contractors