It never seems quite right when half my staff and clients are off to Chelsea while I am stuck here in Liphook manning the fort. It's one of the perks of being the boss of a garden design company that the one place you don't want to be on the last week of May is too far away from your clients. In May, clients are a needy bunch. They need lots of TLC and reassurance that their new garden is going to work out as planned and that pile of mud really will be gone when the book club arrive this evening! Even though the back garden can resemble a muddy rugby pitch during the 'construction' phase, not helped by the recent rain, it is important to keep the faith and keep your eye firmly on the end result. After all, you can't make omelettes without breaking a few eggs!

We have had a vote amongst members of the family as to the subject of our daily blog and the unanimous vote has gone to the slug. Our French Au Pair who seems quite paranoid over most things seems to have serious issues over what I have always considered to be a benign friendly creature. It all started for her last month when our sociable cat Mally inadvertently left a few quite small specimens on her bed (I think she had been rolling in the wet grass during the slug migration season, that's the cat, not the Au Pair). Still if she annoys me anymore, no need to ring the agency, just leave one in her black coffee (no sugar just a bit of soya milk yuk!) and she will be on that Eurostar before you can say Au Revoir!

Slugs are a bugger because they will eat everything in sight, particularly that lush new growth on Hostas, early vegetables and herbaceous perennials. I now pay my teenage daughter 5p for each slug she can find. She is a clever old so and so and it wasn't long before she put two and two together and realised slugs come out at night. So after a hard session of Friends episodes she is out there with a torch and a small bucket, and each night there is no change from a pound. We agonise about what to do with them and to make a win win situation we chuck them over into next door.

I am never too sure about egg shells, it's supposed to irritate them and they just give up and go next door to find their mates. Beer is a complete waste of time. I went out there last week after leaving out a plate of John Smiths and do you know what, there was a group of slugs out there absolutely rat arsed. So let's hear it for the humble and much maligned slug. Tomorrow its worms!  
 

The last two weeks of May are always the most important time for any garden landscaper, in terms of projects on, clients to visit, and general stuff to be done. This year is no exception, and while the recent rain hasn't helped the hard landscapers, our new turfing is getting a well needed drink. The garden maintenance arm of the business is in full swing. You may have noticed your garden has exploded into life, and while Hampshire and Surrey have a good proportion of free draining soils there is very little sign of it drying out just yet. Today is the start of the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show, and while there is a wonderful buzz to doing it, anyone with a family life and a wish for a semblance of normality in their year would be advised to steer well clear. Unfortunately, many garden designers and sponsors have had to pull out of Chelsea because of the crunch, and I suspect the emphasis this year will be on cost savings and doing things in house.

Talking of which we have had lengthy discussions with a number of clients about ways to keep down costs, particularly with the creation of new gardens, with design and construction services. There are huge cost savings to be made in in both establishment costs and particularly ongoing garden maintenance works. We have two wonderful clients on the Hampshire Surrey border with whom we have done several projects, and now look after their estates. Our in house Garden Designer Dan Lobb has provided for vast swathes of wild flowers where once there were formal lawns. Not only has the volume of wildlife improved no end, the maintenance of this area has dropped 70%, which represents a massive saving running into thousands of pounds.  Also by using thicker mulching the weed time is reduced and therefore labour costs well down on last year.
 

I had a very anxious phone call from a client in Bognor Regis in West Sussex yesterday afternoon who had just interrupted two burglars trying to nick the recently planted Phoenix Palms I had just installed. They didn't get very far however as they are very heavy (wet clay root balls from Italy) and incredibly sharp near the base. Anyone trying to forcibly remove them without gloves would be in for some severe lacerations, and I expect a late night call to NHS direct and a trip to Boots Chemist is in order for some teenager in Bognor trying to pull a fast one.

It's a very full-on life running a landscape gardening business, and with four kids there is never a dull moment. The three eldest girls have all been to St Ives School in Haslemere, and while the two eldest have moved up to Guildford High School, my youngest Antonia is in year 5 and loving it. I have always been in awe of teachers and on the few occasions I have been in the headmistresses' room, I have always had a slight queasiness in my stomach, probably a throw back to my slightly naughty days in Churchtown Junior School in Southport, reporting to Mr Johns.  I was slightly nervous when I was summoned to see Mrs Catt last month and to my astonishment I was asked to be a governor. If Mr Johns could see me now.

Like all businesses at the moment, schools are feeling the pinch with fewer people being able to pay and it is all about bums on seats. I hope I can bring something to the table, even if it's that a school in Haslemere has one of the best lawns for miles.

One sector of industry hardest hit by the downturn has been the building trade. In the area we cover, including London, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Berkshire, a number of Landscape Gardeners who rely extensively on the building trade have seen their volume of works suffer.

We are slightly more fortunate in that we the majority of our clients are private, around Liphook Haslemere and beyond. Advertising in some of the more glossy publications has brought us some success further afield and today we start two large projects one in North Hampshire near Odiham, the other in East Surrey near Walton on Thames. They are both great projects involving detailed stone work and very high spec decking and planting. The headache for us is how to start two major projects in one day. This is where we are lucky enough to have two very cool and highly professional managers in Dan and Tony, who can get their head around the logistics of the project and start them rolling with a minimum of fuss. It's going to be a very long day for all of us but thank goodness in this most difficult of years the work is flowing!

A great time for a new project. Watch out for young toddlers but any form of water feature creates so much interest with dragon flies birds and amphibians all finding their way to your garden. I expect there will be some good deals to be had with rigid pond liners this season. If you are looking to reduce that volume of grass cut each week, a wild flower meadow is an exciting, green addition to your garden. Wild meadow grass is only cut once or twice a year, and depending if you're on alkali soil near the downs or more acidic and sandy the further north you go, a great variety of wild flower in seed form is readily available to you, both on line or at the garden centre. Kill existing with roundup, or dig over if you are feeling very fit, but remember we need to get rid of those deep rooted perennials. The seasons upon us, it's every man for himself.

The mowers are on the start line ready for the off. The housewives favourite is just about to Muller the lawn. No wonder it is just moss; the poor grasses don't stand a chance. Raise the height of your newly sharpened or replaced blade, and remember it's little and often, with a good weed and feed fertilizer applied once the grass starts to move, watered in as soon as you apply it.

So much to do, so little time. I always get a feeling of euphoria towards the end of March mixed with a genuine sense of angst as to the tasks I should be doing now and those yet to come. The gardening conveyor belt has just jumped a gear and there is no way off. And it's only going to get faster. Where better to start than in the vegetable garden. More and more of us are veggie miles conscious and it's a feel- good place to be right now. Double dig any newly created areas of patch and incorporate as much well rotted horse manure as you can. The early potatoes should be sprouting under the bed next to the home made beer, ready to venture forth to face the worms. Still time to prune the fruit trees and remember anything growing  straight down or straight up can be removed, while all laterals reduced by a third. While you have the secateurs out, how is the Wisteria looking. If you want to get some serious flowers this season the long laterals should have been halved in late summer, and again it's still not too late to go down to 3 good buds. That's all for now, more soon...