Garden Coaching Blog

Custom Garden Manuals for Your Clients

Submitted by Shirley Bovshow

Babies don't come with instructions and gardens don't either! That's what Gardening Coaches are for! (At least for the gardens, that is.) My clients appreciate the time spent with them tutoring them on the particulars of their plant life, but unless they have photographic memories or take notes, some of the important tips I give them may blow away with the wind.  I offer custom garden maintenance manuals for my landscaping clients and think its a great idea for Gardening Coaches to offer. Think of it as a "pictorial guide" to each garden.

What you will need to get started on authoring a Custom Garden Manual:

1. A digital camera
2. Your computer with a program for creating word documents
3. A fee for your time to create the custom manual.
4. Laminating machine, or better yet,  a neighborhood Kinkos, FedEx or other "office and printing service" shop to bind and laminate your manual

The content of the manual should be custom and include information that is pertinent to your clients garden. Here are 10-Basics to get you started. (Let me know what you would include if you don't see it on this list.)

1. Photo  of the whole yard with date.

2. Plant List

3. Photo Plant Identification and Care Guide: Photos of each tree, major shrub and more permanent perennials with relevant information for its care in its planting zone and micro-climate.

3. Maintenance Photos: Photograph trees, shrubs and perennials after proper pruning, dividing, dead heading, staking, and include notes, (feel free to draw arrows, circles, stars anything for emphasis) and guidelines for the care of each plant.  This is where I make suggestions on how tall the hedges should be maintained and how not to cut strappy leaf plants like phormiums!

4. Soil Information: If you tested the soil, make a note of your findings and include the test date.

5. Plant Feeding Schedule: This is a great opportunity to plug your favorite organic products. Our clients may not be aware of all of the options.

6. Watering Schedule and Guide: If your client has a lawn, include the amount of time it should be watered based on their present irrigation system. Garden beds should also have a watering schedule (if on a separate valve than the lawn- you never know, sometimes they are together!)

7. Pest and Disease Guide: If you want to go the extra mile, you can include photos of the pests and disease signs for their inventory of plants or just the ones experiencing trouble. Include a list of products and instructions for use. Effective homemade remedies are particularly welcome!

8. Tree Pruning Schedule

9. Schedule for Seed-Growing: In case your clients want to cultivate an edible garden or annuals.

10. List of Recommended Products and Vendors: I like to include a list of my favorite nurseries, arborists, landscaping supply stores and products that I recommend.

11. Your Company Name and Contact Information

Upon completion, have the whole manual bound and laminated so that it can be left outdoors in a designated spot. It should be handy, just in case the homeowner is not up to caring for the garden in the future and needs help from someone else.

I charge for the manual and include an hour of my time to review it with my clients at their home.

Hope this gives you another service to add to your menu!

What I'm Carrying These Days

By Billy Goodnick

Now that I'm coaching a bit more regularly and sometimes unsure whether I'm going to be working in design mode or hands on, I've started shopping for a few extra goodies.

If I had to claim one area of expertise, it would be on the design end of coaching. I used to carry a typical shoulder bag that began with a clip board, a pad of 8.5 x 11 grid paper and a couple of pens and pencils. I'd also bring along my trusty Sunset Western Garden Book (lots of plants and lists) as well as a few other good list books. This got me through a typical scenario where I'd interview a client regarding their needs and desires, use paper to help illustrate simple concepts, suggest some plants, and rely on the client to take notes and put my ideas into practice. But I often felt like this type of advice ended up being somewhat ephemeral and not enough would come of it.

In these cases, I'd offer to return to the office and spend a few hours "on the boards" sending back a more or less scaled drawing of the concepts. To draw this type of plan requires measuring more accurately than just pacing off the general features and hoping to remember the other critical details. So I got a bigger bag. Into the bag went a range of measuring tools (100' tape and a screwdriver to hold down the "dumb end" of the tape, plus assorted smaller tapes), and a digital camera for capturing the details. This way I could more accurately measure the areasand be able to draft a reasonable base sheet on which to draw my design back at the office.

Next thing I knew, I was throwing an oversized clip board in the trunk and a few sheets of 18" x 24" paper, a T-square, drafting scale and a couple of drafting triangles. A few weeks later a bought an Alvin portable drafting board complete with an attached gliding drafting bar. It has fold-out rubber feet that I can either hold on my lap or set up on a patio table. I've also purchased a rolling measuring wheel so I can just walk the yard and read the dial--pretty slick, but close to $100.

I've been carrying this current kit for about three months and had occasion to use it three times. In each case, based on phone conversations prior to the visit, I had the sense that the design requests were relatively simple and could be knocked out on the spot. All three of these jobs followed the same track - an hour to walk the property and get to the gist of the problem areas, 30 minutes to measure and draw a base sheet, then a quick drawing on a sketch paper overlay to leave with the client. The drawing indicates categories of plants--large shade tree, background shrubs, medium perennials, ground cover, etc. On the side of the page would be a list of 3-5 plants that fit each category.

The whole shebang runs about 2-3 hours, I get a check on the spot and offer to expand the list from my office, sending the results via e-mail. I get paid in advance for the office work.

My most recent job has been a quick turn around "performance piece" with a few hours of consultation, shopping for plants, guiding the gardener in removals and pruning, then spotting the plants for him to install. So now the tool kit includes two pairs of gloves (one heavy and one light duty), a pair of loppers, a folding tree saw and my trusty pair of Felcos. Just to be on the safe side as our Southern California winter approaches, I've just purchased a rain-proof parka and rubber boots.

