Gardening, Garden Design and Landscaping

6. Value for money

2011-02-10T17:26:00.000Z

How much? How Much?

This is for the 95% of you who are appalled and confused when the prices for some gardening work you require have come back in the form of a quote or an estimate.

BUT wait a mo...

I’ve just had a word with my solicitor – and I kept it quick. I know that every word I utter over the lines, I will be charged for (tick, tock), and I’ve got to have a chat with my accountant soon who is a bit more lenient but being an accountant will claw that money back (tick, tock) in due course no doubt. Fair enough – they can save me time, money and do me a vital service. They have trained hard and have very large left sided brain functions... But I actually don’t know if they are any good or even value for money, they seem Ok. I use them because others have said that they are good (but I don’t even know if they thought they were any good or good value for money!)

Getting contractors to do your gardening or landscaping work can be much the same.

Most people haven’t got a clue if what they are being quoted for is value for money or even worth it all or if the person is genuinely good for the job –and after the initial quote (the same with the accounts) - vow to do the work themselves. Until realising that was a terrible decision – and the mess and cost has inexplicably increased.

At GardenEye we do charge a small call out fee for an initial consultation with you that covers fuel mostly – but really because we want to know that you too are serious about having work done. We too are highly trained and skilled (large right sided brain functions) and have spent years building up experience, contacts and knowledge etc - then we get at least 3 free quotes for you, and we will VET these quotes for you to ensure that you are getting excellent value for money, and supervise the works on your behalf.

The sneaky way some gardeners and landscapers make ‘good’ money is to ensure they get the job in the first instance (gosh these guys are good value!), then bashing you with extras half way through the job. So GardenEye is also super careful to protect you from this. We are utterly transparent in our dealings with you and all to do in your garden, so we spec out the job in detail so all see what is and what is not covered – and this ensures you know too. - That, in 90% of cases means having a plan, a drawing, a map - if you want, a design to show you where to go and what’s going to happen.

So if you want to really know what’s going on and whether the price is right – call GardenEye, to help you – extraordinarily good value for the time and effort spent on each project... free and easy to talk to, and more than likely to be delighted with the costs!

Snow, snow, snow!

2010-12-21T00:21:00.001Z

And that's not me telling off my 2 year old with a blocked nose !

It is NOT the early Winter us gardeners and landscapers want. But the designing goes on. In our household instead of a Snowman we built!? an Ice Pyramid, which has been a huge success. It looks spectacular under the moonlights in frosty or icy weather as it glistens like a huge diamond.

So what you need is a great big snow shovel, some eager kids, a plastering trowel or 2, and a straight edge. A landscape rake has proved to be far and away the best piece of kit I have used to move this snow about. Most importantly to flatten the unseemly footprints around the masterpiece at the end!.
So back to proper work in the New Year -

Happy Christmas

Have fun in the snow while it lasts!

Fashions in the garden

2010-08-12T17:24:00.001+01:00

‘We are the Goon squad and we’re coming to Town –’. Bowie.

I have always been confused and slightly alarmed with Fashion in the garden.

On the one hand I seem to know what will and won’t work, and I like to think I have a very practical sense for the needs and desires of my customers - which isn’t particularly fashionable.

On the other, I love to think a little out of the box, and use a modern sculpture or have an unusual pergola or arrange plants to perform in an unusual way, do something a little differently – which is.

I am at hair pulling stage when I see enormous budgets thrown into a garden project that shows no sign that there has been anything done, same old, same old (wow me please), and equally, a grotesque ego trip personalisation of a small garden totally out of keeping with the house, family, area and style of the property.

A garden therefore is always likely to end up designed conservatively with little risk, or far too liberally, with too much. Some sort of coalition is required (got that in!)

My advice is to insist on some sort of wow factor somewhere in the garden without the wow taking over too much.

The fashions come and go – natural, formal - Pampas grass back in, conifers in, veg gardens in, topiary in: lavender hedges out, cut flower gardens out, immaculate lawns out, water features out...

But ultimately the desire to have a great garden does and should incorporate a bit of everything, but only if they are required.

