Volunteers, RHS Medals and a New Career...

It's been a busy week in the Fereday Household.Having been a featured member last week, I thought it would be a good time to write a blog and update everyone on what's been happening since Cat and I moved down to London. Ideally I would have liked to blog while I was still a featured member, but it's just been such a busy week that I haven't managed it until this morning.So, enough of the introduction and apologies and on with the story... I've managed to find gainful employment, which is always a good thing. About three months ago, I started getting really fed up with doing nothing all day (there's only so much housework you can do). I decided to get up off my arse and do some volunteer work while I was job hunting, mainly to get myself out of the house and do something useful. I liked the idea of doing some work with the BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) - I thought it would make me feel that I was doing something constructive or at the very least give me a sense of superior smugness over some of my Guardian-reading facebook friends. As it was, it turned out to be one of the most depressing days in the South that I've had so far. I won't go into the details, but I finished the day feeling really low and desperate to find a decent job.The following weekend Cat spotted a horticultural industries recruitment website so I applied for a few jobs. I had a phone call on Tuesday from Tim Sharples at Cedar Nursery in Cobham; we had a good chat and he asked if I was able to come in for an interview on the Wednesday. I arrived about an hour early, as I didn't know how long it would take for me to get there, and had no idea what the traffic would be like round the M25. We had a good 2 1/2 hours going through the interview and showing me round the nursery, meeting some of the staff and so on. I was really interested in the job at Cedar Nursery as it looked very different to your average garden centre (I'll go into that another time). Tim was really keen to employ me and said that I was their favourite candidate, but that there was still one more person to interview and that they would get back to me by the weekend. This was all really encouraging for me - it was my first interview in over 8 years, so I felt I was obviously doing something right. I had an email the following day with a job offer, started work the following Monday and have been there for about three months now.Cedar Nursery itself is a trade and retail plant centre with a couple of specialisations; we supply StableDrive (that's us advertising on the right hand side), Oak framed buildings and we also do bespoke galvanised containers (again something that we've advertised on LJN). I'm working on the plant side of things, and we provide a plant placing service and various consultancy bits and bobs. The Nursery has been involved with Hampton Court and various other exhibitions and shows for a few years (although sadly funding from the Daily Mail has dried up this year), getting a couple of Silver-Gilt medals in the process. In terms of plant specialisations, we do an extensive line of specimen trees, including pleached screening. One thing which I'm eternally grateful for is the complete absence of bedding (call me a plant fundamentalist if you like, but I still hate bedding). It's beginning to calm down after the Spring boom, which is giving me a bit of a chance to do some of the plantcare stuff which I really enjoy.Well, now that the not-so-subtle plug is out of the way, if anyone has an afternoon free and feels like popping in to see me in my new Cedar habitat, it would be great to say 'Hi!' and show you around. I usually work Monday - Tuesday, Thursday - Saturday, but feel free to send me an email if you are planning on popping by.

Well done Andy.

I have known the company for many as years, as I have lived just 8-10 miles away from them for all of my life, to date.

They have a fairly good reputation locally, although I have only seen them from a suppliers point of view, and from what I have heard from local Landscapers. Their reputation is perhaps not as good as The Plantation, Evergreen and Pantiles, if I were buying for my own garden, I would probably do so in that order, putting to your current employer last for Specimen plants, sorry...

Do they still use local suppliers, or everything imported? I used to deal with Andy, (not you) the other one?

To give you a bit of history, Cedar took over the Daily Mail part of HCFS, after my previous employers, Pantiles, gave it up. We knew it was sort of on the cards then that the Mail would pull out, perhaps that is why Pantiles stopped?

Happy to give you a lot more off the record infomation about Cedar, and obviously not that others can read.

Agree with you about Bedding plants, why???

Ironically, we are moving out of Surrey on 28th June, so next week will be a bit manic for us packing, and all that involves. Guess you guys had all of that recently, so you know what it is all about.

All the best for the future.

Steve

"Plus it doesn't matter if we all know plants are better value. I'd make the point of this to the customer but if they want trough grown at the extra cost that's their choice I'd just do it"

"I've done 5ft Thorne troughs. Very easy to plant just got a mini digger dug the trench then drop them in couldn't be easier however £250 per m does seem expensive. "

Thought I'd sign up to this forum. And I hope I'm allowed to post stuff for sale on here as this will be a one off? I have for sale a tiny pro robot, it's not the new edition but it's the bigger one of the two. If anyone is interested then please…

Comments

PRO

Phil Voice June 19, 2010 at 9:43am

That's really good news Andy and well done to Tim too:-))

Maybe you could do some pro-blogging for Cedar Nursery?
T & S Plants June 19, 2010 at 8:34pm

Well done Andy.

I have known the company for many as years, as I have lived just 8-10 miles away from them for all of my life, to date.

They have a fairly good reputation locally, although I have only seen them from a suppliers point of view, and from what I have heard from local Landscapers. Their reputation is perhaps not as good as The Plantation, Evergreen and Pantiles, if I were buying for my own garden, I would probably do so in that order, putting to your current employer last for Specimen plants, sorry...

Do they still use local suppliers, or everything imported? I used to deal with Andy, (not you) the other one?

To give you a bit of history, Cedar took over the Daily Mail part of HCFS, after my previous employers, Pantiles, gave it up. We knew it was sort of on the cards then that the Mail would pull out, perhaps that is why Pantiles stopped?

Happy to give you a lot more off the record infomation about Cedar, and obviously not that others can read.

Agree with you about Bedding plants, why???

Ironically, we are moving out of Surrey on 28th June, so next week will be a bit manic for us packing, and all that involves. Guess you guys had all of that recently, so you know what it is all about.

All the best for the future.

Steve
Andrew Fereday June 20, 2010 at 9:24pm

Thanks Phil & Steve. I know all about moving - 4 bedroom victorian end terrace down to a 2 bedroom 1930s maisonette! We've figured out that we expand to fill the space we're in and actually cleared out a whole load of junk which we weren't using or didn't need and it was actually quite good for us. Of course we now have the opportunity to acquire yet more junk....

Andy's still there at the Nursery and is on here somewhere as well (I need to go through the members' list and find him now I come to think of it...). I really like the atmosphere at Cedar Nursery as there are opportunities to do more exciting things than just sell a range of uninspiring plants in an unimaginitive way. Let me make it clear that I'm not singling out any garden centres (certainly not in the Surrey area - I don't know that many!) but there are some which I've visited across the UK which fall into the cliché of doing dreadful plants in a dreary way. I think we put things together a bit more thoughtfully which is quite a refreshing approach.

Anyway, I'm in danger of sounding like I've been indoctrinated into some sort of cult, so I'd better stop where I am for the moment. Healthy dose of cynicism and all that...
Fenlandphil June 22, 2010 at 9:55pm

Glad the move went well for you Andy and hope things continue well for you.
I only deal with Capital Gardens at Morden Hall and Priory Farm Plant Centre in Surrey at the moment. I sell a fair bit direct off the net to people in Surrey and I would guess it is a good area for a garden centre to be located in.