11 minute read
Interview
Canal & River Trust: Message in a Bottle garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Built by First Light Landscaping, designed by Tracy Foster.
THE RETURN TO OUTDOOR EVENTS
Summer is here, the sun is shining – and, finally, it seems that things are getting back to normal again.
By Emily Magdij
Marketing & Communications Officer
After a year of uncertainty, staying indoors and cancelled or virtual events, it has been a joy for us to be back on the road again, visiting all the best mainstays of the landscaping and gardening events circuit. From the Royal Horticultural Society’s show-stopping gardens to the grand surroundings of Belvoir Castle’s Flower and Garden Show, awards events and trade shows, everything we missed last year is making a big comeback.
Our own Association has had the privilege of attending several events including RHS Hampton Court Festival, where our members won big with several Gold and Silver medals, Best Construction Awards and even a Best Show Garden for Rosebank Landscaping’s The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden, and Belvoir Castle Flower & Garden Show, where we presented a show garden for the very first time, in conjunction with Oakham Garden Services and our careers initiative GoLandscape.
Though the virtual shows of last year all managed spectacular things under challenging circumstances, it has been an enormous pleasure to get back out on the road, meeting landscape professionals and members in the field and seeing their creativity flourish as they return to what they do best: making beautiful gardens.
We talked to some of our members about their experiences with this year’s events season, the pandemic, and how it feels to be back out in the sunshine.
How has the events season been for you this year?
Oakham Garden Services
With the UK starting to open up, it enables lots of designers and landscapers to have that well-earned exposure, to demonstrate their talent. So far, we have only attended Belvoir Castle Flower & Garden Show although we are keen to attend more shows in the near future simply because we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was very grateful of the support the Association provided.
FirstLight Landscaping
We were able to work at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival in July 2021, which had been postponed from 2020, so it was great to finally get down there to start the construction and attend the event after so many months of planning. We also attended the ProLandscaper Business Awards in London last month, where we were shortlisted for an award.
Rosebank Landscaping
It was great to be at RHS Hampton Court Festival this year. We’ve done two show gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show before and were due to do a fifth RHS garden at Chelsea. Unfortunately, due to the movement of the date, from summer to autumn, we had to skip the event this year. We were due to build a garden at Chelsea with the Royal Army Medical Corps, but fortunately we were able to build it straight at the hospital, so it didn’t go to waste.
We had a brilliant time at RHS Hampton Court Festival – in our first year there, we started with winning a Gold medal, then progressed with our next garden to winning a Gold medal and Best Construction, then to a clean sweep of the awards with our garden in conjunction with Cancer Research UK this year.
Lee Bestall
I’ve had a great time taking part in online events as well as in-person events. I’ve taken part in lots of online events from one hour talks hosted by other Committees - I’d never consider travelling from Sheffield to London for an hour usually - to a full on two day seminar over Zoom. How they held my attention from 9am till 8pm for two days I’ll never know, but they did!
How are you finding the return?
Oakham Garden Services
We’re finding it all a bit overwhelming if anything, but in a positive way. We have so much available to us now there are more events, shows and things to attend. With project commitments we understand that as nice as it would
Oakham Garden Services and GoLandscape’s Belvoir Castle show garden
Bestall & Co - BBC Gardens, RHS Flower Show Tatton Park
be to attend all of them, it isn’t viable to stack out the diary with events so I’d encourage anyone thinking about attending events to be confident of their objectives of who, what, when and why, when considering attending events to ensure you’re getting the most from your visit.
FirstLight Landscaping
The events we have attended so far have felt like safe environments to be in, as there were plenty of safety precautions in place.
Rosebank Landscaping
We’ve found events slightly more challenging than previous years on the basis of the administration and making sure we’re following COVID security and testing. In some ways it has been a little easier because it’s a less busy show ground – admin challenges have gone up but logistical challenges have gone down.
It’s a big consideration for us to be on the show garden circuit, as it has an impact on our business. It’s hugely disruptive and you commit a huge amount of time to be at the garden, so you’ve always got to make sure you can afford the time break. As a hugely in demand and busy business, we don’t want to over-exert ourselves. But we enjoy it and there’s a huge amount of pride involved.
Lee Bestall
I’m still enjoying online meetings and will continue to attend these, but peppered with live events. I think I’ll be more selective in the future and will be looking for events that maximise learning. I’d like to see a mixture of events return, education and training via online means and in person exhibitions and events - although maybe condensed into ‘super events’ to make the most of time and reduce travel.
How has the pandemic been for your business?
Oakham Garden Services
The pandemic has certainly impacted our business, but in a positive way. Rest assured, we haven’t been ‘untouched’ throughout this trying time, we have struggled at times with supplier issues, staff testing positive and clients generally being more demanding, impatient and frustrated. Understandably, everyone is feeling somewhat frustrated with the way things have been but we have, now more than ever, realised that managing expectations quite early on is vital to minimise disappointment. Currently, we are struggling to recruit a whole new team; experienced hard landscapers are like gold dust at the moment!
