Deputy Head Gardener

Bexley is an outer London Borough with the best of both worlds, located between the hustle and bustle of London and the Garden of England, Kent. Within the borough we have award winning parks, open spaces and listed heritage sites.  

Hall Place is one of the South East’s best kept secrets.  This historic house, garden and grounds are rich in fascinating history and welcomes visitors all year round. The on site Hall Place grounds team are responsible for keeping the gardens looking their best and planning new development and sustainable planting schemes suitable for a busy and much loved heritage site.     

We are looking for a forward thinking, skilled and passionate Deputy Head Gardener at Hall Place estate to assist in planning the future of the beautiful and much loved estate.

You will be knowledgeable, capable, hands on and able to support the Head Gardener in leading the garden team and volunteer programme.  You will have practical experience in a variety of settings and professional gardening areas; fruit and veg production, plant knowledge, mixed borders.  You will also have excellent Health and Safety knowledge and able to work collaboratively with partners, contractors and have strong communication skills and customer values.   

Major Duties  

• To assist the Head Gardener in the day to day running of the site and future planning of the gardens, contributing to projects.   
• This position will also require the utilization of skills; for example, interpretation of plans, site preparation and construction both hard and soft landscaping.  
• Duties will include general garden maintenance of all areas. Grass cutting using a variety of machines including the tractor.  
• Maintaining all aspects of the gardens, including cultivation, lawn maintenance, seasonal planting and development of herbaceous borders , pruning of all plants, shrubs, fruit trees and formative pruning of trees. 
• Comply with Health and Safety at work act 1999, nationally agreed codes of practice, all site risk assessments, understanding of the control of substances COSHH, Safety Data Sheets and all legislative requirements. 
   

Please refer to the Job Description attached for more information. 

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Paul Ambler, Head Gardener by email Paul.Ambler@bexley.gov.uk.

  
We will offer you in return a package that includes a competitive salary, an excellent pension scheme and generous annual leave plus bank holidays. For more information on the benefits package on offer please refer to the Candidate Information document attached. 

We reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date. 

You will have good level of Plant knowledge and horticultural practises and reasonable experience of assisting in developing low maintenance gardens and sustainable maintenance regimes.  

Good knowledge and application of Health & Safety regulations, COSHH and Risk Assessments.

 
Good practical experience of safety in using all machinery and carrying out basic repairs.

Good experience of working with minimum supervision and able to prioritise tasks.

   
Good supervisory skills, experience and ability to guide and direct the work of other employees, apprentices, and volunteers.

  
Good communication skills and able to respond to visitor enquires professionally and accurately.  

Computer skills and knowledge and basic experience of IT packages.  

For the full list of essential and desirable criteria for this role then please refer to the Person Specification within the Job Description attached. 

This post is considered by the authority to be a customer-facing position; as such it falls within scope of the Code of Practice on English language requirement for public sector workers. The council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the JD/Person Specification. These will be applied during the recruitment/selection and probationary stages.    

Use the ‘Apply for vacancy’ button. 

Please note that the system has a one-hour time limit. We would advise you to prepare your answers separately and then copy and paste into the online form once finalised and have your CV and/or Supporting statement ready to upload. 

If any mandatory fields are missing, a pop-up box will appear at the top of the page advising which sections require completion. Please check your Junk email for any correspondence. 
 
Additional Information 

As a disability confident employer Bexley welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including hidden disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on recruitment@bexley.gov.uk. 
 
This role may be available as a development opportunity through secondment for the Council’s existing employees.  The Council’s Secondment Scheme can be found here. If this option is of interest, please contact the recruiting manager. 

Anticipated Interview Date: Applicants should be available for interview mid to end of April 2024.