Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
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Stonework has been really difficult this year, (I am pulling my hair out trying to finish one job) So I have been doing loads of small indoor building jobs that I would usually do in the winter.
Oh and some bad news, the other morning I heard on the radio that the north pole ice cap is expected to melt in the summer by the end of the decade rather than the end of the century as previously expected. More rain every summer.
I too do a bit but try my best to put people off til winter, i have been super busy with hard-landscaping projects back to back since February? Not sure why exactly but having taken a guy on early summer i couldn;t utilise him the same way on building jobs so can only do little fix and repair jobs in the evenings and on saturdays but nothing longer than a day. Those bigger ones will have to wait until winter.
It is one of those things, sometimes I get asked last minute for a hedge cut etc sometime next week and i have to send them else-where as i can;t do it for 3-4 weeks but I try to be very polite and thank them for thinking of me etc, anything in future please don;t hesitate to call me...
I feel as long as you aren't burning bridges with any potential future customers sometimes you have to just go where you are making the best money and remember business is business and don't try and fit it all in.
Sadly, how many times have I heard this from the other side, that builders can be Landscapers.
Two-bit builders that think they can Landscape, and then steal work away from Landscapers, those that create Gardens for a living. This has created major issues within our industry.
Builders are NOT Landscapers, so paving bods are NOT real Landscapers. I would never employ a Landscaper to build my house, neither would any right minded person.
Builders are after all go-for's, whereas real Landscapers create beautiful outside spaces.
End of, we think?
T & S Plants said:
I disagree, whilst creativity is a central element of hard and soft landscaping, building work is often purely about technical detail.
You do not need any skills other than the required technical knowledge and basic groundwork experience to competently lay a concrete floor? The same is true for many other tasks in the 'building' trade.
I do not feel that diversifying into this kind of work diminishes my abilities when it comes to landscaping.
I would agree with your assessment of coming the other way though, i have seen many examples of paving laid by builders which although constructed soundly has been messily finished and are very often unbalanced, poorly conceived and detailed.
its totally unacceptable to say that builders are not capable of laying paving and to belittle them by calling them "go fors"
I have seen many examples of paving laid by landscapers which has been badly constructed too
Jez wins
I will answer this later as I am late for work.
It's the same in every walk of life, there are many professional people who have crossed into other professions seamlessly, without loss of quality or creativity.
I do not think that because someone is qualified or labelled in on particular niche that it precludes them from being good at doing anything else.
I have seen really creative work from builders and I know landscapers who have built houses or extensions.
It's not fair to generalise in my opinion.
Well Phil beat me to it.
I got a call today from a job I priced up explaining that she had decided to go with the builder who was building the double garage, so I replied with a quote for the garage, we will see what happens.
Over the last 15 years we have supplied over 1,000 Landscapers and Garden Designers. Perhaps 20% of them are LJN, APL or BALI members.
With most, their major gripe is builders thinking that they can Landscape, and losing work through this.
When times are tough for builders, like now, some do take on Landscaping work, at the expense of Landscapers, that do this work for a living. Whereas the likes of LJN can monitor and raise the level the skills of the Landscape industry, however, builders are not bound by the same rules.
Landscape Juice Network is a forum for those in the Landscape industry, sure that there are some other networks around for builders.
Yes, Mick can point to some Landscaping work, done by Landscapers that is poor. We too can point to builders that work of the same standards.
Guess that when the building industry picks up, this lot will go back to what they do, and leave the Landscape industry only, to what we do best, creating beautiful gardens.
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