Unlike architects who have a style seemingly all to themselves and one buys into that style – which may be fashionable of course, beware of the garden designer who has a style. Your garden and existing property should dictate the direction the garden is to be designed in, obviously there are exceptions to this, but the Sissinghurst garden at Great Dixter and vice versa just doesn’t feel right to me.

‘-Beep beep - listen to me, don’t listen to me...’

Different but wow!

Good old planting

2010-05-28T13:31:00.001+01:00

5. First impressions and who to choose.

So you have figured out what you want, how much you want to spend and you are looking at getting in landscapers and designers to help you out. And then they arrive...

And they ask you,(I hope)

What do you want?

How much can you spend? (see previous blogs)

And then they show you a portfolio – you should already have seen their web site (I hope).

You have a look around the garden with them...

And then they have the amazing ability to talk utter gobbledegook.

This ability can be splendidly honed. I have known many landscapers who have told me to ‘blind them with the lingo’ or ‘baffle them with technicalities’

This is meant to impress deeply and to an extent it really does work. It is a device designed to lure you into thinking that they are absolute experts and clearly the people to use. Beware of the smooth talker –some can talk a good game without necessarily playing it.

Are these guys good at building gardens, or good at plants? Did they do the fence work or build the pool or did they subcontract these things?

Many are very good, don’t get me wrong –but the words ‘out there’ and ‘jungle’ resonate.

So which one do you use?

At GardenEye we take the strain of deciding away from you by choosing the most suitable contractor for the job that is required. Simply by having vetted them previously. – Having seen their standards of work and professionalism helps us, help you.

4. Which Landscaper Should I Use?

2010-03-02T14:13:00.005Z

When I receive a call to go and see a garden, I need to be quite firm on a

few things.

That the client is serious about having a job done,

they have a realistic idea of the budget,

that my time and expertise will be covered for the consultation and

that both the clients are there for the meeting.
Why?

Because I’m dead serious about wanting to help my client, and my ideas, my report on the garden afterwards and my years of experience are worth it. The cost of this will be offset if the design work is implemented and having both clients there, gives me the clarity to understand the desires of the brief fully (no third party translation, it doesn’t work) and the direction in which the design should go.

It is also good to know if they have experience of using designers previously – on an extension to the house for example, so that there is a familiarity with the budgeting process, the recognition and importance of the managerial side and expertise that is involved. (you would not want to do it yourself!)

There are great Landscaping trade bodies BALI and APL, Trust Mark and local Be Sure and Buy with Confidence, and they have merit, but what if there are 9 or 10 firms in your area who are members? Your choice.

Alternatively there is the Word of Mouth route, the greatest form of recommendation known to man. There are times however that I have seen finished gardens with a very happy client willing to recommend to all and sundry. On closer inspection however the quality of the work has been extremely poor, and the end result is happiness without knowledge (I’ve paid a lot of money for this so I am going to love it, err I don’t know, Is it any good?)

So check who you are going to use and demand references, check their Health and Safety policies and view a portfolio of work, a web site is a good place to start.

Alternatively;

At GardenEye we give you the widest choice of contractor, taking away the uncertainty of who to use. We are knowledgeable and familiar with tradesmen of all types from excellent pavers’, to fencers, lighting specialists, irrigation specialists, maintenance and plant specialists, pool companies etc etc... and registered landscaping firms who excel in their fields, depending on what your garden requires, and in the local area where possible.

We know them, vet their work regularly and help them if needed by putting forward a job spec that creates a level playing field for all who wish to tender – and we pass their price straight to you, no mark ups, no backhanders, no subcontracting = great value.

So the hard work and decision making is done. Less hassle and time wasting for you.

Note:

There are cowboys out there, so beware, but there are also highly skilled young landscapers starting their own concerns and many quality landscapers forced into self employment by redundancy. These contractors often have many years of experience behind them and are more willing than most to put the extra effort in to make sure the project works out properly.

