Gardener

As a Gardener for the National Trust, you’ll be a hands-on member of the garden team, involved in every aspect of gardening, this role is split between 2 gardens within one portfolio across West Sussex and Hampshire. You will normally spend 4 days of the week at Uppark House & Garden with one day at Hinton Ampner, supporting the garden team there. You may be asked to work occasional weekends, bank holidays and evenings.  

As our gardener at Uppark House & Garden, you'll be a key player in the long-term ambitions for maintaining this stunning Repton-style garden, and helping to restore aspects of the garden and estate. It’s an exciting time to join us as we continue our work on reinstating an historic path network and revitalising the surround planting in beds and borders, creating better accessibility for everyone to enjoy this beautiful garden throughout the year. Reporting to our Senior Gardener, this is an ideal role for someone who has a passion for the horticultural world, but also has a strong affinity with nature as we also care for meadows and woodlands as part of the designed landscape. You’ll be hands on, every day, working with and supervising our brilliant team of garden volunteers and helping to share your enthusiasm for this beautiful site.

Your role at Hinton Ampner will support the team in maintaining the diverse and beautiful garden, and also offers opportunities to support an ambitious and exciting restoration of the gardens.

As part of this role, you must become comfortable with being the only gardener on site at times, and there is an expectation for this role to support a duty management role to ensure smooth running of the property.

Uppark was built c.1690, crowning the South Downs ridge in West Sussex, with stunning views out to the Solent. Uppark is a fine example of a family home built during the golden age of country-house construction in the 17th century, cherished by generations of families and the survivor of turbulent events.

The interiors and gardens are predominantly associated with the Fetherstonhaugh family who bought the estate in 1747, though changes were made later to the approaches, gardens and interiors by renowned architect and landscape designer Humphry Repton. Today the gardens are presented in that same picturesque Repton style, including a scented garden west of the drive to evoke the designer’s belief in the importance of ‘olfactory joy’ in any garden. The main ‘amphitheatre’ garden, enclosed in knapped-flint walls and tall shrubbery, shelters beds and borders containing a wide variety of flowering plants and specimen trees within fine lawns.

For wildlife and nature conservation, the garden team sympathetically manages the gardens, meadow and woodland to encourage and conserve wildlife as part of the National Trust wildlife ambitions.

Hinton Ampner is a plantsman garden, 12 acres of formal garden rooms with a diverse and exciting plant collection. The garden, house and parkland were all designed to flow together as part of what we call ‘One Mans Vision’, and is an ideal place for you to expand and hone your horticultural skills.

 As a hands-on Gardener, you’ll support the Senior Gardener in making sure that the gardens are maintained to a high standard. You’ll be passionate and enthusiastic about the varied plants within the garden. This role will include a range of practical horticultural tasks to develop, enhance and conserve the garden and contribute to the delivery of projects, such as the reinstatement of the historic path network.

You'll be helping with hard and soft landscaping and general maintenance of the garden, such as mulching, pruning, leaf clearing and weeding and will support with the planting and maintenance of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants.

You’ll be helping to cut the hedges and mow our lawns and will also help to look after our woodland and meadow.

It is a physically demanding job and you'll be using a wide range of garden machinery including mowers, strimmers and hedgecutters.

Our visitors and volunteers are a big part of what we do at Uppark. We have a great team of garden volunteers who you will support to make the most of their time here. Our visitors love our gardens, often looking for inspiration to take home with them. You’ll be expected to interact with the public on a daily basis, answering their questions and sharing your passion, knowledge and enthusiasm for the site.

We’re a small team here at Uppark, and so you may be expected to help other areas of the business at busy periods. For example, you may help with event setup, garden tours or small general maintenance tasks to ensure our site presentation standards are kept at a good standard. 

We'd love to hear from you if you’re: 

• an enthusiastic horticulturist and hands-on gardener, who’s worked with hard landscaping before 
• knowledgeable about plants, with a great eye for detail. 
• experienced with machinery, including tractors, chainsaws, rotary and cylinder mowers, and with some knowledge of maintenance 
• a driver with a full licence  
• able to manage a demanding outdoor role  
• good at talking to, and getting on with, all kinds of people 
• equally confident working within a team, with volunteers or on your own 
• able to keep to time, plan and meet deadlines 

The National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.

•Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary

•Free entry to National Trust places for you, a guest and your children (under 18)

•Rental deposit loan scheme

•Season ticket loan

•EV car lease scheme 

•Perks at work discounts such as gym memberships, shopping discount codes, cinema discounts

•Holiday allowance up to 32 days relating to length of service, plus holiday purchase scheme, subject to meeting minimum criteria.

•Flexible working whenever possible