My most recent purchase is a digital video camera. This allows me to get the entire garden from many vantage points while narrating my design ideas and noting special features as I walk the site (I do this AFTER the interview and without the client in tow). I download the video to my Mac with iMovie, allowing me to "rewalk" the site as often as I need to. It will pay for itself in saved time, retention of my brilliant braindrizzles, and improving my accuracy in responding to site features.

I think I'm ready for just about anything now. If more develops, I'll let you know. As far as I can tell, profits still exceed my expenses and word of mouth is sending a lot of work my way. I think people appreciate the ability to take on any type of work without having to schedule separate apppointments. They also seem to like watching someone else get dirty.

Nuff for now...

Blogging at www.gardenwiseguy.blogspot.com
Website: www.billygoodnick.com

Tools of the Garden Coaching Trade

by Susan Harris, originally published September 5, 2007

First there was garden coaching, and now that it's been discovered, for me it's morphed into coaching garden coaches.  Mentoring, if you will.  It means compiling information about everyone for the Directory, answering emails and even some phone calls.  One very nice gardener in Montana called and asked some great questions, including: What do you take with you to see a new client?  This was my answer.

PRUNING TOOLS
I take with me my three main pruning tools.  That would be the Felco number 2s, (on the left in this photo), some loppers, and a folding pruning saw.  SO many people need instruction in pruning, and you just never know what tools they'll have.  More often than not if they have any pruning tool it's the dreaded shearers. 

MARKING PAINT
Oh, I made fun of this product once - remember the "marking paint" that turned out to be clear?  Well, I know now to look for not just the words "marking paint" but a can top that's an actual color, preferably a bright one.  But the point is to quickly draw some suggested new borders, and this stuff does the trick.  If people need assurance that the paint won't last forever I tell 'em 2 weeks, max.

BUSINESS CARDS
I've changed my business cards so many times over the last couple of years, it's a good thing they're free at Vista Print, just $5 for shipping.  The only catch is that there's a tiny advertisement for the Vista Print Company on the back of each card, but no one's ever seemed to notice it.  (Here's the design I chose.)

THE PLANT LIST BOOK 
This is such a fabulous idea - the New York/Mid-Atlantic Gardener's Book of Lists - and it was recommended to me by a garden designer, so I ordered it.  And the plant lists may be mostly correct, but I've crossed out some that I know perform really badly in my area, like rhododendrons and leucothoes.  And missing from the list of "Problem-Free Shrubs" are spirea, weigela, aucuba and nandina, beautybush and cherry laurels - literally the 6 easiest shrubs in my whole garden.  Yet the relatively thirsty hydrangea macrophylla IS on the list.  Oh, and guess what other list those hydranageas are on - deer-resistant plants.  Uh, not hardly! Still, after I marked up the lists to reflect reality, they're actually helpful.  And I think people like the assurance of something in print, don't you?

And through the recitation of these tricks of the trade, the Montana coach hung on every word, I tell ya, and was mighty appreciative.  I encouraged her to "return the favor" by writing a little story someday about her adventures as a gardening coach.  I might even nag her for that report.

by Susan Harris, originally published September 5, 2007

First there was garden coaching, and now that it's been discovered, for me it's morphed into coaching garden coaches.  Mentoring, if you will.  It means compiling information about everyone for the Directory, answering emails and even some phone calls.  One very nice gardener in Montana called and asked some great questions, including: What do you take with you to see a new client?  This was my answer.

PRUNING TOOLS
I take with me my three main pruning tools.  That would be the Felco number 2s, (on the left in this photo), some loppers, and a folding pruning saw.  SO many people need instruction in pruning, and you just never know what tools they'll have.  More often than not if they have any pruning tool it's the dreaded shearers. 

MARKING PAINT
Oh, I made fun of this product once - remember the "marking paint" that turned out to be clear?  Well, I know now to look for not just the words "marking paint" but a can top that's an actual color, preferably a bright one.  But the point is to quickly draw some suggested new borders, and this stuff does the trick.  If people need assurance that the paint won't last forever I tell 'em 2 weeks, max.

BUSINESS CARDS
I've changed my business cards so many times over the last couple of years, it's a good thing they're free at Vista Print, just $5 for shipping.  The only catch is that there's a tiny advertisement for the Vista Print Company on the back of each card, but no one's ever seemed to notice it.  (Here's the design I chose.)

THE PLANT LIST BOOK 
This is such a fabulous idea - the New York/Mid-Atlantic Gardener's Book of Lists - and it was recommended to me by a garden designer, so I ordered it.  And the plant lists may be mostly correct, but I've crossed out some that I know perform really badly in my area, like rhododendrons and leucothoes.  And missing from the list of "Problem-Free Shrubs" are spirea, weigela, aucuba and nandina, beautybush and cherry laurels - literally the 6 easiest shrubs in my whole garden.  Yet the relatively thirsty hydrangea macrophylla IS on the list.  Oh, and guess what other list those hydranageas are on - deer-resistant plants.  Uh, not hardly! Still, after I marked up the lists to reflect reality, they're actually helpful.  And I think people like the assurance of something in print, don't you?

And through the recitation of these tricks of the trade, the Montana coach hung on every word, I tell ya, and was mighty appreciative.  I encouraged her to "return the favor" by writing a little story someday about her adventures as a gardening coach.  I might even nag her for that report.