Landscape and horticulture expert

A day in the life of Landscape Juice

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but in this case, I am not so sure.

I have been noticing that this site has been featuring regularly in my search results and I am unhappy with it.

I have spent hours and hours and hours building up my site into a respectable gardening and landscaping resource.

I am really unhappy that someone, who cannot be bothered to take the conventional blogging route and hack away at the keyboard after researching their own material, just posts my feeds into a Google Blogger site and is reaping the rewards from it as if it was their won.

Expert paving advice

I have been noticing a lot of activity on a post - Laying paving slabs - I did back in June 2006.

It must be because the fine weather is here and previously soggy house owners, who could not get the BBQ area finished in the winter, are desperate to have their paving laid before the rains return.

How to balance your rotary lawn mower blade when sharpening

If you are like me you try and do as much of your own machinery maintenance as you can.

I do concede and get in an expert if the job is a major one because it is usually my luck to put something back together and find that I have five screws left without five holes visible meaning they were supposed to be inside somewhere.

Spectacular variegated wild nettle

Take a look at this wonderful variegated wild stinging nettle that I have discovered. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it; especially with the intense spring sunshine highlighting the colours.

The centre of the leaf is a mint green with a yellow to cream outer and on the newer leaves, the margin is a fantastic salmon pink.

Why Yellow Pages is dead - long live the gardening blog

Can anyone tell me when the last time you went to that whopping great big yellow book and made a list of potential gardeners or landscapers that you wanted to call from it?

My company placed adverts with Yellow Pages to the tune of £4,000 per year - yes that is a massive £76.00 per week and, if you take an employees wages into consideration, I was employing one person just to pay for this advert.

Horticultural Technology that changed the landscape

I have been thinking in the last few days about how technology in the garden has helped to shape horticulture in a way the likes of Gertrude Jekyll or Capability Brown would never have imagined.

Of course technology has always evolved the process even in the days when a horse drawn gang mower was replaced for the first time with a powered unit.

But what technology, in use today, has brought real time savings or quality to a task that would otherwise have taken twice as long manually or on the contrary, what technology has made tasks expensive without the cost saving?

Here are a few of my thoughts.

The Landscaper Magazine is planning exciting changes to it's website.

I was delighted today that David Curtis of the Landscaper Magazine left a comment regarding my recent post titled "The Landscaper Magazine switches to 'online'"

It demonstrated to me that they cared about their product and also cared about the market place in which they were pitching their wares.

I have made some fairly big claims with my post "Is the Horticulture printed publication industry in deep trouble?", which means that editors are normally reluctant to enter into dialogue.

Gardening business advice

From time to time, you may have noticed that I have posted advice on running your gardening business.

Being brutally honest, there are not many gardeners that make great business men or women. I have found over the years that those who are good with plants and soil or grass and trees tend not to want - nor get much time - to get involved with numbers and cash flow and as businesses grow, advisers are called in to keep the burgeoning enterprise on track.

UK Landscape Today claims 52,000 readership

I have been looking over UK Landscape Today newspaper today via a .pdf page.

On the face of it, the publication looks good although I would say, and I am sure Hort Week's lawyers have cast their eye over it, it is very Hort Week'esque.

Sparrowhawk bird kill in dusk swoop

Do you remember I covered the Daily Mail story of Sparrowhawk wrestling with a starling that it had pinned to the floor before the kill?

Well I was sent this picture by my Dad who captured this shot at dusk yesterday evening of a Sparrowhawk, well into his supper in the shrubbery, devouring a Blackbird it had just killed.

The night garden is often overlooked

How many of us spend our time in the garden during the day but rarely venture out after dark to take in the atmosphere?

I admit, looking at a brightly coloured flower or taking in the scent is easy when you can see the subject but I urge you, when the evening is especially still, to venture out and just walk around in the dusk or dark and feel how the garden tends to reach out to you rather than the other way round.

Chelsea debated on Gardeners Question Time

I have just listened to GCT and how refreshing that they allowed a bit of controversy on the show. The question? - the validity of The International Chelsea Flower Show.

The three panellists obviously read Landscape Juice last week and thought, if Phil can speak openly about it, then we can too and a few home truths slipped out.

Tim Rumble has his finger on the pulse and says what many believe and that the show has become more about snobbery and ego's, not to mention money, and the theme is so far removed from 'real' gardens as it can get.

The Landscaper Magazine switches to 'online'

The Landscaper Magazine has probably been the most astute of the trade mag's and adopted an online version in a bid to retain it's audience and advertisers.

I notice from their website, that there are three months worth of online versions available, using the flip over media format, that gives the impression you are reading a real magazine.

United Kingdom Gardening and Landscaping Rates

Whilst we have the momentum, I thought I would try and compile the data as it comes in, in the form of a spreadsheet, that can be used by business and consumers alike for the determination of charge out rates for the horticulture trades.

I have set up a Google spreadsheet that is viewable by everyone. The aim is to build a framework and industry type of standard that anyone who has an interest in the UK landscaping of gardening scene can make a judgement before setting their charge out rates.

Record oil price makes your hourly rate more expensive to sell.

I would like to draw your attention to oil prices and the difference it makes to selling an hour of your time.

In February 2007 I went into great detail about how to calculate your fuel costs if you run a vehicle for your gardening business.

With the steep rise in oil prices, you need to make an adjustment if you are going to retain the same level of profitability.