Annual Salary
£18,000 to £27,000
Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)
Swap to Animal or Environment or go back to all job sectors or go to green jobs
Swap to Animal or Environment or go back to all job sectors or go to green jobs
Horticultural therapists use gardening to improve their clients' health and wellbeing, and to learn new skills.
Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)
You could work: evenings / weekends; managing your own hours
There will be
4% more Horticultural therapist jobs in 2027.
As a horticultural therapist, you could:
You could work in a garden, on a country estate or in a therapy clinic.
Your working environment may be outdoors in all weathers and physically demanding.
You can get into this job through:
You could do a foundation degree, higher national diploma or degree course, then take further training in social and therapeutic horticulture.
Subjects include:
Some universities offer horticulture courses that include modules on social and therapeutic horticulture.
You'll usually need:
You could take a college course to get some of the skills needed for this job, which may help you when looking for work.
Courses include:
You may be able to work towards this role by doing an apprenticeship before taking further training in therapeutic horticulture.
Apprenticeships include:
To get onto an apprenticeship, you'll find it useful to have:
It can be really useful to get experience by volunteering as a support worker on a horticulture project. You'll get a better understanding of the role, and make contacts who could help when looking for work.
Thrive offer volunteering opportunities, if you live within travelling distance of their gardens in Battersea (South London), Birmingham or Reading. They also have details of other horticulture projects around the UK.
You can find other local volunteering schemes from Do IT and NCVO.
You can do training courses with Thrive, a national charity working in horticultural therapy. Thrive offer courses from introductory level to more advanced, like the Diploma in Social and Therapeutic Horticulture.
You'll need to:
You may have an advantage if you are moving into this career from another area of horticulture or gardening, or a job such as social care, occupational therapy, mental health nursing, counselling or teaching.
You can find out more about becoming a horticultural therapist from Thrive and the Chartered Institute of Horticulture.
You could use horticultural therapy as part of a wider role, like occupational therapy. With experience and further study, you could move into a supervisory role, or research.
You could become self-employed or teach and supervise trainees in therapeutic horticulture methods.
Horticultural Therapists support communities and individuals to engage with nature to support their health and wellbeing. This is one of several nature-based approaches to health and care that form part of the Vision for Nature and Health Plan in the West of England over the coming years.
There are several different routes you can take to get into working as a horticultural therapist which you can explore further in the 'Routes into this job' section above.
Click here for an explanation of the different course and apprenticeship levels.
Click here to find a local provider
Click here to search for a local apprenticeship
Click here to search for other university courses
You may work as a horticultural therapist for a local authority, NHS Trust or charity.
For local employment opportunities see the 'Live job vacancies by region' section above.
You'll need: