How do you turn your passion for gardens and design into a new career? Here are some frequently asked questions that will help you decide if this is the career for you. If you have any other questions, then give us a call and we’ll be happy to chat.
What skills do I need to study on a garden design program?
We are very used to seeing people start their career with us from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some will come with horticultural experience, it may be their personal passion at home, or they may have been working for a few years with gardens and plants. Others may have some creative experience in roles such as graphics and animation that come with CAD experience, and we regularly have students with experience such as fine arts and fashion. Others might have other transferrable skills such as marketing and business. All of our students will have the desire to change their career and have investigated horticulture and landscape design as a way of embracing the outside as much as changing their careers.
Everyone is unique and comes to our program with different skills and needs. There is also an element to our teaching and assignments that allow you to pursue your passion whether that’s in residential design and build, planting design, public spaces or designing for well-being. The opportunities are varied, and we aim to help you find your place in our industry.
Tabitha Rigden
Laura Potten
How easy is it to change to a career to garden design?
We work in an industry where the actions we can take can have a positive impact on people’s lives. There is a willingness for new ideas and as we become more interested in the impact that we can make on the environment you will find that there is a growing demand for design skills and expertise in all the different areas of our industry.
Garden design, landscape design or planting design – what’s the difference?
Garden design and landscape design are two terms that are widely used in our profession so is there a difference? Garden design is the more common term in the UK, especially for residential design, but you will see landscape design used by some designers who might undertake some of their work in the public realm. The two terms are basically the same.
You may also find that for those whose sole focus is on planting then the term planting designer is becoming more widely understood. Planting designers often work as part of collaborative teams and their reach may include working for landscapers, ecologists and landscape architects who don’t have that skill in-house.
Is it important to understand about the environment and ecology?
Ask anyone who has worked in our horticulture industry over the past 20 years, and they will be able to give you many examples of how a changing climate has impacted on their work. We cannot move forward in the future without taking on board ideas and approaches around sustainability which includes understanding how our work fits with our place as humans within nature and the biodiversity of all living things.
This is a wide-ranging subject, but we aim to discuss the challenges and opportunities that a changing climate presents at relevant moments throughout our courses and equip our students for the future. This is also a part of our ongoing learning as designers and so we also deliver a graduate programme where we consider ecological movements such as wildling and biodiversity and keep our graduates up to date with current thinking. This programme includes expert technical sessions, often at no cost to the graduate, training courses and garden visits.
What are the opportunities once I graduate?
The horticulture and landscape industry is very large and employs many people in a wide range of expertise and professions. Design is an integral part of the industry and for those designers with a good training in aspects such as construction design and planting design demand is high.
In recent research we found that 30% of people graduating from the LCGD Garden Design Diploma went to work in a design studio to start their careers whilst the remainder set up their own businesses. Over time we often see those that gained further experience in a larger office then move to set up their own design businesses as they become more confident in their skills.
What sort of income can I expect?
If you work for yourself then the rewards will reflect how much you put into marketing and developing your career. At LCGD we teach core business and marketing skills so that you have lots of ideas for developing your new business as soon as you graduate. The potential earnings are very much about how much you put in, but you should be expecting to earn from £35,000 to £50,000 in your first years and up to £100,000 as your business develops alongside the input of other industry specialists such as landscapers. Working within a larger practice your starting salary will be in the range of £25-30,000 rising to £40-50,000 as you gain more experience.