Friday, December 29, 2006

Christmas is over - back to the garden

Christmas seems a long time ago already. I really needed a break as it has been a bit mental over the last few months. All I did was service all the machines and clear everything up, and of course take a look at our own garden and do those jobs I keep meaning to do - I never actually get any time these days.......I must get a gardener in!!

It may sound a little odd but that last statement actually makes sense as my customers are in exactly the same boat! We all rush around doing life and stuff and we all leave things which should be taken care of for another time, but they never get done.

This is were Garden4You comes in.

Most of my customers are so busy making their businesses work and earning money that they don't have time to garden, decorate, put up shelves and pictures etc (I know lots of tradesmen who will do this for you BTW so just ask!).

Just do a simple calculation for yourselves - if you earn more per hour than it costs you to have it done - then get it done by somebody else. Also if you value your leisure time more than the cost of somebody sweating away in the garden, then also get it done by somebody else.

Don't look at it as a cost to running your house, look at it as an investment in you and your family time.

Also, you will be pleasantly surprised at how cost effective getting your garden sorted can be - so call me and lets talk!

On another note - Father Christmas was good to me this year and gave me a replacement MP3 player - a dinky little Creative Zen V. This is a really cool entry level device and I must say has a nice piece of software and easy to use interface - ideal for a starter unit (still not a patch on the Creative Micro and software though). It holds about 200 tunes with ease,

I can resume normal service now - singing as normal with MP3 backing rather than freestyle and get my Micro repaired at my leisure.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Gardening and Chainsaws

In this job, you have to get involved in all sorts of different things and have to have loads of skills. I am a great believer in training and safety (all important when you are on your own with power tools).

To this aim, I have just completed a chainsaw course. This may seem a little strange as I have been using chainsaws for years and never really thought it necessary, however with Health and Safety legislation and insurance companies looking to not pay out if there is an accident, it is important to get proper training - especially when using tools like chainsaws.

I have always had a very health respect for tools that can Mame or kill you - chainsaws are not very forgiving and every accident is a nasty one. I take safety very seriously and always use Personal Protective Equipment (referred to as PPE ) but its amazing how many people don't. When using dangerous equipment or entering into dangerous tasks I always do a risk assessment to ensure both my safety and anybody Else's safety (or property) is not in question. It not worth taking that short cut - EVER!

The main thing about a training course like this is that it shows you what bad habits you have developed over the years - its quite enlightening to say the least. I do have a few criticisms about the course and the assessment you have to go through, but I did get a lot out of it too. The course itself was 2 days with a 1 day assessment (a bit overkill!) with a pass rate of 95%. I would say this is an ideal course for novice users, even though its a bit expensive (approx £400!!).

I was on the course with a couple of young farm hands and a boat yard owner. As expected, the farm boys produced a chainsaw which should have been condemned about 10 years ago. There were bits hanging off it, the chain was completely knackered and I think it was probably run on diesel! Needless to say we all had a laugh at their expense when the instructor made them take it all apart and replace all worn and dangerous components (almost the cost of a new saw!).

During the assessment one of the lads could not get this ancient thing started. I thought I was going to have a heart attack with laughter - it was like the sketch off Fawlty Towers when Basil couldn't get the car to go....hilarious!! I lent him my saw to do his assessment in the end as we just couldn't stand laughing any more.

I am pleased to say we all passed the course, despite the farm lads chainsaw incident.

On a serious note, anything to do with tree removal, limb removal or clearance is dangerous and jolly hard work - it's both physically and mentally draining - so don't believe its a walk in the park and never attempt it yourself without training.

Its not worth the risk to life, limb or property - call me for a quote instead!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The Day of the Triffids

Strange title for a gardening blog? This was the message left from Richard at The House of Frames in Newbury regarding some gardening work he wanted doing - "Come and sort my Triffids out please!"

I met Richard when helping my misses Karen of The Best of Newbury and Neale and Sam James of Breathe Pictures with The Best of Newbury Exhibition recently held in the Corn Exchange (and now on show in certain places around Newbury so check it out).

Richard and his team provided the picture framing service for the exhibition and we got chatting (as you do) about his garden and the hedges that needed cutting some day....well that day arrived with this phone call.

We set the date for Monday and all was fine. That was until Monday morning. I took the dogs out for an early morning walk and got absolutely drenched - this was before 7:00am. When I saw the forecast for the remainder of the day, I made the call I hate doing and rained off. Paperwork and indoors for the rest of the day - pooh!

Tuesday was different all together, a bit windy and cool but no rain. I made my way to Wantage to get an early start. I had not seen the job, but Richard described a nice Beech hedge and a few Leylandii that needed a bit of a trim....it shouldn't take too long.

I must say, the house and location was a dream property - an old Farm House and mature gardens - simply beautiful.

I have recently added an extension kit to my Henchman hedge cutting platform which takes it up to about 18 foot, allowing me to safely cut some really big hedges - thankfully I had just thrown this in the back of the truck "just in case" as well as my Husky Pole Saw as the hedges were simply ENORMOUS.

As usual I just cracked on with the hedge cutting until disaster struck - my Creative MP3 player went faulty! Nothing else for it, I had to sing without it, driving the dog mad and the neighbouring cows too.

