Careers and options

Gardening For Teens: The 'Green Thumb' Series: Gardening is not only a great hobby, but it can also be a great career! Celebrated gardeners like Alan Titchmarsh are examples of this. There are a plethora of career opportunities in this emerging and booming field.

Possible career paths:

• Landscape architect
• Agricultural engineer
• Biotechnologist
• Horticulturist
• Crop scientist
• Botanist
• Ecologist
• Floriculturist
• Florist
• Forester
• Gardeners
• Golf course manager
• Irrigation specialist
• Nursery manager
• Research

Here's a look at three popular

Career options:

Landscape Architect: Everyone enjoys attractively-designed residential areas, playgrounds, college campuses, shopping
centres, golf courses and parks. Landscape architects are the ones who design these plans indicating the arrangement of flowers, shrubs, trees, walkways, fountains, etc. ensuring that public spaces are beautiful, functional and environmentally compatible.

Horticulturist: With gardeners spending big on plants/gardening products, there's a vast range of career opportunities available in horticulture alone. In fact, the horticultural industry is one of the largest employers in the UK.

Floriculturist: Floriculture can be a lucrative business, if you have a green thumb and business sense. A degree in
floriculture is ideal but not necessary.

Institutions

In the US and the UK, short-term courses are available for graduates. Some UK institutions such as the University of Essex offer landscape design and management separately at the undergraduate level, as well as part of broader courses in agriculture.

While landscape architecture is covered at the B.Arch. level, specialised courses in India are offered at:

• School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi, Course: Master of Landscape Architecture.
• Centre for Environmental Planning Technology (CEPT), School of Architecture, Kasturbhai Lalbhai Campus, Ahmedabad
  Course: Masters in Landscape Architecture.
• Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (HP)
  Course; M.Sc in Floriculture and Landscaping.
• The Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nasik
  Course: Diploma in floriculture and landscape gardening; Masters in Landscape Architecture for graduates in architecture, civil engineering and town planning.
• The Punjab Agricultural University (Department of Floriculture and Landscaping, PAU),
  Course: Floriculture and landscaping to undergraduate and postgraduate (M.Sc.) students
• NISIET, Hyderabad
  Course: Postgraduate Diploma in Interiors and Landscape Design

If you can't attend a regular course for floriculture, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Centre for Distance Education, Shillong, offers a six-month certificate course in floriculture besides a regular six-week course in floriculture.
- The writer is freelancer based in India