gardenimprovementscom - LJN Blog Posts - Landscape Juice Network2024-03-28T18:21:26Zhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/gardenimprovementscomGarden Design: Getting It Wrong!!https://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/garden-design-getting-it-wrong2009-02-04T13:00:00.000Z2009-02-04T13:00:00.000ZNicky @ GardenImprovements.comhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/NickyGardenImprovementscom<div>I beavered away over Christmas at 2 designs for client's in Glasgow. This one in particular I was quite pleased with as I had met the budget well and ticked all the client's boxes.The brief was to provide a decent patio area for dining and entertaining, a second breakfast patio, and a kids play area. It is a new build property so blank canvas. I decided to break the parallel expanse of the garden up with a pergola walkway leading through to a feature magnolia. This would divide the garden into an adult area and a childrens area since they have young children. I tried to keep it simple without becoming plain or redundant and pack the garden with functional space. I came up with this after playing around for a few ideas:<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314116489?profile=original" alt="" width="813" height="488"/></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314114520?profile=original" alt="" width="612" height="368"/></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314111068?profile=original" alt="" width="614" height="369"/></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314113830?profile=original" alt="" width="609" height="366"/></p>The client came back to me very impressed with the design but admitted that it wasn't suited to his requirements. I got it wrong. I submitted a report suporting my decisions and he returned that he agreed but was really looking for something like this:<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314117239?profile=original" alt="" width="1725" height="1275"/></p>Ah well, you can't win them all - at least we're still getting the contract!!CheersNicky Patterson<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.gardenimprovements.com">GardenImprovements.com</a></div>A Whirlwind Romance with TV Gardening!https://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/a-whirlwind-romance-with-tv2009-01-20T18:30:00.000Z2009-01-20T18:30:00.000ZNicky @ GardenImprovements.comhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/NickyGardenImprovementscom<div><b>I have always been keen on drawing inspiration and motivation from gardening shows on TV but particularly those aimed at promoting design in gardens and landscaping projects. Last weekend I had the opportunity to take part in a live TV makeover in Glasgow - here' how I got on?</b>Like I say since ever being interested I have been addicted to garden makeover programmes - in the same way that my wife (as a chef) is enthralled by Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef and the endless list of TV cooking shows; I am to UKTV Gardens and anything else garden or architecture related. Recently I have been glued to Diarmuid Gavin's RTE series "I Want A Garden" which I sky+'d before Christmas.This show offers a unique insight into Gavin's techniques and how the client's react to his treatment of their gardens. The idea of the show is based around Gavin's interview of the prospective client and his subsequent design presentation; after which the clients are left to their own devices to manage the project using Gavin only on a consultation basis. It lays bare the logistical pitfalls of extreme design ambition but also offers insight into how much more some clients are prepared to pay to achieve their dream garden space. One couple had an initial budget of E40K but ended up (more or less contently) spending over E100K! Recently a house in Dublin was advertised on the market as having private gardens designed by Diarmuid Gavin. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2008/0508/1210178032839.html">It sold for E16.5M!!</a>There are other excellent shows ranging all budgets including celebrated designers such as Joe Swift, Matt James and Anne-Marie Powell among many others and I especially like the low-budget (in every sense) show featuring Simon Harrison-Knibbs and his sidekick Ryan.Anyway, I digress...Of course we all know the GroundForce format of taking a run-down garden and transforming it to the delight of the property owner over a short space of time - but do the 'weekend makeover' shows like GroundForce actually achieve what they do in the time that they say they do, or is it all a bit of TV magic?Well...I was contacted by ITV just 2 days before Christmas (while I was on holiday - lucky I answered!) asking if I'd be interested in taking part in a surprise tv garden makeover project in Glasgow. Obviously I obliged - the story appealed to me of course but the marketing spin-off potential would be of tremendous value since the project was to be initiated at the begining of 2009 - so a good opportunity during winter and an economic slump to enhance the business and hopefully get some work in.The project was to be a surprise garden makeover for Margaret Traynor, a hard-working soon-to-retire nurse at Glasgow's Yorkhill Sick Children's Hospital, whose daughters had contacted the This Morning programme as part of it's Dreams Come True series. David Domoney - the This Morning TV gardener and multiple RHS medal winner - was on board. Cool!It was a charity project and so we were asked to donate materials and services to construct some decking. This was fine - about 2.5m x 3m. The project was due for the weekend of January 10th. Quite soon but no sweat.B&Q, Dobbies Garden Centres and a host of others were donating as well of course. The full list of suppliers, for those interested, can be seen on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.itv.com/Lifestyle/ThisMorning/HomeandGarden/Gardenmakeover001/Withthanks/default.html">ITVs thank you list for the project</a>.