CELEBRATING 25 YEARS IN BUSINESS

We are celebrating 25 years in business and would like to thank all our lovely clients for their support. It’s been a wonderful experience in many ways: we visit really interesting places that you may not get the chance to see and meet genuinely lovely people. 

It’s a delightful job to create beautiful gardens.  Many clients wait years to appoint a garden designer, so they are so excited and invested in the project which is infectious. It’s a great collaborative process working closely with the client and helping them realise their dream. 

We enjoy the design process for the problem solving and creativity, and seeing the delight when a client is excited about the design possibilities. We still get a thrill from the transformation, seeing the design being translated into real life. We love working with plants and look forward to going to the plant nursery to select plants. We plant the garden ourselves, so it’s very satisfying to handle plants during the planting stage and see the whole garden design process finally come together. 

Photograph by Ian Lamond Photography.

How does it feel to have been in business for 25 years?

Having built a reputation for excellence locally, winning Ilkley Business awards, it means we have a steady stream of work through referrals and repeat business.

We have been fortunate to be able to work in the field that we love, converting to being a garden designers from landscape architects. Practically this has meant that we could work the business round our family when they were young .. though it was never easy!  It is a bit like spinning plates and like, buses, projects come all together, so we have to realistic about what we can take on.

What skills are needed?

Drive and determination. Stamina and resilience.

Business skills are needed to run any efficient business:

Time management and multi-tasking. We run many projects at different stages, and you need to switch quickly between projects and tasks. ‘spinning many plates’.

Communication and people skills, this is key:  from explaining to clients about the garden design process, listening skills and sensitivity to understanding what the client would like: understanding that some clients struggle to visualise plans and envisage changes, keeping them informed and reassured throughout the whole process, liaising between the client and the contractor. 

Presentation skills and being able to communicate your ideas and ‘sell’ the design.

Marketing skills.

Assertiveness and negotiation skills. Sometimes it is stressful for clients to cope with upheaval of their garden environment, so we are required to reassure and keep everyone informed and happy. As in any dealings with the public, we sometimes have difficult situations where we try to keep our head and remain calm.

Financial and accounting skills. 

Design skills. Often garden design is as much about problem solving. Sensitivity to the site, the client's tastes, a good eye.  In depth knowledge of hard landscape and building materials, plants, and horticulture, soils, ecology.

The planning process, legal aspects, British Standards.

 How are we going to celebrate the 25th business anniversary

Visiting gardens of course!! Ian and I have planned a trip to the South West to revisit gardens we saw when we were students at Sheffield University.