Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Extreme Gardening - Customer Comments!

I just received a really great email from the customer of "Extreme Gardening" fame. I want to share this with you:

"Fantastic is the only word I can use to describe the service from Gardens4you - after a last minute panic to prepare our property with 1/2 acre gardens for letting (the last tenants were not 'gardeners' - they certainly didn't lift a finger in the year they were there!) I found the website and emailed Graham, not really expecting a reply as most web-based enquiries systems are under-monitored. Not Graham's! He called within 3 hours and arranged to attend the house 48 hours later to tame the lawns and hedges.

The allotted day didn't dawn - it rained so heavily that it never actually got properly light - but Graham was there in full wet weather gear, attacking the wayward shrubs, hedges and grass in the monsoon. I fully expected him to at least call it off at lunchtime when the rain was still hammering down, but he completely the whole day like a Trojan and got everything we asked for done. A real trooper.

Fantastic job - we will certainly be recommending you - rainy season or not!"
Many thanks,

Jenny

Now I know why I go out in all weathers, face daily danger with hedge cutters, chainsaws, lawn mowers etc - not to mention savage dogs (that's another story!). It's all about doing a great job, getting fantastic feedback from happy customers - and being away from an office of course!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Gardening by moonlight

I have just completed another nice 2 day clearance job over in Burghfield Common. As usual, it was hard work, but I like clearances the best because it makes such a difference once complete - and you truly see the results instantly.

Most clearance jobs include grass cutting (usually a small jungle), shrub and bush trimming (usually so over grown you expect to find Pygmies living in there) and inevitably the dreaded IVY!

I have come to loath Ivy.

Whenever I see it I want to rip it off the walls and shred it without mercy.

This job had a special twist to make this Ivy job even more difficult - a large shed in the way, making putting a ladder up the apex almost impossible.

An ivy removal can go one of two ways - simple, not too much hassle, comes off in a big sheet and then you have to cut it up to shred it. Others, well they come off it 6 inch strips, stick like glue and are just a nightmare. Guess which one today's was!

The first thing was that I broke my trusted scrapper handle on the first bit, so instead of a hefty 6 foot pole to move even the most stubborn shoot, I was left with an 18 inch, pathetically wimpy little scrapper.

There is nothing more painful than hanging onto a ladder for 3 hours, with a long hook, picking away at very resistant strands of ivy. Your legs go numb. Your arms burn worse than any gym workout. Everything goes in your eyes (even with eye protection on!). All Gods creatures go down your neck - spiders like dinner plates that also bite are common. Choking dust goes down your throat. In fact why do I do this to myself? It must be cos I'm going a little mental!

This job took so long I had to finish in complete darkness - thankfully I did all the ladder work in daylight, but there was no way I could go back to this job tomorrow, so I just got on with it.

Another gardening first for me - I can relate to the term "moonlighting" now!

Note to self - get a torch!?!

Monday, November 20, 2006

Extreme Gardening - the side effects!

I eventually got my gear dry - ready to face it all again today! I cant believe that I have a whole week of this weather to come - but the customer comes first!

Following my efforts from Friday, there have been a few side effects that I hadn't considered - the worst being aching and shaking hands from the vibration of so much strimming in one hit - or was it the strimming? Let me tell more!

Friday night I crashed and burned - we had no kids and so a few bottles of wine, a silly movie and the blanket (called a blankie in our house) soon saw us both snoring - but it was just what we needed after a long week.

Saturday, I was lucky enough to be invited to a local pheasant/partridge shoot (one of my passions!) by my cousin Paul Rosier of plastering fame. We had a great day (sunny, warm and dry!!) and between us shot most of the bag as the birds just came to us all the time, and we are both good shots of course!

In the evening, me and the misses went out with Neale and Sam James of Breathe Pictures, the guys who have just had a great exhibition in the Corn Exchange with The Best of Newbury.

Neale and Sam are totally great fun and we always end up in a pretty bad way when we all get together, this being no exception of course. If you see Neale, ask him about the bird bath incident, which he totally blames me for. The boy just cant take a few drinks!!