<p style="text-align:left"><img src="http://gardenimprovements.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/p070109_1513.jpg"/></p>I didn't hear anything until January 7th when the production assistant phoned asking me to meet him at the project site while Margaret was at work. So I hared it up to Partick. Ben, a very pleasant fellow, indicated the area to be decked - about 7.5m x 4m. Shit."It's a bit bigger than i was first told!""Is that a problem?""No" (I lied - obviously!)So he gives me David Domoney's mobile number. "Give David a call, he hasn't seen the garden yet and won't until Saturday so he needs your eyes and input.""Yeah, cool - no sweat Ben nice one." Gulp. Sweat.I phone David and he is another very pleasant chap and seems excited about the project. I tell him my thoughts on the site and we form a preliminary plan of action, but nothing will be finalised until Saturday. OK.<p style="text-align:right"><img src="http://gardenimprovements.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/p070109_151301.jpg"/></p>Saturday morning arrives and I'm out the trap and after the hare. Margaret was whisked away for a luxury spa weekend by her daughter Karen at 10am. David and his team of "Garden Angels" are travelling from Warwickshire and should be at the job by 1ish. By 12 noon I am at the job with a hired van filled to the gunnels with decking timber and tools - the gear couldn't be delivered for obvious reasons.David and the team arrive at half 3! Their hire van had a limiter on it and they could only get up to 56mph! Nightmare. It is now gushing with rain and getting dark.We have a discussion about what to do with the garden, agree on what's going where and get to work. I take shelter in the hired Luton van to do all my preliminary joist cuts.Anyway I'll cut the long story short. On Sunday it was raining enough for a week and I built a 21sqm deck against the house while David and Keiron and the rest of the team clambered over the top of me to fit out the rest of the garden. With the help of Margaret's brother and son-in-law as volunteers (my man was playing football but secretly I also think he didn't fancy being on telly!) we managed the lot in 12 hours flat - not bad considering the garden was terraced and everything had to come through the house or over the neighbours 6ft fence and that the weather was atrocious!<p style="text-align:left"><img src="http://gardenimprovements.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/margaretondeck.jpg"/></p>So for the live TV links on Monday morning the whole project was completed and we were really only applying finishing touches and sitting around drinking tea.So the answer is YES they do do those jobs in a weekend! In total we had 10 bodies in the garden (7.5m x 7m) at all times and no Tommy Walsh in sight - or on site!I have been promised some further work with David setting up some shows for him this year - including Chelsea - which I am very much looking forward to, having never been. This time I will be paid!Further reading: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://gardenimprovements.com/wordpress/?p=41">my blog for clients</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2481304.0.garden_makeover_is_better_than_lotto_win_for_margaret.php">Evening Times Glasgow article coverage</a>(I shall post the video of the production and some more press links when i get them.)Nicky Patterson<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.gardenimprovements.com">GardenImprovements.com</a></div>8 Days A Week (A Landscaper's Lament)https://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/8-days-a-week-a-landscapers2009-01-13T12:00:00.000Z2009-01-13T12:00:00.000ZNicky @ GardenImprovements.comhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/NickyGardenImprovementscom<div><b>Time is rationed out to us all at the same rate: 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. But it isn’t enough. One moderately successful way around this is to hire someone else’s time, and though this costs money it frees up one’s own time a little to cram a bit more activity into our daily schedule; but even still, does anyone EVER get everything they need to get done, done? And what about this divine yet elusive idea of the “work/life balance”?</b><p style="text-align:left"><img src="http://gardenimprovements.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/grin310l.jpg"/></p>I don’t have a dog. I don’t have any pets for that matter and if I did I am quite sure they would perish from loneliness and neglect. I am 26, married and blessed with a beautiful and bubbly 2 year old daughter. I have good friendships and a lot of close family which my wife and I make sure are given as much of their due attention as possible. On top of this I run my Garden Design and Landscaping business.“And…?” I hear you ask.Well these are not problems in themselves of course; in fact I quite enjoy these different elements of my life - but where’s the Nicky time?