Help Your Community Build More Gardens

What if every doctor's office in your town had a little garden where you could go while you're waiting for your appointment? What if every restaurant had its own kitchen garden so it could serve up the very freshest ingredients? What about every retirement community? Every public housing complex? Every neighborhood?

Wouldn't you want to live in a town like that? I know I would!

Well, guess what? If you're a gardener, you can help make that happen. More and more businesses are looking for experienced gardeners to help them design, install, and maintain beautiful, sustainable gardens spaces for their clients or employees.

Here are just 10 of the many types of companies that might be looking for a gardener to hire in your area:

1. Local restaurants
2. Daycares, preschools, and schools
3. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities
4. Public parks
5. Hospitals and medical offices
6. Corporate offices and business parks
7. Zoos and wildlife centers
8. Country clubs
9. Churches and religious institutions
10. Event spaces

This is just the start of a very long list of companies I hear from regularly who are looking for knowledgeable gardeners. The opportunities are huge, and there currently aren't enough gardeners who are doing this kind of thing to meet the need.

Let's look more at the different types of companies that would love to hire you to help them grow.

Local Restaurants

If any business wants to be associated with fresh, delicious ingredients, it's a restaurant. Restaurants and juice bars are hiring gardeners to design and maintain kitchen gardens and herb gardens that supply organic ingredients right on site. These gardens are major selling points for the restaurant. I mean, if farm-to-table is great, garden-to-table is even better, right?

One of our garden consultants actually got her start by turning a vacant lot next to a local restaurant into a beautiful kitchen garden. It's basically an edible billboard for her business.

Daycares, Preschools, & Schools

Outdoor spaces are so important for child development. A gardener can create educational gardens or little habitats where children can learn about nature and sustainability. Preschools are ideal places for a gardener to set up, tend, and make the most of a vegetable garden, as young children will most certainly use this space every day. Older children can visit gardens for things like biology lessons or environmental science projects. Garden spaces can even serve as quiet study areas.

Engaging children in gardening activities can help them develop fine motor skills, learn responsibility, and foster a love of nature from a young age. No matter the grade, students can be involved in maintaining the gardens—hands-on learning at its best!

Some of my very first and best clients were preschools, daycare facilities, and families with school-aged children. Schools are looking for enriching new activities for their children and want to distinguish themselves from other local schools. My sister recently told me her public school hired a gardener and was paying her $30,000 annually to set up and tend their school garden.

Public Parks

A major aha! moment for me was when I brought my kids to a newly renovated local park just as I was starting my business. There I saw dozens of beautiful raised-bed vegetable gardens surrounded by native plants. And I realized cities are waking up to the fact that they need more food-producing spaces and that vegetable gardens are a wonderful way to bring people together.

Local parks and community areas are eager to hire gardeners to help design and maintain these spaces. Flower beds, native plant gardens, community vegetable gardens—these spaces not only beautify the park but also provide educational opportunities for visitors. You could hold workshops on gardening, composting, and sustainability right in the park.

I'm so excited for parks to focus even more on promoting community engagement and environmental stewardship.

Nursing Homes & Assisted Living Facilities

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are always looking for ways to improve the quality of life for their residents. Hiring a gardener can help create serene outdoor spaces where residents can enjoy nature, engage in light gardening activities, and feel useful. A gardener can design and maintain gardens that include sensory plants, raised beds for easy access, and walking paths, all of which can have a positive impact on mental and physical health.

My dear friend and mentor moved to an assisted living facility just as I was starting my garden consulting business. It was a huge aha! moment for me when I took a tour of her new home and saw loads of raised beds that the residents visited almost every day, right in the middle of the facility. This would be a perfect place for an experienced gardener to help the residents make the most of the garden each week. 

Hospitals, Pediatric Offices, & Other Medical Treatment Centers

I’ve visited several friends going through treatments in medical facilities with healing gardens and really seen the difference this type of space can make on their recovery. Especially when the patients are young children, it's so important for them to get outside each day. We know that being in a garden space can have a huge positive effect on our mental and physical health, whether we're going there to play, work, or just relax.

