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  Shadow Hall June 25, 2010 at 9:25pm

  I have to aggree would be very useful to direct clients to this site for information or to get clients from it who are already educated about what to expect.
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  Claire Brown June 25, 2010 at 9:26pm

  This is something that I do for my clients, and through my blog, and find that it helps me greatly to get the kind of customers I want, - very willing to help write a sheet that is on my area of expertise.
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  Pip Howard June 25, 2010 at 9:47pm

  Good point Rowly re the cynic point of view, but having just been looking at Claires blog and knowing all the other people on here with great advice and know how, I reckon it could be tailoured easily to ensure this doesn't look like a job for all. My experience when in the UK was that although lot of the work in itself was possible by the layman it was the implementation, tools and knowledge of individual aspects that if carried out wrongly could spell disaster, (just as in all other professions) that needs the professional landscaper / gardener. It is really evident that in many of the threads a lot of the people on here are all too ready to do themselves down, this is surely a result of poor media which we have absorbed ourselves. Before the second world war gardeners and landscaping was a highly regarded industry much more so than other professions, just because many of us can't do anything else - it is not because we are incapable of it, it is because we love the job and it is practically in our blood. (Sorry for the call to arms)
  
  I'm happy to spend time on doing this should there be enough people interested, after all most of the info is already there in the threads and blogs.
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  Cesare Harradine June 26, 2010 at 12:03am

  Very good idea. I have written advice sheets for clients. I got fed up with the verbal explanation of turfcare, weedkillers, etc. going in one ear and out the other. LJN advice sheets based on the knowlage and experiance of its members would be very valuable.
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  Dan Frazer Gardening June 26, 2010 at 12:11am

  I don't feel I need or want to explain everything to my customers. What's the point? Do builders explain in fine detail how they plan to execute a foundation?
  
  I get on with it, keep details as sparse as I feel comfortable with. Saves them picking at the cost, deciding they can do bits of it themself and generally interfering in my work. If they are happy with my set price they get the outcome they expect, everyone is happy.
  
  I don't like the idea of offering out information sheets on the internet. There's something patronising about it, and it devalues our work. You know best and work hard for the information/knowledge...don't dish it out to anyone with a broadband connection,
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  Fenlandphil June 26, 2010 at 5:53am

  Here are a couple of quotes that I think sum up skills, when I was working in a garage a customer said to me
  "I regard a skill as an economy of means, a skilled man will do a job efficiently, use the minimum of effort and take less time than someone tackling the same task lacking skill"
  Regarding engineering someone said,
  "An engineer will do a job for ten bob that any fool can do for one pound ten shillings" (a fairly recent quote).
  The point both of these quotes is if you have a skill it has value, it is this value in the skill that you have that you need to sell.
  You have the skills, are the expert, you need to identify the value in that expertise and experience, then sell those benifits of these skills to your customer. You are not really selling your services to your customers but the benefits of these services. For instance you may be giving them more time to spend in their garden not on it, you may be increasing the value of their property but you are not just cutting their grass.
  The benifits of my products to the trade is they save them time, I am not only selling them a product but selling them time to do something else. A skilled garden professional does the that and more, these areas of benifits are the areas, I think you could all concentrate on with success.
  Seriousgardener
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  Phil Voice June 26, 2010 at 9:19am

  I thinks this is an excellent idea Philip.
  
  Many of the pages on Landscape Juice act as advisory docs. for potential clients but they are not listed in downloadable form.
  
  I'll be in touch.
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  Pip Howard June 26, 2010 at 6:47pm

  I wasn't thinking of any particular kind of 'how to do' list or even a 'after contract' thing - my feeling would be to have a one page document describing in brief the huge array of factors which need to be taken into consideration.
  
  For example the geology, local climate, the fact that certain garden centres will stock unsuitable plants for that region, the time and different techniques needed for different plants - but never actually mentioning the technique itself.
  
  Much more a sort of list of considerations that the practitioner needs to think about when trying to work out the way forward for a garden.
  
  i will try and get an example done of what I am thinking off up asap.
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  Pip Howard June 26, 2010 at 7:34pm

  Hi John don't step back from writing such a blog - this is a huge subject area and frankly being based in France does not allow me the insight you guys practising in the UK have.
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  Phil Voice June 26, 2010 at 7:52pm

  That's what I've been trying to do with Landscape Juice since 2005 John ;-0))
  
  ...and that's what LJN does too and it comes up at the top of Google for an enormous amount of queries...that's why we should all be adding strong posts that have a typical question in the title and solutions in the text.
  
  Ace Garden Services - John said:

  I think it cold also be made into a blog covering the whole professional side of a gardeners/landscapers lot.
  I was going to write a blog on the subject but I am quite willing to step back this time and allow other juicers to go ahead with this topic. Professionalism needs to be redefined in the phyche of the British consciousness - sitting at a desk does not mean that one is a professional, or that one is skilled with a vast amount if knowledge. In fact those that are desk bound are usually quite the opposite, picking up a phone and spouting exactly the same facts and figures day after day, requires the brain power of clever ape.
  
  Pip Howard said:

  I wasn't thinking of any particular kind of 'how to do' list or even a 'after contract' thing - my feeling would be to have a one page document describing in brief the huge array of factors which need to be taken into consideration.
  For example the geology, local climate, the fact that certain garden centres will stock unsuitable plants for that region, the time and different techniques needed for different plants - but never actually mentioning the technique itself. Much more a sort of list of considerations that the practitioner needs to think about when trying to work out the way forward for a garden. i will try and get an example done of what I am thinking off up asap.