<p style="text-align:left"><img src="http://gardenimprovements.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/wheel.gif"/></p>>>Apparently how one's life should beI take Mondays in the office; I spend as much of that time as possible working through my designs, working on prices and drafting quotations. Tuesday to Friday are on site 10 hours; Saturdays are spent surveying and pricing and Sundays are “Peep” time - that is time to indulge my family and friends with my insatiably pleasurable company.This all seems very straight forward; but then add to it the daily (and I mean daily) drudge through mail and email correspondence; phone-calls with staff, clients and suppliers and those fecking marketing people; paying house bills and business bills and tracking project costs; studying books and searching for inspiration for designs in them and online; the endless media digest and those cursed RSS feeds; the forums; the online advertising campaigns; the banking; the employees; the tax changes; social networking and updating profiles and status (Nicky is …ranting); the HSE changes and other legal stuff; following the financial news to see if we’re all falling into the black-hole or not…it is endless and often gruelling. Sometimes I feel guilty stealing 10 minutes in the toilet to read the sports pages - why is this?On top of all this we are told we should be making time to be green as well!I’m all for the planet but the world is mental!<img style="float:left;" src="http://gardenimprovements.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/work-life-balance.jpg"/>>>The circus of lifeWhen do I play my guitar, start that political party, go for a run, play football, read a book that isn’t about gardens or business, walk the dead dog, watch a film, buy flowers for my wife, or even better cook her dinner?!So here I suppose is the rub: I am not yet a large enough enterprise with enough guaranteed work in-front of me to be able to hire full time staff to deal with all this administration; yet it is far too much for me to cope with alone. More than that I have a strong urge to have an intimate degree of control over all of this anyway since I am ultimately accountable at the end of it. I wonder; are there any designers or landscapers out there who do have time to watch football, or go to the pub, or go shopping, or take the dead dog for a walk?Perhaps I am cursed by my own autocracy, not able or willing to delegate. Perhaps cursed by my own imagination which only permits me to read words as fast as I can speak them - so as to savour and value the true meaning (at least that’s what I tell myself). My daily digest of information and opinion is amassed with vital, up-to-the-minute and informative knowledge and fact which allows me, as the businessman, and as the designer, as a landscaper, and as the canny bill-payer, to both function and operate. It’s magnitude, however, is at the same time infinitely resourceful and exhaustingly overwhelming. Similarly it is both the source of motivation and the cause of demotivation.Perhaps I’m not cursed at all, perhaps this is just what needs to be done in today’s globalised Nicky Patterson world where work and life are much the same thing.<p style="text-align:right"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Capability_Brown.jpg/180px-Capability_Brown.jpg"/></p>>>Lancelot's Profile PicThen again Capability Brown did okay back then without his mobile phone, laptop and the personal invasion of the internet. He surely had a decent work/life balance. Would that still be true if he were here today?Nicky Patterson<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.gardenimprovements.com">GardenImprovements.com</a></div>The Big Chillhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/the-big-chill2009-01-06T21:00:00.000Z2009-01-06T21:00:00.000ZNicky @ GardenImprovements.comhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/NickyGardenImprovementscom<div><b>As landscapers and gardeners up and down the country shake off their festive hangovers and head back out - we find that country is frozen solid - but surely we aren’t ALL down in the dumps about 2009?</b>So I’m back at the Bat-Cave now after a lovely past few weeks and I am working my way through all the mail and emails that have mounted up on my desk and desktop resepectively. I’m a little bit annoyed that my last post’s optimism had it’s wing shot by the announcement a few days ago that the price of fruit and veg and general groceries is to increase by 20% in th UK in 2009. Is it just me or is the media determined to make all this seem completely insurmountable to even the most optimistic of us?I had been encouraged by some of the commentators debating that the public sector would keep alot of SMEs above water, but 20% added onto shopping bills is a fair whack and can only further dull consumer confidence.On top of this English, Welsh and Irish gardeners are experiencing the, by now notorious, ‘Arctic Chill’ right now (in Glasgow we just call it winter!) while in Scotland we are experiencing relatively (but only relatively) milder weather; even though spades are still bouncing out of the ground! At any rate, the big kick-off to the new season has been somewhat ‘put on ice’ and left alot of us thumbing through our paper-work and trying to invent new sources of enterprise for the coming months (perhaps some are finally getting their tax return underway - who me?). Anyway this silly weather isn’t exactly the worst news ever because obviously things will