As to the aching hands, it might have something to do with the booze from Saturday, but I think it was the strimmer too. So much so, today I bought some fantastic anti vibration gloves for use with strimmers, chainsaws and other devices that vibrate - these were £30 by Timberland, but if they stop the pain, then great. Talking to Neil at Kalehurst Machines, this is a very common ailment in tree surgeons, especially as the weather gets cold.

I will try these gloves out over the coming weeks and let you know what they are like - for £30 they had better be "the dogs"!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Extreme Gardening

I have discovered an new sport - Extreme Gardening.

Let me explain more. Yesterday was probably the wettest day this year. Guess who was out in it all day?

I had an urgent enquiry off the internet for a garden clearance and tidy to prepare for letting. The only day it could be done was Friday. I didn't need an alarm clock as the rain was so heavy it woke me - not a good sign. Having loaded up and got soaked, the forecast and prospect for a dry day was not looking great.

On arrival, the rain was so heavy you couldn't see across the garden. I donned my wet weather gear, a full PVC type suit, described by the manufacturer as being the ultimate weather protection, and ventured out to survey the work to be done.

The grass had been described as "being too long for a push mower" - no kidding! It was so long and wet that I had no choice but to strim the lot - hence my first sport - endurance strimming. I can honestly say that I have never strimmed a 1/2 acre of lawn before!

The next event was marathon grass raking - using a strimmer produces a mass of cuttings which needs to be cleared. This event was followed by Tug of War - loading the mass of soaking wet cuttings onto a tarpaulin and dragging them to the mulch heap.

By now, the locals had established there was a new loony in the village. Opposite the cottage was a school which had a constant stream of bemused parents, looking at this PVC clad idiot in the rain, possibly singing to himself (a habit I have developed when using my MP3 player).

In fact as I started to cut the hedges, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a car had stopped. I looked around to see the driver taking a picture of me with a mobile phone! Where will that shot end up - who knows, probably some fetish site for PVC clad people!

Anyhow, job done, happy customer and a new sport created.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Leylandii - to be or not to be!

I was on a job today to remove a forest of 30foot tall Leylandii trees which had grown out of control.

This brought back to my mind a debate on these fast growing trees which when kept tame make a great hedge for noise reduction, privacy and lets face it when trimmed properly look great.

Much "blood" has been spilled over the trees; neighbours literally come to blows over these trees and many Court cases have been fought to remove them from blocking light/encroaching etc.

The Law was changed recently to make this more clear; however the onus has now fallen to the victim rather than the perpetrator (seems a common thing these days in our legal system!!).

The law states that no hedge or tree border should exceed 2Metres in height. That's fine but if you complain about your neighbours hedge, it is you who has to pay for removal or shortening. Also, if by trimming the hedge to an acceptable height threatens the life of such a tree, you cant do it anyway!

The world has gone mad once more.

In my view, keep them short and trimmed and you don't get issues - if they are causing grief, cut them down. Life is too short for legal battles afterall.

A big thanks to my old mate Eddie Powers for the use of his excellent chipping machine, and to my other willing helpers today who slaved tirelessly for a few beers at the weekend.

Call me if you want to get advise on these darned trees.

PS Forgot the camera today, so no before or after shots (shame cos these were monsters!)- but there are some happy Turnpike residents tonight, minus their Leylandii problem.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Building a business

One of the big challenges facing a small business is finding customers. You can spend thousands on all sorts of things to give you a profile, but which ones are right for you. Trial and error can be an expensive mistake to make - so how do you find the right ones?

I have been fortunate over the years and have come into contact with many marketing ideas and techniques with truly work, however there are a few things I can recommend as outstanding.

The first is to find somebody who know everybody and has huge exposure in your chosen market area, in my case West Berkshire.

I found Nigel Morgan or rather we met at a business networking event. Check out Nigel on www.morganpr.co.uk or visit his blog http://www.morganpr.blogspot.com/. Basically, Nigel knows everybody and is a PR/Media guru who simply must be on your contact list if you work in West Berks. He has and continues to help me constantly.

Another secret to business success is the internet. Unless you have a professional internet presence you will not survive and grow. I have a really good site which doesn't cost a bomb - in fact its self built. Its powered by www.webbuildpro-newbury.co.uk - a local self build website builder and it costs a fraction of the price of any web design company.

