Assistant Garden Manager

Location: The Field - Shipley
Contract Type: Permanent/ Full time
Salary: £28,000 - £30,000 per annum
Hours: 37.5
Benefits: 36 days holiday per year, inclusive of bank holidays; healthcare cash plan + EAP; death in service; generous staff discount on Weleda products

We’re looking for an Assistant Garden Manager to join Weleda UK’s production garden team. We grow over 50 medicinal plants in our 13-acre gardens in Shipley. They range from trees like Birch, Thuja and Willow, shrubs and hedgerow bushes like Blackthorn and Hawthorn, field crops of Calendula, Oats, Chamomile, Hypericum, plus smaller quantities of herbs, wildflowers and poisonous plants including belladonna and aconite.

The fresh plants we grow on-site will be processed into fresh plant tinctures and dried herbs for Weleda UK’s range of medicinal remedies, pharmaceutical products and skincare. Our job is unique, as we not only grow the medicinal plants, but also make them into tinctures in our production facility in Ilkeston. This provides a lot of variety, but also requires high levels of flexibility.

Our site is highly diverse and mimics natural ecosystems. Some plants are grown in beds, others are grown extensively in meadows or in our woodland edges. We are completely organic, using Biodynamic methods with Demeter certification. Initial cultivation for field crops is done mechanically; everything else is done by hand.

To be successful in this role, you will have gained experience in a commercial growing operation or horticultural set-up, be organised, efficient and possess excellent quality control standards. Furthermore, you’ll need to be good at record keeping, have good communication skills and be able to manage two seasonal gardeners throughout the season and a site gardener at our HQ garden year-round. In this role, you’ll be required to set a high, yet sustainable, rate of work and help foster a supportive and encouraging work environment where both the team and business can thrive. Although we will make use of modern tools and equipment, human scale medicinal plant production requires a reasonable level of physical fitness and a willingness to work outdoors in all weather conditions.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• To grow medicinal plants to Demeter standard. This includes sowing, transplanting, crop maintenance, irrigation, weeding, harvesting and biodynamic compost making.
• To make tinctures and dry plants to Ph. Eur. and pharmacopeia standards in the Weleda production site, within the context of GMP and following SOP procedures.
• To manage and supervise seasonal gardeners and the HQ site gardener.
• To apply and make biodynamic preparations and stirs on-site.
• To operate garden machinery and equipment including tractors, power tools and hand tools
• To ensure that the garden environment and all equipment is kept safe and tidy. To comply with all Health and Safety standards.
• To maintain the site including mowing, hedge cutting, pruning, coppicing and wood chipping. To maintain the HQ site gardens, meeting the needs of Marketing and staff welfare, under the guidance of the garden manager.
• To support marketing of the Weleda brand i.e. ensure a positive visitor experience at the gardens for both internal and external visitors
• To contribute to all staff events hosted by the garden team and support general events at The Field (e.g. garden tours, retailer visits, practitioner days, open days, workshops)

About you
This role might be right for you if you have:

• A minimum of 2 years’ experience of working in a commercial, productive year-round garden or farm
• Ideally a RHS or City & Guilds Level 2 in Horticulture (or equivalent qualification)
• Good knowledge of plant propagation, growth and cultivation
• Experienced in organic or biodynamic gardening or farming practices
• Ability to follow strict manufacturing guidelines and to GMP standards
• An interest in medicinal plants, herbal medicine and/ or anthroposophic medicine
• Competent with garden machinery including the use of tractors, power tools and hand tools
• Ideally a good understanding of H&S and record keeping
• Ideally previous experience in a supervisory role e.g. for trainees or volunteers in an operational setting
• Full UK driving license

The ideal candidate will thrive in an ever-evolving environment, demonstrating flexibility, resilience and adaptability as we work in line with weather conditions and company needs.
The hours of work will be 37.5 hours per week, 8:00am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday, along with a weekend watering rota through the growing season. Please note that the start date for this role would ideally be 1st November 2024.

Weleda was established over one hundred years ago as a place of human development through a common goal - to create natural products that support and enhance health and well-being, profitably.

Today, we operate globally across 50 countries and we are recognised as the industry leader.

We share a common culture founded upon strong sustainable principles for the environment, for the economy and for our personal well-being and development. This includes adopting a flexible approach to work; acting responsibly, honestly and ethically and placing responsibility on each and every one of us to uphold these values.

Closing date for applications: 11th August 2024 (although we reserve the right to close applications early if a high volume of applications is received)

You may have experience in the following: Operations Assistant, Horticultural Assistant, Groundskeeping Assistant Manager, Landscape Supervisor, Deputy Garden Manager, Assistant Grounds Supervisor, Plant Nursery Assistant Manager, Assistant Landscape Manager, Greenhouse Assistant Supervisor, and Garden Maintenance Coordinator.

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