Recruitment of staff and their garden design career development is a essential building block of any organisation.

• We use permanent staff rather than temps and never agency part timers. Wherever possible we employ local people. It is just common sense to try and reduce peoples travel time into work. Less chance of delays, less fuel used and less cost for everyone.
• We believe strongly in training and helping and encouraging our staff to become better gardeners. We want to help them develop their careers in garden design and reach their potential.
• We build a skills matrix which charts the cumulative knowledge within each garden design department. Courses are then organised to suit their aspirations and the needs of the business.

This is supplemented by In-House Training which is an easy way to share and spread knowledge. Skills and Health and Safety themed courses are carried out at our training centre in Battersea.

We are keen for everyone to develop their careers whilst with us and we encourage training where possible. We organise and cover the cost of many garden design specialist courses.

In addition we are currently developing a new apprenticeship grounds maintenance scheme for Housing Assiciation residents as well as local people. We have been working closely with Groundwork, the horticultural works charity providing an opening into the workplace for their trainees. This has proved very successful and these garden design trainees have full time contracts with us, and some of which are now team leaders.

The new garden design apprenticeship scheme will involve a combination of study and work experience over an initial period of 2 years with an option for 2 further one year extensions.Students will combine 3 month blocks of work placement with periods of study in Landscape Construction and/or Amenity Horticulture. Tests and exams for recognised garden design qualifications will be available during the apprenticeship.