Join Our Landscape Specialist Scheme As A Garden Maintenance Professional - learn more about how this scheme has been recently expanded
This year our Landscape Specialist Scheme topped a thousand members. That’s a thousand landscapers and designers benefiting from a dedicated page showcasing their company and the services we provide to make life easier. This autumn, we’re very pleased to be opening it up to professional gardeners.
Almost two years ago exactly, we introduced our ‘Better together’ initiative at Futurescape, with the vision to gap the bridge between hard and soft landscaping. Jamie Butterworth also joined us as Horticultural Consultant to help share skills across the industry.
“When Jamie joined London Stone,” explains Director Steve Walley, “we wanted to be seen as a supplier not just interested in selling ‘hard’ paving but interested in the whole garden.”
Since then, we’ve worked hard to encourage the transfer of skills and promote understanding between hard and soft landscapers. It’s become clear that a vital part of increasing the regard in which the profession is held is ensuring that the importance of Garden Maintenance is promoted and recognised.
“We feel that horticulturists don’t get the credit they deserve and aren’t seen as important as they should be,” says Steve. “Adding Garden Maintenance as a category to the Landscape Specialist Scheme highlights their importance. Suppliers, landscapers, horticulturists - without one, the whole industry is poorer.”
With the garden increasingly regarded as an extension of living space, it’s not entirely surprising that sometimes people forget that it needs a bit more attention than an indoor room, where a quick dust, vacuum and tidy restores its freshness.
Claire Vokins is one professional gardener who is determined to see her profession recognised by industry associations and, in turn, have its value increased in the eyes of the public.
As Claire says in the article she’s written for our website, “In time you will need to feed your garden and add water; regularly. You will need to clean the hard-landscaping areas and at regular intervals determined by the plants you will need to dead head, cut back, prune as well as many other tasks as-and-when required.” For many home-owners, taking time and skills into account, it’s just not possible to maintain the standard they see when the garden design is first complete
If you’re already a member of our Landscape Specialist Scheme and also offer garden maintenance as a service, then make sure that you add this category to your company profile. Given the part that Jamie has had to play in advancing our vision of #OneIndustryUnited, we’re very pleased that his company, Butterworth Horticulture, was our first member to sign up under Garden Maintenance. Click through to see how your profile page could look.
If you’re not yet a member, then do sign up. Not only does it bring a number of benefits and enhanced discounts, but taking a free business page on our website adds a good whack to your SEO credentials. “For quite small operators,” says Steve, “this is a way of getting or enhancing a digital profile.” It also allows members of the public to see landscapers, horticulturalists and garden maintenance professionals on an equal footing.
Don’t forget that for every new member we donate £10 split between Perennial and Greenfingers - two highly relevant and worthwhile charities. For more information and to sign up for free membership, visit our Landscape Specialist Scheme.