Anyhow, the hedge was just about finished before darkness fell, with just a few more bits to do on my next visit - about 8 - 10 feet shorter in some places than at the start.

I was also very spoilt, I was given some lovely home made soup for lunch - other customers please take note!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Commercial Gardening

Not many people know this but as well as doing domestic garden maintenance, I also get involved in commercial gardening too.

I have just completed a garden and car park clearance in the middle of Newbury which included removing the dreaded IVY! I may have mentioned before - I HATE IVY!!

The best thing about removing Ivy is that it is really satisfying when its all down and is going in the shredder - I almost laugh......oops the medication must be wearing off!

Anyway, this company has some really nice people and despite the foul weather I manged to get the ivy off and the front of the building sorted out before the lightning came - I don't mind the rain too much but lightening is another matter. Standing on a steel platform, waving around a 10 foot metal hedge cutter in a storm is not recommended. It was a rare happening for me but I called that a day and went home for a hot bath as the sky lit up and the thunder rolled around the town.

I finished the job on Saturday morning with the help of the ever willing Karen. We were both nursing a very nasty hangover following the BNI Kennet Chapter xmas do - we were by no means the worst ones (eh Neale and Sam!) who for some reason had a Kebab as we were queuing for a taxi - a sure sign of too much booze! Amazingly I have seen no pictures yet but I am sure some will appear at an inappropriate time - I will keep you posted.

Off to the next job..

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Getting exposure and new business

Regular readers will know I bang on about my "virtual team" of advisers and helpers who calm me down when I get over excited, pick me up when I am down and give me a place to sound off ideas as well as listen to what they have to say.

Today has been a brilliant day when all good things seem to come together.

Firstly, my PR guru Nigel Morgan of Morgan PR got me in the Newbury Business Review with a big spread - just the thing to give me a boost over the xmas period. As I have said before, unless you know and befriend somebody like Nigel, you will not get the exposure you need. Not only is he well connected, he is good company too!

The second big push for Garden4You was that I officially joined BNI Kennet Chapter today and was sworn in. I have been close to several members over the last year and my other half joined over a year ago for her Internet advertising business, The Best of Newbury . Its has been really good for her. The Chapter has some interesting characters and businesses, most of which compliment each other, therefore helping with referrals etc.

The BNI thing is a bit regimented, but in some ways its a good thing as it really makes you do what you are there to do - network. As a small Newbury based garden maintenance business, regular contact of this type ensures you have a constant stream of leads to deal with which otherwise you would not find - generally I am out all day, every day, so looking for business on my own is hard (I am blessed with a great website and excellent Google rankings as well (thanks to Karen and the "best of"). But its great to have 30 motivated BNI "sales people" working for you without the cost.

If anybody is interested in coming along to our BNI Chapter as my guest, just drop me a line - I went several times as a guest and stand in for other members before I joined and it really made my mind up about doing this.

The other thing I have done this week to market Garden4You is to buy some shirts with my logo on, a roadside display board so people can see who the loony is singing to themselves and magnetic signs for the trusty Land rover - I've now blown my whole marketing budget so now I need to get some work in to pay for it all!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Interesting Evenings...

Over the last few days, me and the misses have had a few interesting evenings - nothing at all to do with gardening I know, but nevertheless worthy of a mention as gardening at the moment consists of never ending leaf clearance, rain and mud!

The first one was a strange phone call from Neale and Sam James of Breathe Pictures inviting us up for a curry. Nothing too strange about this one would think, however it was an invite up to the studio, not the restaurant. Both the James's and us have entered into a bizarre contest in which we both invent imaginative ways to stitch each other up at any and every opportunity, so suspicions were aroused as to what would await us!

On arrival at the studio, the car park was full of cars - again adding to the suspicions. As we entered the studio, a strange smell of Indian cuisine wafted over. Adam Hillier of Verbatim call Centres and wife Emma, Geraldine Curtis of ICL Office Designs and Sams mum were all there dressed in Christmas decorations and hats, each with an Indian dish being photographed.

Apparently, Breathe Pictures had been commissioned to capture "The 12 days of Christmas" for the Indigo Bay Indian restaurant in Newbury and Neale had composed his own version of it and wanted to represent his version in film.

Needless to say, the draft pictures we saw were brilliant, we all got stitched up big time and our images will be on display in the Indigo Bay for future public humiliation - go and check it out!

Revenge will be sweet. I almost feel sorry for Neale already. Almost.

The second evening we had out was with Nigel Morgan of MorganPR and his wife Di. As regular readers will know, Nigel is my marketing and PR guru and we don't actually get much time to socialise these days so these rare occasions are always welcomed.

On Nigel's recommendation we went to The Bear in Hungerford. How this has changed from my days living in Hungerford. I can still remember the moth eaten stuffed bear in reception which has long gone(my dog attacked this one night - that's another story.....). Now its modern, well laid out and stylish.

We had one of those evenings where the stories exchanged, loads of laughter and good company made the time just fly by. I highly recommend the restaurant. The food was great, the atmosphere was just right and the service was attentive and professional.

It was also Nigel's birthday the next day - I still don't know how old he is but he isn't quite as grey as me yet so I am assuming he must be considerably younger than me - unless he is using a hair colour treatment of course!

Oh well back to leaf blowing then.