Sunday, June 26, 2011

Garden designing : An unexplored orbit


One must choose a career wisely, because in the end it boils down to one thing and it is not the pay check. No matter what you do, work in a Multi National Company or stand on a scaffold cleaning the windows of a Multi National Company, what matters is your happiness.

As we grow up, we start measuring happiness and success with money. The dreams of being a painter, actor, drama artist or dancer are washed away.

Today people are mixing hobby and passion with career and still making big bucks out of it. One such profession is Garden Designing.

What do garden designers do?
Garden designing is an art of designing gardens and landscapes. You do not require a formal degree for this but you do require a lot of experience. This is a profession where creativity is in charge. Many garden designers are garden owners or people who have had some training in horticulture and gardening. People gain expertise in this field with time through extensive work in planting gardens, through informal study and sometimes by joining garden clubs. Their job is to convert comatose landscapes into beautiful gardens.

Who can be a garden designer?
The best part of being a garden designer is there are no academic pre requisites, but you have to put in a lot of creativity and hard work. The biggest pre requisite for this job is your love for mother nature, as you would be spending a lot of time in the shrubbery, it is important that you have a paramount interest in gardening. 

Is there a way I can learn garden designing?
There is no professional degree for garden designing, however many garden designers have a profession degree of landscape architecture which gives them an edge over other amateur designers. But landscape architecture is a whole another field as the breath of tasks that a landscape architect works on is broad in scope. It includes urban renewal planning and design, estate design, highway planning etc. Landscape architectures work closely with garden designers on big projects.

A person got to eat.
The garden designers in India earn anywhere between 1.5 to 4 lakh per annum. The salary structure is quiet less as compared to other countries such as UK and Australia but India is a fast emerging market for garden designers, as people are more and more concerned about their lawns, towns are coming up with parks and recreational centres and even MNC’s are trying to make their place environment friendly. 

Mountains ahead
Nothing comes easy to mankind, be it the first fire from striking two rocks or the invention of wheel. Garden designing requires patience. India is an upcoming market for garden designing, but it will take time before this profession sets in.

A Garden designer has to work in the scorching heat under the blazing sun. This job requires a lot of physical effort, as you would be working for 8-10 hours a day in the field. You would have to prepare yourself for the physical exertion. Those vacant lands won’t magically turn into beautiful gardens unless you take the shovel and start digging.

Keep in mind
The clientele in garden designing is diverse but the numbers are few, the best way to be successful in this business is by retaining your customers as they will come back for maintenance, further modifications and consultancy and there is nothing better than word of mouth publicity.

Who can be a garden designer?
This career is not for those who are looking for a mint making machine. This career is for those who are in love with the Mother Nature as you would have to get your hands dirty (with soil and manure). This career is for people who love gardening and can come with ingenious and creative ideas for transforming a piece of land into a beautiful garden of Eden.

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