Typical before and after –

This area had to be completely re-thought. The tree which you can just about make out (a stunning acer) was given a tree bench and the bed removed to create a better flow of the lawn and a perfect outdoor seating area, with a lavender hedge going round this creating beautiful scent and flowers for the heat of the summer. It is well located near the back door to the house and gets sun all through the summer months although it is technically north facing.The acer is lit up at night from underneath and the circle of paving is lit by a beautiful 'moonlight' from the top of the house. The BBQ also doubles as a fire pit to keep the evening alive into the night.

3.Sentimentality (in; How to get your garden done)

2010-02-22T15:32:00.003Z

So, you have figured out – roughly what you want, a vague idea of your budget, and now you are nearly ready to get the experts in...but not quite.
I have included sentimentality - because as well as having a new garden built for you – there will inevitable be existing things in the garden (trees, bushes, features), that you want to keep, but a great deal will need removing. Some of these things really shouldn't be in that location and are only there for what I call Sentimental reasons. E.g. 'It is so big, we couldn't remove it', and 'I've just got so used to it now' and ' the previous owners planted it on their 10th wedding anniversary' - aha but not in the right place!

One of the most important parts of a designers job is to see through what is already there and to create a vision for the future. I see this as my talent. Sometimes however this is compromised by the desire to keep something through sentimental reasons alone.

Common examples;
· An Ash tree (or similar) that has self seeded, been left unattended to grow and has now become a feature blocking out the sunset in the evenings or is in obviously awkward place.
· A large Magnolia grandiflora planted against the wall of the house (when it was popular to do so) and is now taking light from the house and beginning to damage the house itself.
· A water feature lovingly put in – but in entirely the wrong place.
· The remains of an old garden – where much of the original plan has been worn away, died or where plants that do remain look tired and lonely.

And it happens to the best of us.
I inherited a 10ft high Camellia (Camellia japonica 'Nobilissima') from an American client in London. It was in a massive pot and already 7ft high. How I got it to my house is a mystery from his 3rd floor balcony, before it stayed in its pot in a perfect position for 3 years flowering abundantly twice. Of course it came with me to the country when we moved 4 years ago, and it had by that time outgrown its massive pot. So with much thought and considerable effort I planted it out.
Unfortunately my garden has changed and my big 10ft friend is just unhappy. It has flowered pitifully only once and looks sick.
But I’ve kept it and tried to nurture it (see this article on camellia care) and ignored the fact that it is now not fitting in to the garden as it should, but after all that effort I am loathed to move it.
So what have I done.
Well my blogren you decide. Here it is, - your suggestions please. (I’ll show you what I have done later)

The point is – be open to change and relish your opportunity to stamp YOUR mark on YOUR garden right now. Have a good look at the garden and make a note of the things you really really want to keep. For all the trees or shrubs that need to be taken down remember that you can put two of each back somewhere else.

2. How much can I spend ?– what is my budget? - Part 2

2010-02-16T23:06:00.008Z

Before I set up GardenEye, a customer wanted to screen off his view of the road with some mature evergreen shrubs. It was impossible to get him to understand that big plants cost lots of money. I got a plan in place for about a 10k spend – which seemed reasonable, after shopping around at three reputable nurseries. This was then reduced to a 5K budget which reduced the plan to its skeleton. Even after explaining that this was a minimal requirement for the plants (if he wanted them mature - which he did) and a digger would be required, compost brought in, stakes, ties, making good the site AND labour – and this was a fairly big area – he still couldn’t get it.

‘Can’t you just dig a hole and shove ‘em in?’... well, No, I can’t.

Eventually he bought half a dozen small random evergreen 10 litre pots and, well, shoved ‘em in. If I had known that he would be happy with small evergreens, I could have helped, but I was not given a budget and therefore he could have avoided some interesting planting choices and arrangements as a result.

So the point is, whether you have a small part of the garden that needs redoing, or a fence - or the whole thing - Try and get a feel for your budget spend. GardenEye can help you by understanding the budget and giving you sensible clear advice and direction to have the garden you desire.

If you can’t give a budget then there is the likelihood that the garden budget will be guessed for you. That will be determined by what cars you drive, how you dress, the style of the house etc. And it is horribly presumptuous.

This generalising gives landscapers a bad name, because if the client says he wants everything, has a good appearance, a new million £ house and cars etc, there can easily be an assumption that he might be prepared to spend 100k on his project rather than the 30k he actually had in mind, and this affects the entire garden project.

