Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've spent most of my life in love with plants. I've run nurseries, I've gardened professionally in several states, I've been a groundskepeer on several continents, I've created landscapes, I've run greenhouses, I've mowed and pruned and dug and weeded and watered and mulched; I've planted and harvested and failed and cried. I have learned from those who came before me, I have cared for plants our ancestors installed long long ago. I've loved it all.
But because I have no degree or certificate on paper stamped by the proper authorities and because I can't lift 75 lbs and because I am a not-so-buff older woman, I am unemployed. I lost my job in a business reshuffle. I think that I have now been forcibly retired.
I find it amazing that that someone who has such a passion and such a reverence and decades of experience--but lacks the desirable crinkly credentials and brawn --can't get a callback for a part time position selling potted marigolds.
It's a sad state of affairs.
I had no idea so many years ago as a young woman, that moving into the world of men's business would be such a plight later in life. Shame that US industry has no respect for experience and passion, but cares more for short term muscle power and HR credentialed verification.
One of the finer gardens I've ever seen was in Pilzen, Czech Republic. We were waiting at the bus station, and looking out across the railroad tracks was a little wood shanty of a house surrounded by the most fantastically gorgeous garden. I could see a little grey babushka there in the yard awash with vegetables and towering flowers, it was absolutely lush with beautiful cultivated vegetation and I suppose she had been there most of her life puttering on that property making it into an modern Eden. Perhaps no one but me ever even noticed it?
I doubt she had any credentials. Thank you dear Czech lady, for such a lovely benefit to our planet. It matters.
Azoria, I am so sorry you are encountering resistance in finding a job. They turn women away at their own peril. We are as good or better at those jobs!
From an older, forcibly early retired male, I don't think sex is necessarily the determining factor. I can no longer work as hard, lift as much, or take the extreme heat of summer, like I was able to as a young man. I hardly blame employers for hiring people more physically able to perform a job. Them is just the brutal facts of life. Give it time, in a few years these will be the good old days.
i have a friend who sells plants and she lives in florida and she does pretty good at it . I know she has been able to subliment their income cause they are semi retired too and she does all outside plants and does alot of house plants as well . I was really impressed with what she told me that they had made last month on some things . She has done a really good job and it would be something I would think about if I lived in a warmer climate .
yes gardening does deserve someone like you keep hitting the nurseries you are bound to find something and someone who will grow to appreciate what you can do and your knowledge ..if you are around alot of nurseries just go knock on some doors for all of the ones who tell you no there will be one that tells you yes . I know if you were in florida you would be able to get a job there are tons of nurseries and golf courses and etc .. good luck to you .and yes thank god for ppl like the op mentioned . they make our world prettier .
Try Lowes or Home Depot. God knows they could use a little experience in their garden areas. They hire these people off the street who don't know a flower from a tree. And then you ask them a simple question and they act like you just asked them how to solve a calculus problem. I think I'd faint if I actually walked into one of these places, asked a question to one of the workers and they actually knew what the hell they were talking about.
I've been to several Lowe's and I see mostly women running the nursery dept. Attitude plus experience plus willing to start at the bottom are the requirements today.
Azoria you have my heartfelt sympathy. It is not easy being "old" in the USA right now. There is a big lack of respect for knowledge that comes from doing and being -aka experience- that comes with so many years of work. Having the arthritis and other problems as we age makes us harder to employ in physically demanding fields. I sure can't move the rocks and dig the holes at the speed I did in my 30s!!
Some of the very best gardeners I know are without a single shred of paper to prove it. I can tell you know your plants and you probably knew everything about what survived and what didn't, what could be babied a bit and what wasn't worth it in the area(s) you lived and worked. Book learning is a great foundation for understanding but year in and year out experience counts for just as much if you truly learned as you went.
I've gone to nurseries and big box stores over the years and found that each will sometimes have someone like you employed. They are rare gems. After asking one or two questions I know if I am talking to someone who took the store course on how to sell stuff or really knows plants. Unfortunately most of the time you get sales associate who is the "sell" associate not the "garden expert" associate. I agree that trying all the local nurseries would be the best way to find at least part time work. Sometimes they are looking for well spoken people who can give mini-courses on "how to" subjects, not just bodies for heavy lifting and plant watering.
The only other thing is to create your own employment and become a company with a service. I know someone who started a business as a "personal" gardener after an injury caused problems in their original job, but this person also hired on younger people to do the more back breaking jobs under their guidance ("That's a weed so pull it, that is not a weed leave it alone." "Put the mulch here but don't mound it around the stem."). They have commercial accounts but also do the once a year or once a quarter care for home owners who want a garden but can't do it all while working or are getting too old to do some of it. This means weeding, pruning, transplanting and mulching and the occasional re-landscaping job. It's something to consider....
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thank you dear Czech lady, for such a lovely benefit to our planet. It matters.
