Garden Manager in Manchester

RHS Garden Bridgewater has been managed by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) since mid 2017. It opened to the public in May of 2021 after embarking on a 4 year project that delivered major landscape enhancements, multiple new garden features and sizeable infrastructural additions to launch a significant new visitor attraction in the north-west of England. As the nation’s leading gardening charity, the RHS takes pride in ensuring all of its five gardens showcase excellence in horticulture and inspire generations of people to garden and grow. RHS Garden Bridgewater is the RHS’ fifth and newest garden, encompassing over 154 acres. At its core, the 11.1 acre walled garden is the largest publicly accessible walled garden in the UK showcasing ornamental, productive, educational and community focused planting to great effect.

Currently, the garden is developing diverse and unique plantings through the mixed woodlands building inexorably towards a myriad of sustainable, horticultural spectacles of the future. RHS Garden Bridgewater has much to offer visitors, staff and community groups already but what makes this such an exciting job is the enormous potential of the site to develop further with only c. 110 acres accessible to the public at the moment. The garden welcomes over 500,000 visitors per year and this certainly looks set to rise considerably with exciting plans to develop further landscape and horticultural features in the next five years and beyond.

We are looking to appoint a new Garden Manager at RHS Garden Bridgewater. We are seeking an experienced professional with a strong background in horticulture, landscape management, arboriculture, and ecology. The successful candidate will bring creativity, innovation, and an exceptional eye for detail, along with a proven ability to motivate teams delivering both strategic and operational planning.

The role requires a passionate and knowledgeable manager to manage and support our Woodland Horticulture and Arboriculture teams in current and future projects to enhance visitor experience throughout the seasons. The Garden Manager role is instrumental in the continued establishment and horticultural development of the garden areas of responsibility: including Lower Middle Wood, the Chinese Streamside Garden, Woodland Play, the Welcome Garden and Landscape, car parks, wider meadows promoting high standards of horticulture, biosecurity and health and safety as well as maximising and nurturing the ecology on site.

Working closely with the Curator, and Walled Garden Manager, the successful candidate will help implement new projects in line with the site-wide Garden Masterplan, ensuring the delivery of inspiring visitor experiences alongside horticultural excellence. The successful candidate must be able to undertake strategic and operational planning, manage budgets effectively, be accustomed to problem solving and decision making with a desire to deliver our charitable purpose in all that you do, providing outstanding customer care to our visitors.

Excellent communication skills are essential, as the role requires close collaboration with RHS staff at all levels, the wider site management team, and other key stakeholders. To work for the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is to join a thriving charity, whose mission is to be there for everyone on their lifelong adventure with gardening. Everything we do is built on the transformational power of gardening – and the benefits it brings to people, places and our planet. And we couldn’t do this without our people. We’re proud of the knowledge, enthusiasm and ideas that each one of our team members brings. From working across our social media channels, to volunteering in the RHS Gardens, from serving customers in our garden centres to running national marketing campaigns, we believe that every member of the RHS team should have the opportunity to make a difference.

Safeguarding and Inclusion: The RHS is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk and expects all personnel to share in this commitment. We are an inclusive employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.