GardenEye however is designed to work with the client and serve their best interests at all times. If the budget is 20k and three companies price on exactly the same thing -at over 25k –then that is how much it is going to cost, and either the materials or the plan will have to change. We will not be fooled or conned by the contractors but we ensure that they are charging sensibly themselves and will highlight odd prices when they come in.

We try to give the client the reassurance that they are paying the right money, and get great value for their project, and contractors the opportunity to avoid the wrath of the client and a project handed to them from GardenEye. Win, win for all.

As a Rule of Thumb and a rough cost guide for having a complete garden redevelopment is half the amount you have or are likely to have spent on doing up your house or 5-10% of the value of your property – if you want a better garden than just a few random evergreen plants shoved in... or you can concentrate on having areas done bit by bit as your budget allows.

...And a glorious reminder of what flowers look like, roll on Spring.

Away from Gardens for a brief fantasy

2010-02-16T10:05:00.001Z

Aside from gardening for a moment. The National Lottery Euro Millions last Friday had a whopping jackpot of £133 million. I recently decided that buying a ticket on line every now and again is the only way to avoid looking like a very sad fool at the newsagents.
SO, eagerly awaiting my e-mail to tell me 'News about your ticket' - this is what I was told would happen if you won,- my e-mail promptly went down for all of Saturday and most of Sunday.
THEN all 600 previous mails came flooding into my inbox and right at the top 'News about your ticket'! Oh my God - (the reports were 2 winners, 1 in the UK, £65 million each...) I've done it - I can design the greatest garden in the history of gardens!
AND I opened it up. 'Congratulations you are a lottery winner' it said.
£6.90 it also said.
BLAST. Back to the drawing board!
Of course the good news is that I am still available to give you the greatest garden in the history of gardens...

And to the second half of Budgeting soon...

2. How much can I spend ?– what is my budget? - Part 1

2010-02-09T17:54:00.010Z

If there is a landscape/garden designer out there who doesn’t tear his/her hair out at this one, let me know your secret.
For me – knowing your budget is the biggy. And it is hopelessly misunderstood.
The normal scenario is this. -coming towards the end of the consultation,

‘so Mrs P, you want this, this, this, that, that and the other, could you help me, by revealing what your budget is for the garden. This is so that I can design your garden appropriately .’

Reply
‘I really have no idea’. – Meaning that, ‘I’m not going to tell you, otherwise you’ll rob me blind’ or
‘I have a vague idea that it’s going to cost one hell of a lot more than I think it should.’

Sometimes it really is ‘I have no idea!’ In which case be prepared for a steep learning curve.

Gardening is one of those things where a client wants to spend some money getting it right –but can be too ignorant to know the price of things, and is in fear of his life for being ripped off. And in Gardening/Landscaping as in any other industry you pay for what you get – so just how much is that?
You know the price of a car, you can look it up on line, ring up etc and you will be able to narrow it down to a few pounds before you’ve even seen it. No chance with a garden though, they are all different, have different things in them and demand different things from them. It is a skill and an art to get this right one for you and you need to be on the ball about what you want and how much you want to spend.

It’s actually one of the main reasons I set up my business. I am trying to deliver trust, honesty and value for money, in a clear and logical fashion to help this sometimes tricky process work for you.

Oh and a photo of the beach last week near where I live, on the South Coast near Rye.

The Domestic Landscaping Process. How to get a garden done.

2010-02-05T11:30:00.005Z

Introduction.

Whether you are moving house, building a new home, renting a property, inheriting or simply updating or revamping the garden, it most probably needs attention – and the sooner the better.

In my experience both in the domestic and commercial markets, gardens get left to the very end, when the budget has been blown, the client is sick and tired of workmen and the fantasy project gets thrown out of the window or put to the very back of the back burner, because they don’t know where to begin, what it is likely to cost or who to use. But help is out there for you to sort it all out.

So over the next few weeks I will explore, with you I hope, the ins and outs of getting that project back on track or starting a garden afresh.