warm up as 2009 shakes off the sleep and we can all get digging, building and planting again.I have in fact had some good news recently and I shall be sure to gloat about it once everything is finalised but I was thinking how fortunate I was here to be presented with such an opportunity at what is proving to be quite a low-point in my short career as a businessman.2008 has been my worst year by far. Business was actually very good but I was badly let down by staff who took advantage of my absence (while concentrating on design demand, networking opportunities and expanding the business) to cut corners on projects and take prolonged tea-breaks in full view of clients. This lost me some well founded client relationships and cost alot of money where work had to be re-done. A steep learning curve. I am glad to have pulled through it though and have made amends to most of those clients as best I could. The expansion plans are in the bin and like many the focus is on streamlining and improving quality. These are my plans for 2009.At any rate I have learned some valuable lessons but one more than most which is reaping rewards even now - to keep my head up, chin up, keep my eyes peeled and my ears open; keep on top of it all and opportunities, when they come along - like this one, can be taken in stride.So for me the only possible way is up and while I fully expect some downturn in business; at the moment I am relishing the challenge and I am ready to take those unexpected opportunites. And, like my dad always says - and I appreciate that it is a cliche, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.All the best for 2009 folks, I hope it turns out a good one for us all.Nicky Patterson<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.gardenimprovements.com">GardenImprovements.com</a></div>Landscaping in 2009?https://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/landscaping-in-20092008-12-31T18:30:00.000Z2008-12-31T18:30:00.000ZNicky @ GardenImprovements.comhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/NickyGardenImprovementscom<div><b>Having read some of the many articles on the effects of the credit crunch on small businesses, I wonder how it will affect my small business and how other garden designers and landscapers around Glasgow, and indeed around the UK, will cope with the coming year.</b>I’m still with my wife’s family in Portsmouth, having spent Christmas here, and will be celebrating Hogmany tonight and welcoming in the New Year. Being in the south of England for a couple of weeks has certainly allowed me to relax a little and remove myself from the direct responsibilities of running the business, but it has also allowed me to gather some alternative impartial opinions on the credit crunch and its consequences.My wife’s father and step-mother both work within the public sector here, as do many who live around Hampshire due to the concentration of military and government bases down here. What has become obvious, and has been debated by some in the newspapers of late, is that those within the public sector will probably have a very different experience of the ‘credit crunch’ than those in the private sector.We have witnessed the wholesale failing of the banking system and the many job losses as repercussion of this failing. We have witnessed the failing of stalwart high-street icons such as Woolworths and Wittards amongst others. Some high-street retailers will obviously benefit in the short term from these as their share in the available retail market increases accordingly, but it is curious that the finger of fate as far as these examples have proved does indeed seem to be fickle and there are many who will lose jobs and become worse off for this but many who will remain as normal, even if with some stress of uncertainty.The public sector however remains relatively unscathed and those who work within it might even become better off in 2009 as the VAT cuts and lowering fuel and retail prices come into effect while their employment and salary remain stable.So how will all this ultimately affect those within the service industries; and in particular landscapers and garden designers; who are more or less in a tertiary market and as such are wholly at the mercy of the economy?Well I, for one, am confident that, since our target market are primarily those in a middle to high income bracket, there is still a wealth of property equity out there that can be invested in home-improvements: and these are exactly the type of investments people have made in the past when the housing market has slumped. Not only that; there is a clear difference in experience of the credit crunch thus far between those in the public sector and those in the private sector - and this does not seem to be a trend that will change significantly in 2009. There is therefor still a significant portion of the population who will in fact have an increased disposable income which will be circulated throughout the rest of the retail industries and keep small businesses breathing.So I am not going to hang up my sketch-book and shovel just yet: it will certainly get tough as some competitors will inevitably suffer and fail while others will in fact ‘up the ante’ which means that while there may be fewer bones to chew, it will be those who sharpen their teeth the keenest who will survive the months ahead. I have my file out right now!Nicky Patterson<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.gardenimprovements.com">GardenImprovements.com</a></div>