We have an excellent opportunity for an ambitious Senior Gardener looking to stretch their skills and experience at Kingston Lacy. We are looking for an open minded person who will contribute to the development of the property and garden.

What you'll be doing

We need you to lead on all aspects of the day to day running of the garden, in conjunction with the other Senior Gardener & Head Gardener. You will manage and work closely with all gardeners to deliver the correct standards and to maintain a beautiful garden to inspire all.

You will be a key member of the property team and an advocate for our work. Working with the existing garden team of staff and volunteers and managing your daily and week-to-week work load is the most important element of this role. In addition to the gardening elements of the role it is essential that we have a collaborative approach with the other departments, to deliver a coherent visitor experience. The garden department must continue to contribute to the visitor programme, such as developing the Christmas offer.

Being organised and using systems to manage a busy workload is also important, to ensure that our compliance and other responsibilities are also completed and fulfilled.

This role is required to work weekends on a rota system and be part of the Duty Manager role.

Who we're looking for

This job is about providing a service. To be fantastic in this role, you’ll need to: have the following;

• Excellent customer service skills
• Gardening/horticulture/botanic and public garden experience
• NVQ2 & NVQ3 in Amenity Horticulture (or equivalent)
• A keenness to learn and use plants sympathetic to a large garden
• Competence with the use and maintenance of garden machinery including hedge trimmers, pedestrian mowers, brushcutters
• Knowledge of relevant health and safety legislation and practice
• Good experience of managing people
• Good knowledge of vegetable and fruit growing