January
A cold month and plenty of frosty nights have meant we have been out gritting lots over the last few weeks, keeping the commercial sites we maintain safe for pedestrians and motorists alike. We have also recently completed planting a large orchard for a customer just outside Chester, who intends to go into cider production when he retires in a few years time - we wish him luck in his new venture when the time comes!
November & December
During what you might expect to be a quiet time of year for us, we have been as busy as ever! We have had lots of planting to do, both bulbs and bare root plants, which will produce some great displays in the spring & summer. We have had fencing work to do, both installation and some repairs following high winds. We had our first frost of the year in November, which meant we were out gritting while most of you were busy sleeping - no rest for the wicked! And we have also been working closely with our commercial customers to understand their maintenance requirements for the coming year to ensure we have our diaries organised and sufficient manpower in the team to keep everyone looked after. Finally, we would like to thank all of our customers for their business over the last year and wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year!
October
Much of our work at this time of year involves tidying up and making preparations for winter. Many hours are spent sweeping leaves around commercial properties and car parks, ensuring the sites are safe and look their best for staff and visitors alike. Final grass cuts are completed towards the end of the month, after which the mowers are cleaned up, oiled and stored away until spring. This is also the time of year when we undertake bulb planting for landscaping at new sites which are to be finished in the spring, so they look their best when the site or garden opens to the public. One element of our work involves gritting car parks and private roads at the commercial sites we maintain. Despite the mild winter last year, we need to plan for the worst to ensure we have sufficient salt supplies in case the temperature is below freezing for a sustained period of time. We have also received a request to provide gritting for some additional sites in Liverpool so will need to assess this work carefully before deciding how much salt we need to order....and how much to charge for the gritting work!
August
Well, it's school holiday season now so we tend to find that we are a little quieter on the domestic front as so many people are away on holiday. We've taken advantage of this and taken some holidays ourselves for a well earned rest! Henry has also been busy as his wife has recently given birth to their second little boy! Although we suspect Henry would rather be out cutting grass and laying patios that at home changing nappies ;-) There's still lots of work to keep the rest of us busy however - even when the schools are on holiday, the grass, hedges & weeds all keep growing! We've also been asked to do some clearance work as unfortunately some of our corporate customers have experienced fly tipping on their sites. Part of our responsibility as landscapers for these sites is to ensure that they are looking at their best, so this includes all aspects of site maintenance.
July
Lots to report this month! As well as the routine grass cutting maintenance we have been doing across Wrexham & Liverpool, we have also been laying lots more patios in the Wrexham & Chester areas - lots of people getting their gardens finished before the start of the school holidays! Some people come to us with their own design ideas and others ask us to design for them - often the end result is a combination of the customer's ideas and our experience in what will both look good and be practical when it's finished. We have also re-turfed a number of lawns this month and the warm, wet weather means that these have been able to establish themselves quickly. Finally, we are about to start on some landscaping work for a large farm near Mold, which had to be demolished recently and so the landscaping works tie in with a complete site re-build. Working on such a large construction site means we have to liaise with other contractors to ensure that we are scheduling our work to tie in with theirs.
June
Still working flat out come rain or shine! We've been awarded some more ongoing maintenance contracts which is great news, and have also laid several patios for residential customers this month - let's hope the weather improves so people can get out there and enjoy them. Despite some lovely weather at the start of the month, as I write this, it's pouring down!!
May
We're really busy at the moment which is great! Even more lovely weather has brought in lots more requests for decking & patios from people across the area. It also means that the grass & hedges are growing thick & fast so we have been out in force, cutting grass and trimming hedges all over North Wales and the North West on business parks, residential developments & retail parks. Of course, it's not just the grass that's growing thick & fast, so are the weeds! Many of our contract maintenance customers ask us to provide weed control too, and so we provide specialist spraying care for them, for which we need ensure our qualifications are all up to date. And finally, we've recently been asked to quote for some maintenance work for a large development company so we'll be really pleased if we are awarded their contract....fingers crossed!
April
It's that time of year when people start spending more time outside and, with the lovely weather we've been having, we've had lots of requests for quotes from domestic customers - patios, fencing, turfing, planting, decking, landscaping - busy, busy! We've also been out weeding, spraying, mowing & strimming for our commercial customers, many of which are based in Wrexham and Liverpool. So it's a good job the clocks have changed and there's more hours in the day for us to be out working!!
March
Spring has sprung and the grass has stated growing so we've been out grass cutting for some of our large, commercial customers. There's also been the odd frosty night so there has been some gritting to do too.
February
Keeping busy through the winter months with gritting some commercial sites around Liverpool - having to get up in the middle of the night to make sure the gritting is done well before everyone else is up & about and on the roads!
January
Not too much to report as this tends to be a fairly quiet time of year in the landscaping trade, but litter picking and gritting jobs are keeping us out of trouble!
12th Dec
A large 5-6 week job kicking off in Saltney, Chester tomorrow. Moving 22 garden fences back to the correct boundary for the water board, who are claiming back their land that has been encroached over the years.
8th Nov
Preparations started last week for the new gritting season that's nearly upon us, bringing in 10 tonne of salt from Winsford salt mines that will be packed in house and ready to go out when the cold snap finally kicks in!!
6th Sept
Dom and Darren seeding this week before the cold weather sets in!! :)
21st Aug
Four of us cutting hedges and shaping shrubs this week round the commercial sites we provide maintenance for in Liverpool.
29th July
A week of digger and dumper this week clearing a site ready for a new pond!!
July 16th
200m2 of indian sandstone patio to lay and point this week, at least we have some fine weather at last :)
July 3rd
Busy paving over the last week and turfing for the next two weeks!! Let's hope this summer begins sometime soon!
Dom & Daz
April 21st
Flatout busy and the weather's good :)
April 5th
160 large trees being planted Monday and Tuesday this coming week, screening the new Wrexham industrial estate link road. Wednesday through to Saturday there will be four of us preparing and laying a new state of the art artificial lawn in Bradley, Wrexham.
Henry
March 19th
A busy day today started with gritting a large car park in Gwersyllt, then litter picking the site. Then four of us went to the new Wrexham gateway site planting 1100 marginal plugs on the edge of two large lakes, followed by yet more bare root planting.
Henry & Dom
5th March
More bare root hawthorn hedge planting this week in Malpas, then we have to cane them up and rabbit proof them with plastic spirals. Maintenance will then be carried out until the hedge is fully established, usually taking up to 5 years!!
Henry
26th Feb
Carrying out at large planting job at Wrexham golf club this week; 1200 native trees, 500 hedging whips and 600 shrubs. Also have a three year maintenance contract on it involving spraying, firming watering and litter picking which is good. Nice weather too for a change :)
Andy
Dec 11th
Sat in the van with young Dom waiting for this rain to stop so we can finish this patio in Chester!! Darn weather :(
Henry & Dom
