The Apprentice

Make sure your volume is on: "It is a very public-facing job..."

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So I think from this job, you definitely need to have skills in, or be open to learning skills about horticulture, about plants and the environment and the effects that different plants can have. I think there's quite a lot of solo work, so you need to be sort of self motivated. And it's easy to look at the garden when it's in full bloom and think it's all sort of going fine, but you need to be able to go round and pick out areas that you need to work on. So you almost need to be able to sort of find the jobs and constantly be thinking throughout the year what to get done next, because there's lots of jobs that you've got a limited amount of time to do. So if you leave them, and say, cut a plant back at the wrong time, it could be quite detrimental.

It's very customer facing - even though you are outside on your own a lot - there's a lot of general public around. So I think you need to be happy to be working and very self motivated, and then be able to just have a chat with someone and stop and be able to talk. And people are very interested - and tell people like what you're up to … sorts of school groups that come in. So I think being able to be chatting to them (and kids are very impressionable) and be able to sort of give them an idea of a job that they wouldn't have thought of.