Landscape Juice

Tips on writing a gardening CV

If you are thinking about applying for a job in the gardening or landscaping sector then the presentation of your CV - curriculum vitae - is absolutely essential.

Don't think of your CV as a list of your experience or what you have archived but more of a presentation of what you will bring to the position that is being offered.

Look at the details of the advertised position and try and match your skills in an ordered fashion, matching your skills with the employers requirements - The prospects website offers good advice on writing your CV.

Mistletoe - fact, history and myth

Mistletoe is as traditional at Christmas as the humble Christmas Tree, but unlike the relatively tame history of the good old tree, mistletoe has a rich mythical past conjuring up images of Druid rituals, passion and fertility.

First of all, mistletoe, of which there are 1400 species and sub species, is partly parasitic and lives on a host tree such as apple, pear or poplar. Having green leaves itself and able to photosynthesise, the plant is a hemi-parasites but do utilise their hosts too.

The mistletoe plant is attached via a gall called a haustorium - Just some of the information I learned from Jonathan Briggs.

Reputation management on gardening blogs and forums

The new buzz word amongst website owners is 'reputation management' and it represents the increasing awareness of the responsibility a site owner has towards its own content and any comments that are left on posts or forums.

I had my attention drawn to this post on blogstorm - SearchWiki – New Medium but the old laws still apply - which concerns the launch of the Google SearchWiki.

Google SearchWiki has a comments facility which enables searchers to leave comments (in search results) on a business or website - those comments will be available for others to see, and it is this comments feature, that has lead to the debate about ownership of defamatory and libellous comments.

Will snow damage my garden

This year, was the earliest recorded day for 34 years for snow to fall in London and similar around the UK.

Well, these last ten years seems to have been rather mild in the latter part of the year after a little (seven to ten days) cold snap in November.

Christmas here last year (France) was a mixed bag with hard hoar frosts right up to midday on Christmas day and then turning extremely mild for the afternoon and the following week.

What is the future for garden journalism?

Gardening journalists are starting to get the message. The future of garden journalism lies on the Internet and not in a glossy magazine.

I am uncertain of the business model that online editors are adapting as the curve develops?

The message has to get through to editorial staff - change the way you do business or face a life in the wilderness.

In an article on Haymarket Publishing - Editorial and design heads ask if the web needs magazines - dated 22nd October 2008, a meeting between the British Society of Magazine Editors and the Editorial Design Organisation, discussed the the need to move to digital.

25% discount off raised borders at Harrod Horticulture

Growing vegetables next year can be doubly beneficial for you. First it will get you outside in the garden and second it could help you knock pounds off of your vegetable bill.

What is more, if you are in the garden enjoying the sunshine and digging the dirt, you cannot be in the shops buying other stuff that you do not need or can afford.

Harrod Horticulture have a great offer running until the end of the year. Buy any of their raised border products and get twenty five percent off of the price.

Growing winter flowering Pansies

Winter flowering pansies have the ability to flower in the cold depths of winter when other life is hibernating, they are extremely tolerant of the cold and wet, and withstand chill winds well.

The British Protected Ornamentals Association website

The British Protected Ornamentals Association (BPOA) has flicked the switch on its new website in a bid to publicise the organisation and promote their members interests.

The BPOA was created to direct resources towards research and development and to represent members political and marketing needs.

The BPOA's goal is to assist the growers of protected ornamental crops, and raise the profile of their industry.

The members of the BPOA are specialist growers of bedding plants, pot plants, cut flowers and ornamentals grown under protection.

Wyevale Garden Centres - career opportunities

Wyevale Garden Centres is looking for a horticulture expert for its Bulbourne Road garden centre in Tring, Hertfordshire.

The successful applicant will receive a mind boggling £13,000 annual salary - here endeth the free recruitment campaign.

Back on the 13th October 2008, I publicised a similar shocking job offer for a a Horticultural Expert at their Castleton centre in Newport, Wales. The tragedy is, the annual salary has dropped from £14k to £13k.

Garden blogging arrives at Garden Media Awards

It is official, garden blogs have become mainstream garden media having had a special category created for this years Garden Media Guild awards.

At the awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London saw 400 horticulture publishing and broadcasting professionals gather to recognise the greatest talent of the year.

It's a dramatic departure from their traditional theme and for the first time, I get the feeling that garden writers realise that they have to embrace the web or be left well behind.