Celebrating 30 Years (And still going strong!) I cannot believe we have reached our 30th year in maintaining gardens in the North Herts/Beds area. In that time, we have maintained and landscaped 1000’s of gardens, big and small. It all started in 1992 when my full time Insurance job allowed me plenty of time during the day which helped with childcare for our two children, but still left spare time that I didn’t know how to fill. I loved maintaining our 100ft garden in Baldock, so I thought why not maintain and tidy other gardens too for extra income for my family. Back then we didn’t have internet and google so the only way to put our name out there was placing adverts in the local paper, Yellow Pages and Thompsons Directories. Although, if you missed the cut off point for the Directories then you had to wait for a whole year to get in! Our first job came in and off I trotted to quote, it was to dig up a small apple tree stump and roots Easy job!?? (Or so I thought). The quote of £25 was accepted and I went round a day later with all my home DIY tools (How naive was I?). It was June, very hot and 5 hours later I managed to cut away the last of the roots. 5 hours!! I thought it would be a couple of hours at the most - welcome to the real world of professional gardening Dave. It didn’t put me off too much and I soon realised there was more to this gardening lark than I first thought. The adverts were working and soon had a steady stream of accepted quotes, which was great!
However, after a month or two, it became apparent how many times the customers said, “I’m so glad you have actually turned up.” The gardening and landscaping industry was renowned for letting clients down, I was so shocked, and it dawned on me there was a huge gap in the market for reliable and regular gardeners. I made it my mantra, if I said I was coming to give you a quote, I would turn up and meet you! (Regardless of what happens) and I have remained steadfast to that ethos. One of earlier landscaping project was for The Hertfordshire Football Association in Letchworth Garden City. They had built a new stand, changing rooms and clubhouse and wanted their frontage completely landscaped. After planting a new 100ft hawthorn hedge along the perimeter, we commissioned bespoke double metal entry gates. We finished with a beautiful new lawn, eye-catching shrubs and trees to complete the project. That was 25 years ago and to this day I still get a buzz seeing it every time I go pass. The years have flown by since those early days and we’ve had some highs and lows on the way, our premises have been broken into three times – it was heart-breaking. We have also met some wonderful customers, some who have now sadly passed away. We now maintain over 300 client’s gardens/grounds (residential and commercial) on a regular weekly or fortnightly basis. I have a strong team of 7 gardeners who love their job ensuring our customers gardens are looking their best. We also have 2 landscapers who carry out all our fencing, patio, decking and artificial lawn projects and we are fortunate to be fully booked until the end of April 2022. A YOUNG ME OUTSIDE THE HERTS FA GROUND IN LETCHWORTH AFTER LANDSCAPING THEIR GROUNDS.
56
Please mention The Villager and Town Life when responding to adverts
