After the dire weather of the last few weeks, it was nice to see 17c & sunshine down in the south today (even tho' it rained a little later on). Such a nice day, we even decided to go have lunch looking out over the sea on the south coast.
When we left, our small Magnolia tree had not burst its buds, yet on return late this afternoon around 30% of its buds had started to open showing its glorious white colour. I hope this is true indication that Spring has arrived and better conditions are here...
Work wise, we've a lot to catch up on. Some small landscaping/paving jobs, spraying and lawn treatments are itching to be started. Also, looking forward to getting a couple of planting jobs started.
You can feel that 'all hell is about to break loose' feeling is just around the corner
If the weather does improve, what are your immediate plans - work wise ?
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I would imagine a large number of gardeners/landscapers will be itching, as we are, to get scarifying and seeding before the ever shortening window of opportunity closes til Autumn.
There's definitely plenty to do before the innevitable storm erupts this week.
Good luck one and all!!!
Bone dry week please so i can get round all my regulars, then 2 weeks of snow so i can disappear to Texas for a fortnight without being missed! Never gone away at this time before, but free trip and too good a chance to miss.
well i'm balancing 2 business's at the moment, so my plans are not to annoy any gardening clients, and to make sure I still have some money coming in, while finding as many hours as possible to go to my cut flower farm and get perennials planted. There's Netting put up, seedlings to be potted up, and structures made for my sweet peas, - plus obviously designing the website so that it can go live in 6 weeks time. - so an easy week this week then! - At least my son goes back to School after a long Easter break on Tuesday
In anticipation of improved weather, and looking at last years diary when things really got going in late April, I have streamlined some of our admin system which was using up a lot of unnecessary time, ie chasing payments !! I can spend hours and hours of my weekend chasing late payers. In an attempt to cut this down I am introducing a late payment charge of x£ per week after 7 days for those who cannot be bothered to pay on time, and who cause extra work and therefore cost to the business. It will not be 100% effective but after trialling the scheme, it will definitely help. If you want to pay late, there is a charge.
This should remove some of the pressure and not only during the busy months.
We have also taken on 2 more subbies, and updated training and equipment in anticipation of summer work loads.
March freeze costs UK small businesses £174 million, says the FSB via @bhdesigns1
http://www.fsb.org.uk/News.aspx?loc=pressroom&rec=8033
I'm sure most of you would rather not look back but you might be interested in the Met Office summary of UK weather for March 2013.
Well the figures are in - March was the worst performing one bar my first year trading - that said April has been non stop with catchup and could be the opposite - Loosing alot of Saturdays to catching up, and everything seems to be happening all at once this year - which makes things a tad more difficult that anticipated but hey win some sleep some.
From BBC Weather report:
Widely across Lincs and Vale of York temps exceeded 18C today. Donna Nook, NE Lincs, looks like today's warmest spot, with 18.8C.
Paah...and I thought the South would be warmest today ;-)