FirstLight Landscaping
Initially we were quite anxious about how the pandemic would affect our business. However, it has been an extremely busy year, as many people have been choosing to spend money on their home and garden renovations rather than taking trips abroad. Due to the amount of interest in our services, we decided to switch to exclusively taking on design and build projects - something we have been planning for several years. This has been a great transition as it allows us to spend more time working and designing projects we are really passionate about.
Rosebank Landscaping
The uncertainty at the start was disruptive. There was a lot of nervousness from clients, leading to delayed starts on big contracts, and there was initially a period of time where construction sites had to shut down due to the sheer amounts of people involved in working on them. We picked up more private residential jobs, where you could have separate access and keep COVID safe for both client and our workers.
While the pandemic was disruptive at the beginning, more certainty and clarity on how to operate safely has emerged, and now I don’t think the industry has ever been in more demand – which leads to other, different problems like materials, skills and staff shortages.
Lee Bestall
Although there’s a slight feeling of guilt due to the number of people who have suffered through the pandemic, our industry as a whole and us as a business have seen a significant increase in sales as people have grown to appreciate their outdoor space. The pandemic has been, and continues to be a constant challenge, mainly due to the availability of goods. People want to buy and I want to sell, but the supply chain just can’t deal with the backlog and the challenges of Brexit. I began the pandemic with the fear of losing everything I’d worked so hard to build over the past 15 years, but this was short lived, as I saw spending increase and demand do the same. I hope in time that we’ll begin producing more in this country, mainly from a sustainability perspective as well as ease of transportation.
What do events mean to you and your business?
Oakham Garden Services
Recently Oakham Garden Services had an amazing opportunity to showcase our work, displaying a show garden at Belvoir Castle with the British Association of Landscape Industries and their careers initiative GoLandscape. It was our first show garden, so we didn’t know what to expect or what difficulties we would face, but thankfully the process ran smoothly and is definitely something we would like to have more involvement in. Having the exposure to fellow designers/installers meant we could have very relatable discussions.
FirstLight Landscaping
In previous years, we have enjoyed attending the British Association of Landscape Industries’ dinner events. We have found these very useful and at these events we have met many designers we now regularly work with.
Rosebank Landscaping
Events are good PR – we get amazing coverage from the gardens we create for them and they are a really good marketing tool. They are also intrinsically really rewarding - very different from usual, high pressure work we do, and they allow us produce work that’s really quite different.
Lee Bestall
I have to admit that I’m a huge fan of online meetings and love how a quick meeting has no transport and ‘chat’ to make it longer than it needs to be, that said, I’ve missed the opportunity to network in person and build relationships that way as it’s really not easy to do that over Zoom. The thing I’ve missed most though is the lack of access to be educated about new products. To see, touch and interact with them. To try them out and to get enthused by their creators. I’m really looking forward to getting back to an exhibition full of new and inspiring ideas.
What are you most looking forward to about future events?
Oakham Garden Services
We are eager to see more creative designs, networking, ideas and excited to see positivity flowing through the industry once again. We’ve all suffered in some way or another so peer support has never been more important.
FirstLight Landscaping
We are looking forward to catching up with other landscaping professionals over the next months, and to see them in person after such a long time!
Rosebank Landscaping
We are genuinely curious as to how RHS Chelsea is going to turn out at a different time of year, including what the reaction from the public will be and if there will be any changes to future planning of the event.
Lee Bestall
I’m looking forward to an event we’re running in September about how to select, move and plant large specimens. I’m taking the opportunity to have my whole team attend as we haven’t all been together for nearly two years. It’s called Choose it. Move it. Plant it. and we’d love people to join us on 29th September 2021. Tickets and info available on the event page of the BALI website, or by contacting Regional Support Officer, Laura Doyle on laura.doyle@bali.org.uk
Lee Bestall
Lee Bestall MBALI is an Association Accredited garden designer with a garden design, planting and aftercare business. They specialise in designing gardens around character properties, in particular stonebuilt barn conversions and red brick formal houses.
bestall.co
Firstlight Landscaping
Firstlight Landscaping specialise in garden design and hard landscaping projects in the North and West Yorkshire area. They pride themselves on being friendly and forward-thinking, and had a part in constructing two Silver Medal-winning gardens at BBC Gardeners’ World Live. This summer they constructed the Message in a Bottle garden at RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival, designed by Tracy Foster.
firstlightlandscaping.co.uk Oakham Garden Services
Oakham Garden Services are a design and installation company delivering high quality garden transformations primarily to domestic clients. They are passionate about what they do, striving to progress and better themselves as a business and to ensure the client journey is flawless from beginning to completion.
oakhamgardenservices.co.uk
Rosebank Landscaping
Rosebank Landscaping is a multi-awardwinning landscape design & build practice that conceives, creates and cares for distinctive gardens and open spaces for residential, commercial and public realm clients across the UK and internationally. This year they swept the board at RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival, claiming a Gold Medal, Best Show Garden and Best Construction for a Show Garden for The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden, designed by Tom Simpson.
