Anthony Wright - Assistant Gardener

8am – 8.45am

Arrive at work just about  8.15am.  Check e-mails and in tray, respond to any messages from the previous day. Meet my supervisor and the rest of the team. We confirm our daily work schedule. I then go to the yard and sign out my equipment which I require for the day.
I conduct daily checks on the equipment, load the crew cab and leave the depot for the day maintenance programme

9am – 12.30am

Arrive at the first garden on our work schedule. The first thing I do is to conduct a risk assessment of the garden. Depending on what needs maintaining in the garden will depend on what machinery I use. It could be the hedge cutter, grass cutter, strimmer or Cultivator, I could also do weeding and a litter pick. 

12.30pm – 1pm

Dinner break

1pm – 4pm

After lunch I continue with the garden maintenance programme. Each garden we visit is different, with opportunities to develop your variety of skills. The tenants are great and we have built up a good relationship with them, I often get a cup of tea and a biscuit.

At one of the gardens we visited, the tenant asked if we could put a border around the front lawn so she could plant some plants that she had bought. We obliged and we even planted the plants for her - she was very pleased and said she would ring the office and let them know what a great job I had done. It’s a great feeling when you receive complements. 

4pm – 4.30pm

Back at the yard I conduct checks, maintenance and cleaning of all the equipment I used - you have got to look after the machinery and cleaning is a very important part of the maintenance. I go up to the office and check my messages. I finish off quite a busy day, but picked up a bit of flexi time to go toward my day off on next week!