By Cat Holmes

University of Georgia

Despite Georgia’s weakened labor market and widespread industry
belt-tightening, the green industry is blooming, said Sherry
Loudermilk, president of the Georgia Green Industry
Association.

“People may not be able to buy a new boat or car, so they
concentrate around the home,” Loudermilk said, “and add a new
deck, buy new flower baskets for the porch or landscape their
backyard.”

The green industry encompasses greenhouse, nursery and turf
growers, landscapers, retail garden centers and golf courses. It
has an estimated $4.2 billion yearly impact in Georgia, according
to the Center for Urban Agriculture at the University of
Georgia.

That’s a significant impact, particularly for an industry so
young, Loudermilk said.

“This is my 18th year with the GGIA,” Loudermilk said. “I’ve seen
it grow from seasonal to an all-year, hard-as-you-can-work
operation. Nurseries exploded in the 1970s. And landscaping
really took off in the 1980s. Plant palettes have gone from 25 to
30 plants to 3,000 to 4,000 plants.”

Green industry folks are particularly optimistic now that the
drought is over.

“During the drought, landscape installations fell off to
nothing,” said Gary Wade, a UGA extension horticulturist. “It
forced the industry to diversify. Landscape companies offered new
services such as hardscape structures — walks, walls and
fountains — as well as irrigation systems.”

As the industry has grown, the demand for qualified workers has
increased.

“It used to be that if you had a pickup truck and called yourself
a landscaper, folks would do what you said,” said Wayne P. Juers,
vice president of personnel development for Atlanta’s Pike Family
Nurseries, the largest family-owned garden center in the United
States.

“But the public has gotten so savvy about gardening and
landscaping,” Juers said, “they want horticulturists.”

To get the caliber of trained employees he’s looking for, Juers
travels. “I hire between 12 and 20 students each year,” he said.
“I’ll visit the University of Georgia, Auburn, Kentucky, Virginia
Tech, Ohio State and upstate New York.”

The market for mid- and high-level jobs in the industry is
good.

“There are a tremendous number of people who can take low-level
jobs in the green industry,” Wade said. “But there is a huge
demand for people to fill the higher-level, supervisory
positions. And there aren’t enough qualified people to fill that
demand.”

More people are getting into the green industry, particularly
landscaping, because they’ve lost their jobs, Wade said.

“A lot of people see it as a fairly easy business to start,” he
said. “It requires little cash outlay. With a truck, a few tools
and a lawnmower, you can get started.”

Golf courses make up another, significant segment of the green
industry. And while the cold weather this winter affected golf
play, it hasn’t had a negative effect on the job market, said
Tenia Workman, president of the Georgia Golf Course
Superintendents Association.

“We’re experiencing a lot more job openings at most levels of
golf course management,” Workman said.

“I’d say 85 to 95 percent of the students who major in turfgrass
want to become golf course superintendents,” said UGA turfgrass
specialist Keith Karnok, who oversees the UGA golf course
management programs. “I cannot remember ever having a student who
hasn’t been able to find a job in this business if they wanted
one.”