Its all very well getting a website but you need traffic and to be found - a common trap is to get an expensive website created for you costing thousands, then wonder why you get no business!
Here's a trick - contact your local "bestof" franchise www.thebestof.co.uk and get on their site without delay.

I am on The Best of Newbury www.thebestof.co.uk/newbury and get loads of traffic sent to my website and directly from my advert (webvert). Its low cost, highly visited and best of all locally run so I know my enquiries are for local work. The bestof get me front page of google searches, virtually all the time at the very top - check it out by typing "garden maintenance Newbury" in your google browser and see what I mean.

Also, start a Blog - my marketing guru Nigel told me to so it must be the right thing to do!! go to www.blogger.com and sign up today.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Hedge Cutting tools

One of the best things I have bought over the last few months has been a tool called a Henchman. This is basically a portable hedge cutting platform which allows you to very safely cut hedges without risking life and limb on scaffolding, ladders or other such crazy things - I know a guy who actually straps a scaffold tower to the back of his trailer and cuts his hedges this way - it works so I don't knock it, but HSE would surely have a blue fit!!

The product I bought (they are actually based in Newbury as well so its even better for local business) was from their professional range - the Midi, which allows you to cut hedges up to 11'6" with ease. Some jobs I have won recently require a higher platform than this - so guess what, they provide an extension device which fits the Midi - now I have just added another meter to my platform.

This tool allow one man operation without loads of hassle.

They are expensive and probably out of most pockets, but as a professional tool - its just brilliant and I cannot live without it - check out www.henchman.co.uk and tell them I sent you!

The other great devise I have is my MP3 player - a Creative Zen Micro - I don't leave home without it - the ear pieces fit under my ear defenders as well so I can bop whilst I cut.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Japanese Knotweed

I went to look at a really good job today, only to discover the dreaded Japanese Knotweed!

This horrid weed has become the curse of the countryside since its introduction as an ornamental plant in 1800s.

What is it? Well this plant forms dense clumps of undergrowth, reaching upto 3 meters in height. Its large oval green leaves and hollow stem (like bamboo) is a give away, as are the reddish shoots which appear in the spring.

This plant grows at an alarming rate - up to 20mm per day in any type of soil. In the autumn it seeds (luckily sterile) and dies back soon afterwards. It spreads through a system of roots which grow several meters from the main shoots. It also spreads vegetatively ie new plants are created from fragments of existing plants, the real danger of this weed.

It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to plant or otherwise encourage the growth of Japanese Knotweed. This could include cutting the plant or roots and disturbing surrounding soil if not correctly managed.

Any Japanese Knotweed polluted soil or plant material that you discard, intend to discard or are required to discard is classed as controlled waste and must be accompanied by appropriate Waste Transfer documentation.

Spraying and mass root removal are the only effective means of control, following strict guidelines.

In my opinion, control, disposal and removal should only be done by experts to ensure you are conforming to EA regulations, thus avoiding prosecution.

What should you do if you think you have some? Cordon off the area & contact the Environment Agency without delay

Monday, November 06, 2006

My Blog

This is my attempt to create a blog, so forgive me if you are experts in this!

I want to try to give visitors an overview of the interesting topics and situations I find myself in everyday - some are hard to believe and very random, some are just typical of a day in the life of a gardener!

Today, I visited a site which was overrun with rats - yes I am a trained pest and rodent controller too!

Recently, the law has changed regarding toxic materials in the environment, rat poison and Aluminum Phosphine gas and the treatment of wildlife (yes even rats!!). This means that the unwary "DIY rat catcher" can expose himself to serious prosecution and fines if he doesn't follow strict guidelines (and prove he has) including risk assessments, COSSH assessments, treatment reports and prove due cause to use toxins.

A recent professional outfit was fined over £35K for failing to follow the guidelines and exercise due care - a passer by found a dead rat on a foot path near the site and forced the HSE to investigate - an expensive lesson to learn!!

Needless to say, prices must reflect the cost of doing it correctly, but it will be cheaper then £35K!!