Everyone who works as a professional gardener is called upon by their clients to provide them with information and advice, almost at every visit. For the sake of regularity and to establish the definition of a professional gardener, I am referring to an individual who charges money for their time, as opposed to an amateur – who may be highly knowledgeable, but is not earning a living from their skills. This person may be a general gardener, mowing contractor, landscaper, hedge cutting specialist – any one of a wide range of people working for a customer in their garden.
Advice may be on just about every conceivable subject – from siting a barbecue or compost bay, depth of a fish pond for Koi, how high to mow the newly sown seeded lawn, to questions on pests and diseases. Answering these questions is a major part of our professional relationship with a client, rendering our usual services more valuable and our business practice more useful to the customer. It is a simple part of everyday life during a site visit.
This advice should not be confused with a Garden Advisory Business, established solely for the purpose of providing professional – paid – advice. Many gardeners offer an advisory service as a separate part of their business offer, selling their skills and knowledge as a source of income, usually at a much higher rate than their standard ‘weeding’ charge. There are those who offer specialist garden skills, including Garden Designers and Landscape Contractors, who may be called upon to provide a homeowner with advice on site potential and feasibility reference future plans.
This preliminary advisory work should be provided in a purely verbal manner, and should remain as such when being supplied as a service by an Adviser. Advice must be restricted to verbal advice as it is not backed with evidence. This is an important distinction, as advice is not legally binding, nor can such advice be used in a claim against the adviser, if the advice is provided as a preliminary, unqualified and general statement, not as fact.
I have been privileged to be a panel member on many Gardeners Question Time events and radio programmes, where the team are asked for their advice. The questioners do not expect to receive detailed or accurate information, knowing that the Speakers have no real knowledge of their site or situation, even when they try to describe the setting. And so it is with advice provided by those general gardeners who happen to be working in the garden at the time. The advice may be perfectly sound, but without conducting surveys and information gathering to provide the adviser with full appraisal, such advice should be treated as useful, not binding, and offered as such to the customer.
I always make a very clear distinction between Garden Advice and Garden Consultancy. This may be summarised as Advice is provided without expectation of responsibility for words, whilst Consultancy is provided in written form, backed with evidence and research, and may be deemed to be liable in a claim for damages in the event of a poorly researched statement or mis-information provided by carelessness.
Establishing a Garden Advice Service or Practice is an excellent source of income for a skilled and knowledgeable person. No matter how great your knowledge, turning your skills and talent into a money-making business is the main reason for setting up an Advisory Practice.
To succeed, you need customers, people willing to pay for your talent. How to attract those customers is obviously key to your success. You may be assured that there is a great hunger in the general public to engage and commission garden experts; those willing to attend their gardens and provide them with answers or to simply offer ‘training’, teaching them about the various plants and potential in their private domain.
If you decide to add Garden Advice to your existing garden maintenance or design business, you will need an image. A Public Persona. You will need to set yourself apart from your peers. How to start this process?
I suggest that you begin by assessing your talent and skills. What can you offer in your region that others cannot? At this stage, any Diplomas, Degrees or Certificates are not relevant to setting up your image. Indeed, too many Doctorates or Chelsea Gold Medals may well frighten people away, believing that you are too expensive, too exclusive to bother with their garden.
Better by far, in my experience, is to offer a Speciality, something they can relate to, and believe will be useful to them.
A website, clearly setting out your skills and background with plenty of examples of the style of gardens you prefer to work in (eschewing lots of pretty pictures of individual blooms or mood board images which are generally meaningless) will be invaluable. I suggest too, that you set out your charge rates, in the safe knowledge that you will reduce time wasters who are only interested in cheap or free advice. Personally, I do not charge mileage, as this can be off-putting if someone is weighing up the cost of inviting you to site, afraid that the total cost is unknown.
The website is the basic foundation required to ensure that you present yourself as being a bespoke garden adviser. Assess your personal skills and highlight those areas that you are particularly keen on, and feel expert in. These should form the essence of your Advisory Practice. You will need all of your skills in the field, but for the purpose of attracting customers and as an advertising hook, offer your speciality as the primary lure.
Personally, I would suggest offering advice under your own name, rather than as a ‘Practice’ name, as you will require Public Liability insurance to operate in the garden. Your standard PL cover should suffice, as you are not offering formal written consultancy or design work, which will require Indemnity insurance cover. As an adviser, it is unlikely this will be available to you, although in any event, it is advisable to always notify your insurers of any changes in your working practice.
Although I would not wish to deter potential customers from seeking advice by creating a set of Terms & Conditions, it is helpful to have some form of letter of introduction, setting out your services. There should be a clear understanding that advice is provided verbally only, as written documents are only available under a Consultancy agreement.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES – SOME SUGGESTIONS
There are so many different angles or special interest topics to be found in the world of gardening and horticulture. Looking at a few main subjects, likely to attract fee-paying clients;
Ancient Orchards and Fruit Trees This is a wide-ranging subject, bringing in orchard design and management, pruning and shaping, budding and grafting, identification of varieties, identification of pests and diseases plus many opportunities for long term involvement in a project.
Wild Flower Meadows Although there are many garden advisers who specialise in wild flower management and creation, it is a very popular topic, and perhaps could be offered alongside another skill. Although again, a wide-ranging subject, as a stand-alone speciality, you will have many competitors.
Composting and Green Waste Regimes Another of those subjects that are covered by other advisers, but always an essential part of your overall offer. There will also be opportunities for repeat visits, as the results of your advice will not be immediately obvious.
