On 5/5/07 17:11, in article ,
"A.Lee" wrote:

topo wrote:

On Fri, 4 May 2007 17:51:35 +0100, "Charlie Pridham"
wrote:

My son just bought one 20% off, not surprised he couldn't get it to run,
when I had a look no throttle......

I bought a Qualcast Trojan Self propelled 18 ins blade mower from
Homebase when I started my gardening business six years ago ...

How do you find working as a gardener - like it?
How quiet does it get over the winter months?
And how long did it take you before you were making money - did you
already have customers before starting?

I'm thinking of doing the same myself, but I worry about getting
customers.

Depending on the prosperity of those in your area, I'd say you won't have
trouble getting customers. We employ someone just to cut the grass here and
he uses his own equipment and charges around £12 per hour (may be slightly
more now). He comes every week in season, every fortnight in the shoulder
months. For others, he does other gardening work than lawn mowing, too. In
winter, he does painting and decorating and other odd jobs for people and
seems never to be out of work. Mind you, he also has a police pension, which
probably helps.
His problems seems to be finding enough time to fit in all the people who
want his help. I doubt it will ever make you rich but there is no doubt
that there's a shortage of helpful domestic and garden labour about. It
might be a good idea for you to learn a few rather deeper garden skills
about planting times, taking cuttings, gathering seeds etc., asuming you
don't have those already.
Last year, at Hampton Court Flower Show, we met a winning garden designer
who had gone from being a jobbing gardener in Cornwall to doing a part time
RHS course, to training at Wisley, to running his own garden design
business, all in ten years. Just shows where things can lead!


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)
Devon County Show 17-19 May
http://www.devoncountyshow.co.uk/