Gardeners could help set up and maintain these spaces to make them as calming as possible. They might even be present in the garden daily to help patients fully experience the garden and find hope in a difficult time. I recently heard of one garden at a nearby children's hospital that raises butterflies. The promise of a daily visit to see the butterflies kept my friend sane while her daughter spent a week in the hospital following a TBI.

Corporate Offices & Business Parks

Many forward-thinking companies are now prioritizing employee well-being, and a gardener can play a crucial role in this effort by incorporating nature into the workplace. Think green spaces like living walls, rooftop gardens, even some well-place houseplants. The benefits range from improved air quality to boosting employee morale.

Outdoor gardens can really transform those vast, impersonal business parks that are popping up everywhere. Employees need inviting, well-designed green spaces where they can take breaks, have outdoor meetings, or simply enjoy nature during their lunch hour.

One of my first trips to California to learn more about building a garden consulting company allowed me to see the power of gardeners in the workplace. I visited several business parks that all had raised-bed vegetable gardens right in their center. These were run and managed by local gardeners who set up, planted, and tended these gardens so employees could enjoy them on their breaks. Company chefs harvested from the gardens to add seasonal foods to their menus.

Zoos & Wildlife Centers

Gardeners can even improve the wellbeing of animals! Many zoos and wildlife centers are looking to enhance their habitats with the help of a gardener. It takes a knowledgeable professional, after all, to create realistic enclosures that mimic the animals' natural habitats.

Gardeners can also develop gardens that showcase native plants and ecosystems around the zoo. These gardens can serve as interactive educational tools, teaching visitors about the importance of biodiversity and conservation.

One of my first employees continued on to work at our local zoo and botanical garden. She got to use all her knowledge and experience to help make the most of these public spaces.

Country Clubs

Country clubs are constantly looking for more amenities to offer their members. Back in 2019, my company got to create a 250-square-foot chef's garden for the Briar Club of Houston. I was thrilled when I learned the club wanted to situate the garden right in the center of club activity so that guests could stop by and see what was growing on their way to a tennis lesson or a round of golf. What a way to showcase what grows well in Houston and how the garden can be part of our everyday lives!

The club restaurant's chef was excited to have more fresh ingredients for his dishes. And thanks to the garden's size, I was also able to host some gardening workshops there for my clients. I ended up designing kitchen gardens in the homes of several Briar Club members, as well.

Churches & Religious Institutions

Religious communities often have large grounds that can be enhanced with gardens. Picture a spiritual or meditation garden with things like water features and benches to provide a serene space for reflection and prayer.

Or maybe the church wants to have a garden to address hunger and health in an integral way. They could establish a community garden to grow food for those in need and donate produce to local soup kitchens. It's a wonderful way to give back to the community.

I met some great clients through local churches. Some of my early projects involved leading workshops and classes for members.

Event Spaces

Places focused on providing beautiful spaces for events are wonderful to work with. A couple years ago, I got to design a large garden for a local event venue called Juniper Green. They wanted a space where guests could linger during cocktail hour or dine surrounded by plants. They also wanted a living wall to hide the parking lot at the side of their venue.

The kitchen garden now provides tons of fresh, organic ingredients for Juniper Green's chef. I've hosted several events there myself, including workshops and even a garden consultant summit.

More Ways Gardeners Can Aid & Advise These Businesses

In addition to designing and maintaining gardens, gardeners can provide so much value to these businesses and their patients, students, community members, or employees. Here are some ways a gardener can contribute:

• Advise on sustainable gardening practices like composting, water conservation, and the use of native plants to help businesses reduce their environmental footprint
• Develop garden-centered health and wellness programs tailored to different groups like residents of nursing homes or employees in corporate offices
• Teach workshops and classes on topics ranging from plant care to cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients
• Engage the community through gardening projects by doing things like organizing volunteer days and partnering with local organizations

I really can't overstate how valuable of an asset a gardener can be to businesses that are looking to provide benefits to their employees, clients, and communities.

If you're a gardener, I hope this shows you there are so many opportunities for you out there! What if you wake up five years from now to a town full of gardens, and you're one of the key reasons that happened?

We can get there. We just need more people like you working as gardeners! Soon you'll be inspiring others to follow in your footsteps!