Pruning of Climbers Especially wisteria and roses, the ability to tame overgrown climbers is not an easy subject, and is one that many homeowners despair of even finding someone who really knows the subject. Another of the long term/repeat visit skills opportunities.
Organic Vegetable Growing This is a great subject for building an advisory business around, with opportunities for repeat visits, plus personal planning of the vegetable year together with the customer in a one-to-one relationship, selecting those crops that the client wants to grow. This is another wide-ranging subject with plenty of scope for innovation, bearing in mind that the soil will need to be subject to a strict regime for a lengthy period before the plot can be called truly organic.
Water Gardens and Wildlife Ponds Another long-term advisory service, as the requirement to establish the right conditions regarding light, water quality, water management, plant selection, wildlife selection including attracting native insects and creatures is not immediate and final.
Rose Garden Management From soil conditioning to bed design, selection of colour and flowering periods, special period planting (e.g. Victorian species only) identifying pests and diseases, types of rose, pruning and fertilising and managing rose gardens is a great subject for a Garden Adviser, providing the customer with a season by season programme.
Garden Evaluation and Valuation – two similar and related subjects, affording an opportunity for a seasoned consultant to assess and evaluate the potential for a garden. Too often, owners do not appreciate the opportunities for betterment their site may offer. Perhaps a vista may be opened up to views beyond the garden, or the form of the land may benefit from a pool to reflect features and foliage and double the visual impact of the site. Putting a price on a shrub, tree or hard landscaping feature can be useful to anyone selling their property.
These are just a few of the subjects that are ideal for Garden Advisers, starting out with a brief survey, and getting the customer to understand the need for a long-term relationship with you as their adviser. Programmed and diarised visits, subject to suitable weather conditions, each of the above topics should attract customers willing to pay you for at least four visits per annum.
(Note; Unless you are qualified and BASIS registered, it is advisable to avoid offering any advice in respect of chemicals, sprays, herbicides, pesticides etc, as you will be liable for any problems and mis-use. This comment applies to both Garden Advisers and Consultants)
Setting your charge rates should be a matter of increasing your standard ‘weeding’ rate by double. Although you are not acting in a formal and official capacity as a Consultant (see further chapters) with all that involves, you are offering to train and educate the customer, using your skills and knowledge in a manner which allows them to continue with your advice, calling upon you to return in a planned manner, subject to seasons and weather conditions.
Work on a Half Day or Full Day rate, to include travelling time. Establish whether or not you will be expected to clear away arisings after your sessions, as this will impact on your time.
This is the time to announce or display any formal qualifications you may hold. Once you have been commissioned by a customer, and they discover that you hold various certificates and awards, they are privately delighted and congratulate themselves on their wisdom is choosing you as their Adviser.
Advertising and making yourself known is always going to need a broad-brush approach. Those of you who have a public Facebook account may announce your services to potential clients, although I would not rely on this as a means to attract customers on its’ own, but as a part of a general campaign. Running a Public accessed social media blog or showing your work on Pinterest are all useful to your image, although they need careful management to ensure that negative comments do not arrive on the screen.
Leaving your business public image in the hands of a medium that you cannot control is not ideal. Better to build your own Facebook page, offering a certain amount of advice – not too much to give away your ‘secrets’, but sufficient to raise your profile and establish your credibility in the marketplace. This is a difficult balancing act, and takes a lot of work to control.
Writing for a local magazine or newspaper is a well-trodden path for many advisers, although you may be lucky in finding the right magazine at the right time to become their regular columnist. (One-off features are great, but unless you have many such articles in your ‘library’, your name may be quickly forgotten by the readers.)
However, producing an interesting feature on a subject that will be of interest to the Editor – say an article on seaside gardening for the Brighton-on-Sea Gazette is something to mention in your blog or website. Anything to endorse your image and credibility is always helpful in the long term.
Offering Talks to Societies and Clubs, not only gardening clubs. I have visited well over a hundred different venues in my time. Everything from pokey little rooms to village halls, sports centres and health spas, talking to Women’s Institutes, Beer and Wine Societies, Masonic Charities and of course, all shapes and sizes of Horticultural Clubs. Apart from your (modest) fee, your name and expertise will become known through a wide range of platforms.
Join the RHS Speakers Register, and you will find yourself with bookings for a couple of years in advance.
Some of the most successful talks I have given – those that I picked up commissions and advice sessions for top money – were at obscure meetings, including The American Women in Surrey (or a similar sounding name) where I spent the evening talking with some extremely interested and interesting people, handing out business cards all evening!
The secret is to offer a Talk With A Difference. Choose your special subject, make it sound exciting and start to build your client base. Remember, as an Adviser, a large percentage of your commissions should become regular programmed visits. Explore every positive avenue, keeping accurate records of what you have done – what has worked and why, and what has failed to make an impact on your business.
Volunteering at Stately Homes or other local gardens who welcome extra hands at busy times. Your association with the garden will provide you with plenty of opportunities to market and promote your skills in a positive way.
Becoming an RHS Volunteer Adviser – if you hold formal qualifications, and seek to strengthen your advisory service foundation, consider offering to become an RHS Adviser at one of the main gardens, or at Shows featuring an RHS presence.
Becoming a Gardens Adviser as a career path, earning a living from your skills and knowledge, takes time and energy to come to fruition. Many different facets – everything from your own personality and choice of specialist subjects, ability to enthuse and teach customers, skills knowledge and presentation, always looking to the future and creating multiple visit opportunities to become a profitable and viable business are the key to success as a Gardens Adviser.