Head Gardener Firenze

Head Gardener
Firenze
Toscana, Firenze

A rare and exciting full-time opportunity has arisen for a passionate and self-motivated Head Gardener to be responsible for the maintenance and improvement over time, of a large Villa Garden in Chianti, the heart of Tuscany, only 30 minutes from Florence.

Although the property is located in the countryside it is only a few minutes from Poggibonsi, a large town with many amenities.

There are trains to Florence from Poggibonsi or Certaldo which is only 10 minutes' drive away.

The gardens consist of approximately 9725m2 of land with olive trees, formal grassed areas, hedging, formal courtyard garden, informal areas, driveways and natural areas as well as 72, 700m2 of woodland.

The Villa and garden have been a little neglected over the past few years and is currently undergoing some refurbishment and, as part of your role, you will be involved in many of the projects.

This is an exciting opportunity to have creative input with design solutions and suggestions as part of the garden's evolvement and, that if agreed, would be implemented under your supervision or, by yourself.

Planting improvement suggestions and sourcing of plants would also be a large part of your role.

As the property is located on 'tufo' soil, your planting knowledge would be an asset to ensure 'right plant - right place' is chosen from the offset.

The garden has within it, many olive trees which are looked after by an external contractor.

As part of your role, you will be required to maintain the grounds under the trees and, possibly help the contractor with annual pruning of the trees, when required.

The olives are a big feature of the garden, and we are looking to elevate this by increasing the number of trees and, improving the ground planting underneath with grass and annual bulbs for all year round interest.

The production of the olive oil is carried out, off site, by a local producer.

Owing to the size of the garden, at peaks periods you would be expected to engage and manage contractors who would be brought in to help you with items such as hedge pruning as there are many on site.

The position comes with a detached and very private 2- or 3-bedroom cottage on the grounds which is very secure and safe.

All bills, except gas which you will be expected to pay, are covered by the owner.

The following are a requirement for the role:

1.

Good all round horticultural knowledge either from years of experience or, shorter experience with relevant qualifications (a minimum of RHS Level 2), or Italian equivalent

2.

Strong knowledge/experience of irrigation systems

3.

Have hedge cutting, strimmer and chain saw use certificates.

4.

Have experience of operating ride-on and push lawn mowers

5.

Have sound working practises of all matters horticultural

6.

Full driving licence

7.

Be focused and self-motivated.

8.

Have the ability to source and hire gardening help during peak periods and manage those individuals when they are on site

9.

Be fluent in Italian and have some understanding of spoken English.

10.

Have a 'can do attitude' and be friendly and clear in communication when dealing with others.

11.

The ability to work alone for long periods.

As part of your role and responsibilities you would cover:

1.

Hegde trimming - both formal an informal hedges

2.

Maintain to a very high standard formal grassed areas around the Villa and swimming pool and, carry out annual maintenance

3.

Maintenance of a tennis court

4.

Pool cleaning and chemical dosing

5.

Programme the irrigation system and manage all aspects related to this.

6.

Identify and log annual tasks that require longer term planning, mostly during the winter months.

7.

Have the ability to identify immediate problems and resolve them on your own or, engage with others or contractors to carry out immediate repairs.

8.

Programme and carry out annual maintenance of all gardening equipment.

9.

Be able to operate and drive an Ape and, ride-on mower.

10.

Operate safely, all cutting machinery etc and, where necessary, programme in works with a helper so that lone working does not jeopardise your health and safety.

11.

Creating and maintaining a compost heap for re-use in the garden.

12.

Dealing with green waste that requires removal off site

13.

A willingness to tackle other tasks that may be outside of usual garden maintenance

14.

Manage certain aspects of the woodland area.

Work with and engage with external contractors where required, for the cutting and storage or removal of wood off site.

15.

General maintenance of all areas (pressure washing, fencing repairs, replacing of garden light bulbs when required etc)

16.

The ability to operate and maintain a range of garden machinery

18.

Identify planting opportunities, source planting and carry out planting improvements.

The working hours are 8am - 12am and 2pm - 6pm (flexible based on an 8-hour day) and holiday entitlement is 25 days plus bank holidays.

Extended absences would need to be agreed in advance to en