Lucky seven!

This week we celebrated our 7th Birthday here at Ark Fencing & Garden Services. And boy those seven years have gone by quick! Sometimes starting something new is scary, and when we began, it was! But luckily, with lots of hard work and perspiration, things have worked out well! The year we began this business was also the year we got married. After being together for eight years already mind you! People used to ask "how do you manage working together every day as husband and wife?" we just used to laugh. It was great. The best days were of course the days when the sun was shining and we were working hard on looking after all our garden maintenance jobs. That feeling when you get home after a hard day’s work, skin warm from the sun, money in your pocket and knowing it was all your own doing was fab. Of course there were hard times too, through winters and the financial crisis. But you live and learn. And we are still going so we must be doing something right.

In 2010 we were blessed with our beautiful little Summer Rose and that summer she came to work too. That was some juggling act, but she was a good baby and quite content which of course made it all that little bit easier.

In 2011 we took on our first labourer and I took a back seat on that side of things to focus on raising Summer at home and catch up on all that paper work and marketing! We still had the odd day out at work though, which she loved, and so did our customers! And here we are today. The main thing is to stay positive. It can be hard going working with the general public! You can't please everybody all of the time. But we all work hard, put maximum effort in on getting a great job done and that's what makes the difference. When you try your best, nothing can stop you.

So there's a little piece of our history there for you! But right now, spring is springing up and the days are brighter and a little bit warmer. Now comes the busy times! 

I briefly mentioned lawn care in the last blog. It is a good time now to add some top dressing to your lawn and more seed to thicken things up and add some new healthy growth. It won't take long for the seeds to germinate now and you'll soon see the results. If you're lawn is in pretty good shape anyway, it will benefit from regular mowing to keep it looking good.

If you have young children, you'll like to know that now is the time to plant those sun flower seeds - right where you want them to bloom. I can't wait; these are definitely one of my favourites since I’m such a big kid! It's also time to get those hedges tidied, if you haven't done so already.

We still have ongoing fences to build since all the storms back earlier in the year. We really have had a busy few months. One thing we have noticed this year is the price increase on timber! And all the suppliers seemed to put up their prices early, in February. Lately we have seen a steady increase in calls for garden maintenance. If things go well, you never know we might have room for another member in the team!

That's all for now, thanks very much for reading. If you want to find out more about us, take a look at our facebook page, we try to keep that up to date with our latest projects: www.facebook.com/arkgardenservices

The Spring Equinox

The Spring Equinox, the official beginning of spring... I love it, new beginnings and all that, but for us it marks the start of a great season for our business. This is the time when people venture outside a bit more than they have been able to recently, take a look around and start making arrangements to get all those garden jobs done. So, there will be many busy days ahead and i'm sure there will be blood sweat and tears! But it is all worth it in the end.

Since the last blog, we have been really busy. It has all gone a bit crazy with juggling getting the work done, visiting new customers and getting all the quotes put together. But we've managed to pull it off so far! Also, we have a new labourer in our team! A big welcome to Steve, thanks for all your hard work . We have completed work on a load of fences very recently, the most popular style remains to be the feather edge (close board) fencing - I'm assuming this is for the privacy it offers. Garden maintenance has of course picked up now that all that rain we had has subsided and the ground in our area is no longer water logged. We have also had a healthy gain in maintenance customers too, so welcome to you and here's to helping make your garden enjoyable for you this year.

If you're growing any veg this year, you still have time to start planting those seedlings. At the moment we just have tomato plants, lettuce and cabbage filling up the window sills. It will soon be time for them to be planted out and then we'll get planting some carrots and peas. I must say, a very small part of what we grow actually makes it to the dinner table due to our daughter picking and eating most of it. Oh well, that's one way to get little ones to eat their veg!

Although it seems a little way off, it is now the time to get planting bulbs in your garden for your summer flowering plants. My favourites are alliums, gladioli and the iris - all quite showy but perfect in cottage borders.

The end of March also marks a good time to apply a high nitrogen fertiliser to your lawn and generally put some time and effort into your lawn to help it recover from the wet winter months. Our lawn at home needs a lot of care and attention, due to the high traffic volume from our four dogs! But we wouldn't be without them. So we will be sorting out aeration in the next few days to relieve some of that compaction. We also have some wildflower seed that we're going to try out in one area of the garden this year, i'll keep you posted as to how that goes.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a fantastic start to the spring season, whatever you're planning.

A little visitor

This week has been a busy one as you would expect at this time of year. So what have we been doing? Well Richard has been looking after the regular gardens, cutting, trimming and weeding! He's also been fencing, jet washing, re-grouting a patio and swabbing the deck!  I mean painting on that all important decking oil. As for me and our little girl... we helped out a bluetit fledgling!

This time of year fledglings are leaving the nest, so be aware as they are really vulnerable little guys. The little fella was unfortunate as one of our dogs picked him up in his mouth and ran off with him whilst the other dogs followed to see if it was something tasty! Luckily, since they are so well trained, Conan let go (I didn't name him). We put him in a box and called City Wildlife to come and check him out. I must say Summer was so excited, as any three year old would be and insisted we give him some food and water. She wasn't impressed when I explained what it is that birds actually eat! Anyway, all was well and the bird seemed fine. The guy from City Wildlife took him away and said they would feed him along with others they have as he was too young to fend for himself.

So, back to gardening and here are a few tips for you for this week:

Weeding... Oh yes, I said weeding! Where we live there are a fair few fields and they all seem to be covered in dandelions. For the past week there have been seeds floating, very prettily I might add, on the breeze. Great for the kids, but it's getting a bit much now and they keep sticking to the lovely new rose buds. Only time will tell how many infest my own garden but it's important to pull them out as you notice them, before they root right down. Remember, "seven years seeds, seven years weeds". I think this sounds about right so if you  spot any, pull them out if you can, BEFORE they go to seed. You may need some weed killer too, especially in little cracks in paths or on the driveway.

Now for the fun bit! We've planted out a full bed of sunflowers this week, we'll see how it goes, but hopefully there will be an impressive display in a couple of months time. June is a great month for poppies (best in full sun, which I love), delphiniums (essential for a cottage garden) and Chives (fab with your potatoes and a smidge of butter). Also don't forget to plant those foxglove seeds. I'm all for encouraging people to use plants native to our beautiful country. Foxgloves are a true beauty and a bit on the wild side, which sounds good to me. Thanks for reading xxx

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