I got a call from a big-time garden designer today, and met up with him on my way home. He is putting a £50,000 garden behind a £1.5m house beneath the M4 flyover in Chiswick. This garden will have 1,000 plants squeezed into it. He said that an expensive garden is the latest must-have for people in houses where they've already got the high-tech kitchen, conservatory and quite possibly pool, hot-tub or sauna sorted. But what most of his customers don't realise is that a garden needs to be looked after - that plants die if they aren't watered, so they really need a gardener too. Which is where I come in. He'll give my name to anyone he thinks might need me.
Another garden designer who’s put some work my way says most of his customers have no grasp of the fact that plants grow, so they expect them to arrive at full size, and if they get any bigger they complain. He insists he puts in an irrigation system in any new garden. This is James, who says all garden designers come to hate their clients in time. I think I can see why.
2006-10-08 @ 20:08