Hi
I'm being made redundant in a few weeks, and have been thinking of setting up a gardening business in the spring and am dithering about suffering a crisis of confidence, so thought I would ask Mumsnet for your thoughts on whether it would be a go-er or if I'm missing something.
5 years ago we bought a 200 year old cottage, from a lady who loved the garden and filled it with a million plants. I have had to learn to look after it PDQ and found I just loved the garden, being in the outdoors, watching things grow. I have taken my RHS Level 2 horticulture course this last year and now the redundancy is looming I would like to take the plunge into something new - but need to make it pay, of course!
I'm aiming the gardening service at people in my town who have a garden or balcony, and they have no idea how to make it look its best. Maybe they know nothing about plants (and don't want to), or would like to but don't know where to start or don't have the time to look after their garden apart from mow the lawn now and then. So their garden looks a bit bare of plants or colour, or has grown like stink with no maintenance and is all over the place. Maybe they would like to grow some fruit and veg, or have a small pond. My town has grown rapidly in the last 10 years, and has a mix of nice new estates for families (built on poor industrial land mostly) and trendy marina apartments favoured by young couples and the (fairly well off) retired.
I was thinking of offering
- Suggesting the most suitable plants for the space, and advice on how to look after
them to ensure they keep looking their best
- prune and reshape existing shrubs so that they are manageable in size and grow well
- create new beds and borders, removing weeds, improving soil to give the plants the
best start in life
- source suitable shrubs, perennial plants, annuals, including fruit and vegetables and
plant them in borders or containers (I may supply my own, grown from cuttings, seed or divisions from my garden).
- suggest the best way to provide attractive storage and extra space for growing
through green roofs or walls, or to make a composting area
- create a small pond, superb for attracting wildlife, either in the ground or in a
container
- Ongoing monthly, or seasonal, visits to keep the outdoor space looking its best by
deadheading, pruning, mulching and clearing.
I don't want to
- just mow people's lawns weekly
- do hard landscaping (patios, fences) at the moment - DH may join me in that capacity in a few years...!
In the past have found I have "inherited" a plain or poorly planted garden when I moved house which I didn't know how to make look nice, or a pristine one which I didn't know how to keep looking nice. I have quite a few friends with gardens who don't know where to start and their plants are not stopping growing in the meantime.
I am thinking about charging about £20 per hour at first (but set a price by the job, as I have heard charging an hourly rate to clients leads to clockwatching!). We donn't get tradesmen in at our house at all if we can help it (DH prefers to do it all himself and is too tight to pay anyone if he can do it himself) so I'm not sure if I'm pricing myself about right.
Any thoughts - particularly on whether anyone would pay for what I'm offering - experiences and advice would be very welcome.
Thanks