Gardener

Job Number: 1001

---

POSITION: GARDENER

Full time contract, April to November/December (weather dependent) 

LOCATION

Downtown Toronto and client locations throughout the City

ABOUT THE BACKYARD URBAN FARM COMPANY

The Backyard Urban Farm Company (BUFCO) is an award winning, family-run, organic vegetable landscaping company that designs, installs, plants, and maintains edible gardens for residential, commercial, and institutional clients throughout Toronto. Our mission is to ignite people’s passion for growing their own food and to help them reconnect with nature.

We are looking for inspired, skilled, committed and self-motivated nature-lovers to join us on our quest to make the world a better place, one beautiful vegetable garden at a time. If our mission excites you, and you are driven to provide excellence in every endeavor, then BUFCO is the home for you.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Your primary responsibility as a BUFCO Gardener is to work in a team of two gardeners, planting and maintaining beautiful, bountiful, incredible, edible gardens as well as some ornamental gardens. You will increase your already existing knowledge of organic growing methodologies and sustainable practices, and will help guide and coach our clients on basic vegetable garden care. 

Vegetable gardening is new to many of our clients who will look to the Gardening Team for information and inspiration. You will provide the highest quality work with great attention to detail, and participate in bringing a strong, unique aesthetic vision to their garden.

The Gardener will report to the Company Owners. You will take detailed notes of work accomplished and materials used during every client visit, help to maintain and organize client folders, and assist in other garden care, as well as attending to administrative and organizational tasks as requested.

• You must have a valid G-class license and clean driving recordin order to apply for this position. If you are selected to proceed to the interview stage, you will be required to secure and bring with you to the interview an up-to-date driver’s abstract.
• You will be required to complete roughly five hours of Health and Safety training prior to the commencement of your contract
• As you will be working with children, those with disabilities, and the elderly, a police check will be required. Applicantsmust have a clean criminal record with no convictions or pending charges. 

QUALIFICATIONS

• Some gardening experience, horticulture training
• Some experience working with edible plants
• Some knowledge of organic gardening methodologies
• Some customer service experience is beneficial
• First Aid and Health and Safety training is highly beneficial
• Ontario G-class license or equivalent with clean driving record.

 RESPONSIBILITIES include, but are not limited to

• Plant, maintain, and harvest gardens
• Help maintain client planting plans and folders
• Load and prepare the truck for daily activities
• Drive and/or help navigate from location to location
• Some client coaching and instruction of both adults and children
• Maintain good working condition of all gardening tools, supplies, storage facilities
• Keep the gardening vehicle clean, organized, and presentable
• Assist in the care and maintenance of seedlings in our greenhouse as needed
• Assist in maintaining seed, seedlings, and gardening input inventories
• Some participation in trade shows and Farmers’ Markets may be required
• All BUFCO employees may be required to participate in larger garden installations
• You may be required to complete up to five hours of online health and safety training before employment commences

SKILLS and ASSETS

• Passionate about growing food, urban agriculture and the good food movement
• Love of the outdoors, rain or shine
• Physically fit, able to repeatedly lift and move loads of up to 50 pounds
• Reliable and punctual
• Confident behind the wheel of a variety of vehicles, including small trucks/vans
• Good geographical knowledge of Toronto, able to get yourself to a variety of locations on your own
• An excellent listener, able to take and follow through on direction
• Able to work both cooperatively in a team, and independently
• Able to recognize opportunities for taking initiative and pursuing self-directed tasks
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Tech and smart phone savvy
• Photography skills are an asset

To apply please send your resume and cover letter to info@bufco.ca. Attached documents must be in .pdf, .doc, .docx, or .pages formats. We will not look at .zip files.

We appreciate the interest of all those who apply, however only short-listed candidates

---

Job summary

---