The first thing to do is to get excited about it, and dream of those hot summer days, fruit, flowers, kids running around, BBQ's and all the things you want your garden to be. It is your garden and it’s there for you to enjoy.

1. What do You want in your garden?

2010-02-05T11:30:00.004Z

Have a fantasy – an idea, go for it all and then trim it down, to suit your budget (next instalment). You really do know what you want but have probably never asked yourself the right questions.

The most popular retort to this is ‘well that’s why we got you along, you’re the expert’. True, but designers have to start with you first and find out what you actually want...so help us out! The designer needs a ‘brief’, and without one there can be some quality time and money wasting.

Any designer worth his/her salt will give you a wish list sheet with ideas for you already written down to help you along which can be a great exercise for you.

Try and figure out:

· How much sun your garden gets (where the sunny spots are when you get back from work and in the morning)

· If you want an area to eat out on – a paved or brick or gravel area.

· Do you want flowers and herbs- Likewise to grow vegetables or fruit.

· A lawn to play on or a formal lawn (or both)

· A pond or a water feature or other features.

· Things you want to hide.

· Views you want to enhance.

· Bigger things such as Tennis Courts, Swimming Pools, Croquet lawns, Children’s play areas.

· A new drive or parking area

· A wildflower – habitat area.

The list can go on and on. I think that understanding why you have a garden also helps you understand what it requires.

Many people will sell you the idea of your garden as an outside room. This is fine except the carpet grows, the walls grow, the sofas grow – and then, however hard you try for three months of the year it is unliveable in and looks dreadful.

All gardens require work and that needs to be understood but not feared. Even the low maintenance garden needs help if it is to have any merit. But it can be the most rewarding of all places, your little Eden shaped and performing for you alone. It is tranquil and peaceful, fun, exotic and most of all its yours. Enjoy it, visit my web site to understand some of the feelings gardens can generate.

GardenEye 2010

2010-02-05T11:28:00.000Z

Welcome to the New Gardening Season

The big freeze has melted away. A new season beckons.

Looking back at last year I've been re-invigorated by some of my photos of some of the plants I put in two years ago. And if fills me with joy and hope for the season ahead. With this in mind, I've created a video of some of the flowers in my garden taken late summer.

Have a peek at the embedded YouTube video I've created. I hope you feel as excited as I am for the year ahead.

Garden Designing has never been so dynamic. Check out my choice page for an innovative garden design and project management solution.

In the meantime in the next few weeks, I've got 10 premium garden design tips that I always consider when viewing a garden, regardless of size. You may well find these useful.

Happy gardening

Eddie

Beautiful Snow - plan your garden now!

2010-02-05T10:14:00.000Z

The snow.
It really is beautiful. The road into Rye was truly a rare painting, with the snow enshrining every small branch and twig in a breathtaking avenue, it was enough to make you skid off the road. The Tobogganing was terrific in the car and also with the kids on the slopes, although I sympathized with the old British Rail who so famously cancelled their trains due to 'the wrong kind of Snow' - I'm sure that was the case this year - with the sledging, it was slightly the wrong kind of snow unless you had a piste basher... and that was it, that's as good as it gets...
And no one in their right mind could look out of their window at 1ft of snow and consider that 'I really must get the garden sorted out'. It doesn't work like that and you can bet that when the first daffs poke their noses out of the ground we will be besieged with calls.
So a gloriously beautiful time but ultimately frustrating for us indoor outdoorers, I would say however that this is the best time to plan your garden - so that when those daffs do come you might have a garden for them to glory in.

Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Well a sample - Hollyhocks still on fire! and Marigolds in the veg patch

Posted by Insight at 07:34 0 comments Links to this post

I have just been to see a client who has seriously caught the gardening bug. Living in a Sir Edwin Lutyens house with a wonderful artistic heritage he has built himself an amazing garden.
One of the things in the garden that struck me was a 100m border about 3m wide that he himself has built with the planting style of the great Gertrude Jekyll naturally, and it is my job to get the borders weeded and sorted out.
What struck me is how dated the borders are in these times. There were no grasses, no annuals or biennials and none of the formal shrubbery/topiary to define the different topics in the garden and no roses amongst the perrenials
I am still enjoying the garden at home even having a foxglove in flower! (in October), the grasses looking dazzling, the odd rose still in bloom, my Irises in flower and the cosmos' still going strong whilst his is ready to put away for the year.
I like the mix and the longevity of the beauty. I'm tempted to post this months flowers to prove my point!
A garden is everyone's experiment - long may it be that way...

