Day in the life… by Adam S Bailey

“It must be lovely doing a job you really enjoy, being your own boss”. It was a client comment meant to be complimentary, I’m sure but inwardly I wince as I smile and mumble a polite acknowledgement. Some people think being a garden designer is somehow an easy job to fall into. Working with plants, what could be ‘lovelier’ than that?

6.27am I open the studio and boot up the machines. Breakfast is something I find in the fridge as I wait for umpteen junk emails to download. (Yep, I can eat chocolate first thing in the morning!) Any enquiries from the night before get replied to along with anything left over from the previous day. I seem to be a morning person, although that’s probably more to do with the strong coffee than any predisposition to dawn light.

7.01am Leave the studio and drive a fully loaded van to a project on Bromley. The contractors are already there (and I thought I started early?!) A morning downpour makes unloading a van full of plants a real joy (I’m learning to hone a gift of sarcasm). Once the van’s empty I run over the schedule with the site foreman, Matt. After six years we’ve got a really good working relationship which makes my job a lot easier as we do away with the niceties and get to business. A few discussions on brickwork finishes later and I take a few construction photos. I like to give a client ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’ photos of a new garden. My intentions aren’t all saintly as it’s also a part insurance policy to photograph where all the cable trenches have been laid. Saves a lot of headaches later on.

8.56am Leave the site and drive to a nursery in East Sussex. Having spent years working in nurseries and garden centres I’ve grown to be very picky about what I buy and even if I have to drive miles for good quality I’ll take the time. I hate buying second rate material. It usually pays off as it means better results at the end of a scheme and usually fewer failures.

11.12am Back at the studio and a phone call from a commercial client. They’ve got a new housing development which needs landscape plans for planning permission. Despite an already heavy schedule it’s not a good idea to mutter the words, “No time”. They’ve been regular clients for many years and if they say jump, I jump. That’s business. I put down the phone and rub out pencilled planting dates. Juggling is so much part of the job I should be in a circus.

12.03pm Lunch. The phone rings. It always does. Doesn’t matter what time I have lunch the phone rings!

12.22pm Finish lunch. No rest for the wicked.

12.27pm Back to the drawing board. The CAD machine is strictly for commercial plans. I know some designers swear by their CAD software (or at it depending on how it’s behaving) but I still prefer the old fashioned method of pencil and scrap paper for quick doodle-sketches. It’s served me well so far and if my memory serves me rightly it’s never crashed with a ‘Fatal error’ message.

1.13pm it’s never a clean run of course. Several phone calls, including someone wanting a quote for a “low maintenance garden with a water feature”. If I ever meet Sir Alan Titchmarsh I need to have a serious chat with him. I calmly inform the enquirer that our schemes start from about £10,000. The conversation is short.

2.19pm  Coffee, need coffee. Suddenly realise the kettle has been on vacation for too long.  Several cups later I return to the drawing board. Visions of meadow grids swim briefly before my eyes whilst I wait for the caffeine to kick in.

4.57pm The staff at the company next door to our studio barn go home. Am I in the wrong job?

6.23pm Leave the studio with my portfolio and a fully charged camera. At least the late spring evenings give me the chance to book consultation visits after work which means less down time during the day.

6.58pm Arrive at a new property.  Looks promising. Good start as they ask, “Would you like a coffee?” I always say yes. Not because I need a coffee (OK, I do!) It’s also a good sign of how things will progress if the coffee’s good. No, trust me, after years in the job, it really can be that simple! I discuss ideas and square metreage costs. I make a mental note of where the front door is in case they mutter the killer phrase, “Dog friendly garden”.

8.32pm I promise to put ideas in writing and after my much practiced presentation I leave. Second mental note, the front drive paving looks like it’s been driven over by too many Sherman tanks. Must add that to the design brief as a potential area for improvement.

9.04pm Arrive home. Carole, my ever patient wife and partner in the business leaves the front door open as I load up another van full of plants. Triple stacking herbaceous grasses is an art in itself. As I grab an armful of wet Brunnera in the failing light I remind myself that I really should be thankful that I am my own boss and that it’s “lovely” being a garden designer.

9.31pm Finish loading the van for tomorrow’s plant drop. It starts to rain. I don’t care. Whatever the down sides, I wouldn’t want to do anything else. This job demands a huge range of skills from plantsman, to artist, to labourer, to project manager and it’s not for everyone. But it’s what’s I am and at least no two days are ever the same.

