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

Sun, Sand and Sunshine

I can’t believe it is July already! I’ve seen the weather for this week and it looks like it’s going to be quite warm. So enjoy being outdoors and please enjoy your garden, that’s what it’s there for! This time of year, if you’re not much of a gardener yourself, things can start to look a little over grown. We can help with that. As well as the regular garden maintenance service that we provide our customers, we also undertake one off garden tidy ups. We can make things manageable again for you, so you can still make the most of this summer.

July is a great month for Foxgloves, Lavender, Sunflowers, Roses, Lily of the valley and mock orange to name but a few, there are loads to choose from so take a trip to your local garden centre. If you like to prepare, then you might consider planting ready for next month too.

Since the last blog, Richard has been busy with garden maintenance, hedge cutting, landscaping and sorting out weed control. Weed control, includes removing weeds, using weed killers or using a mypex weed control membrane. All of these have their uses but i’d say the best thing to do, is just keep pulling them out before they take over, unless you specifically want to landscape an area.

This weekend Summer and I took a trip to the beach with some good friends. We had great fun running in and out of the sea as the waves chased us. It wasn’t so much fun when Summer got sand in her eye. However, ice cream soon fixed that! If you are off to the beach you might collect a few shells and stones along the way, which you can then integrate into your garden, if you’d like to run with the seaside theme. Perhaps you could use them to decorate some pots. Or you could arrange them with tall grasses, the African lily, heathers, red valerian and ornamental thistles. Or you could integrate them into your garden path for a chance to be artistic, although you may need a far few to do this!

The tip for this week:

Look after your roses. If you spot green or black fly on your roses give them a squirt with water and a bit of washing up liquid. The blast of water will knock them off, keep on top of this to keep them at bay. If your rose bushes have any black or yellow spotted leaves, remove them and bin them to avoid the spread of disease. Snip off dead rose heads to prolong flowering and give them plenty of water, roses are thirsty!

My favourites this week, the welsh poppy, delphiniums, rambling rose and wild geranium.

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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