2010-01-22T13:08:00.001Z

On the basis that absolutely no one has ever been to this blog - I am going to dwell on an emotive and difficult subject - the outside temperature. OH No
It has long struck me that there is a strange (and not very realistic) element to the furious debate that surrounds and affects us all.

My personal opinion, having spent my life outside in all weathers - not quite a fair weather gardener, yet -is that we tend to define seasons and weather patterns from afar and this is determined by a distant inner psyche. Each season conjuring up images from our childhood -possibly- of how they will be, therefore we believe we know how they will behave. Summer; will be sunny, autumn; golden, spring; the rebirth and warming, winter; snowy, with a bit of Father Christmas thrown in.

This hope is of course facile - we don’t want to be disappointed, but nonetheless important because it always gives us an incentive to move forward. We rue the coming of winter but then remember the snow and frosts sticking to the ground and the branches of twigs and trees lit by the purity of the winter sun. These are powerful reminders of the awaiting beauty. We forget the endless days of drizzle and dampness and cold. (in the same way, it is impossible to remember how the countryside looks in summer when looking at it from the depths of winter).

History has an important part to play as well.

My Wife's Granny- unfortunately no longer with us - was born exactly 100 years ago last week in Paris. The Seine had broken it's banks and the city was under water when she arrived, and a hundred years later that same possibility is still very much with us, but it would be viewed quite differently now I’m sure. http://parisunderwater.blogspot.com/
A great, no, gigantic Oak Tree stands in the garden next to one I hope to start designing soon, it was most possibly planted just after the great storm of 1703 and it is a beauty. The total destruction of that storm which lasted for a week was manifest. Had we suffered the same storm now - we would be digging deep into our pockets to find the solution. The great Oak is not likely to have survived if it was of any size of consequence before that- nothing around here did. Followed by the sulphourous summer the following year.

Cracking history and reading...
http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=19672&amid=19672
This was the period of the Little Ice Age, and it appears that we have been pulling out of this gradually for a couple of hundred years http://www.sciencemag.org/
So unlikely that global warming would have had much to do with it as would be the conclusion today.

The other strange factor in all this is the demon Carbon Dioxide. http://www.biotopics.co.uk/plants/photsy.html
Perhaps I was taught incorrectly at school that C02 is one of the three crucial elements to plant growth and health. Surely more C02 means bigger plants - better crops - more abundance, we will probably need in times to come with the inevitable population increase.

Is it C02 that is really the culprit?- what on earth is that agenda all about? Ever actually thought about why you have a greenhouse?

The great problem in my mind is not C02 but bad housekeeping.

We are bad citizens of the planet.

Unfortunately the fanaticism that dotes upon carbon emitting is the recipe for our next great war, and it will probably happen.

The thing that gets me is the balance of the argument - it is so contrived in the favour of there being real climate change (there is always real climate change, pretty much every day) from TV, all the news channels, politicians, newspapers - wherever you turn, that if you want to seek your own balance on this issue have a look at Ian Wishart’s book 'Air Con', and then make your mind up.

http://briefingroom.typepad.com/the_briefing_room/2009/04/free-preview-of-ian-wisharts-new-book-air-con.html
Actually just get it from Amazon.
Me - well as Geoff the old labourer on the farm would say in a broad Suffolk accent 'Boy, when I was young, the winters was much colder and the summers was much hotter' -
I'm still confused, aren't we all talking about the weather too seriously, surely it's small talk...
Enough rambling - I'll never dwell on others being brain washed again, time to wash my tools and prepare for Spring, Hoorah!
Visit the web site for some updated quality, peace and tranquillity... h ttp://www.gardeneye.co.uk/
(If Google still haven't picked it up - plonk it in the main browser - it's worth it)