SO YOU THINK YOU’RE A GARDEN DESIGNER?    By Jackie Edwards

8^th June 2006 was a big day.  It was the day I became a garden designer.  Obviously this didn’t happen overnight and I had struggled long and hard, through the highs and lows of four years of back-breaking, heart-breaking, soul destroying torture to get to that point.  But as the sun rose on 9^th June I knew that my life had now changed forever and I had achieved my goal – or had I?  What I’ve learnt in the intervening months is that being handed a degree certificate is a long way from living the dream.

It seems that the newly qualified garden designer has several options open to them.  Landing a job at an established practice is often the first choice.  Some of the big names are willing to take high quality graduates straight from University.  Several of our contemporaries followed this route, and are now enjoying a regular pay check, holiday pay, free tea and coffee all day, a warm office, and the company of likeminded individuals.  On the other hand, from what I’ve been told, the hours are long, the pay is relatively low, and an awful lot of time is spent in front of a computer, either researching for other people’s schemes, or drawing up other people’s designs.  And it would seem that CAD is an absolute must, most practices use computer programs to draw up their designs, so if you prefer to do things by hand then you would be in a minority.  It would seem that your own creativity, if not actually stifled, is not actively encouraged.  To be honest, this option seemed a little soul-destroying after all the years of hard study, even though it would be fantastic experience and certainly might provide a springboard to the upper levels of the profession.

The second option is to work for yourself, to set up on your own, or as in my case, with a partner.  This allows you the freedom to actually create your own designs, and build your own reputation, but this route is also fraught with problems.  It’s not really about being a designer, more about having the right skills to start and maintain a small business.  Claire and I went through a huge learning curve in the early months of setting up Down to Earth Design.  It has been exciting and at times scary.  Whilst your head is filled with potential designs, inspiring images, sketches, materials, plants and planting plans, and you can’t wait to start putting everything into practice – the reality is that you have to spend a huge chunk of your time meeting with business advisors, accountants, and printers; the business stationery has to be designed and printed, you have to organise advertising and client checklists, and all this before you even get to see a client!  And nothing really prepares you for the moment the first client asks you “How much is this going to cost me?”.  Well, how long is a piece of string? – pricing the jobs has proved to be one of the most difficult aspects.  It is something, I suspect, that you just get better at guesstimating as you gain experience.

Garden Design is now an established profession, and you wouldn’t get your architect to build an extension, so it is fair to say that you wouldn’t ask your designer to build your garden.  What is important, though, is to be able to suggest someone who can, and you can’t do that if you don’t know any reliable landscapers.  Most established landscape architects and garden designers guard the names of their favourite landscapers like the crown jewels.  A good relationship with a reliable builder, who knows how to read plans and has the ability to communicate, is vital.  You are only as good as the finished build and if you’re perfect design is taken and butchered by someone who doesn’t know their onions then there’s not much you can do except keep the photos out of the portfolio. 

Not having established contacts in the industry is certainly one of the many hurdles that we have had to overcome.  Suppliers, builders, nurseries, and other related professions such as electricians and arboriculturists; it really helps if you know them, and if you don’t, you need to know someone who does.  That is where an organisation like Gold comes into its own, because for Claire and me, the ability to ring or email and ask for advice and guidance, has been invaluable.

Working with a partner has also made this experience such fun, and less stressful than being out there on your own.  Our company is in its infancy, but we have high hopes and are working hard to pull it all together.  Looking back to June 8^th, I can’t believe how far we have come.  It has definitely been worth it, and I wouldn’t be doing anything else for the world.

Iris pallida (Dalmatian iris) by Beverley Knight One of the original species that today’s bearded iris are descended from, Iris pallida is a  useful plant in the border as its fan like blue-green foliage looks good all year round and can compliment numerous colour schemes.  I must admit to not being an admirer of the variegated forms as I find it difficult to combine them with other plants – but as a statement on its own a clump of Iris pallida ‘Argentea Variegata’ is eye catching. It is a tolerant plant growing on most well drained soils but preferring soil on the alkaline side of neutral with a pH of 6 or higher, as it comes from the limestone hills of the Adriatic area.   Flowering in May to June, it grows to 1.5 metres tall and has sweetly scented lilac blue flowers.  It prefers a sunny position like all bearded iris but is happy in part shade as well.  The flowers are hermaphrodite, pollinated by insects and self fertile.  Uses for Iris pallida (apart from looking good in the border) are medicinal, cosmetic – as a fragrance and a dye source – and also as food flavouring.  The roots are dried and ground for Orris which apparently smells of violets. Iris pallida is a vigorous plant which rapidly forms dense mats of roots and creates a good ground cover smothering weeds.  Lastly it is unpalatable to browsing deer or rabbits- and having grown it myself in a garden full of slugs and snails I can report that it is not on their menu either!