2018 February LDG Get Together

Mary Rollefson
On a beautiful, unseasonably warm, morning 12 members of LDG met at the home of our president, Julie Hawley.  After delicious refreshments and socializing, we sat down to share ideas on Calendars, Contracts, Conferences and more.  Kathy Jentz with Washington Gardener joined us with a calendar overview of gardening tasks and Lynley Ogilvie with Lynley Ogilvie Landscape Design LLC detailed client contracts. 
 
Favorite Gardening Tools:  Julie opened with introductions and our favorite gardening tools.  Everyone contributed as follows:
Long reach pruner – not the long pole version, but the lightweight aluminum extended reach model.  Manual prune up to ¾” limbs. 

Hori Hori knife – This knife/trowel is perfect for weeding, digging and pruning. Includes Light Weight Nylon Sheath - Garden Blade SSR by Garden Guru Lawn and Garden Tools

Root Slayer Shovel     Comes in several sizes and shape of blade.

Other favorite shovels included a serrated shovel, a number of King of Spades engineered shovels, and a handmade shovel engraved with your name. 
Stihl battery-operated pack with three tools: a leaf blower, a hedge trimmer, and a string trimmer. Two battery packs are suggested to keep them all charged and ready to use at the client site.  Other manufacturers also make this combination (e.g. Black and Decker).

Mattock Hand Tiller :  short handled tool with claw on one side and a fairly sharp blade on the other.  Good for digging holes for potted plants, loosening soil, etc.

Angle Driver: battery-powered tool that cuts through concrete and metal; very handy for hardscape work. 
Little Giant Ladder that collapses to 8 foot lengths.  Handy to carry in van or truck. 
Cobra head:  Digs, plows, and cultivates tough soils.  Comes in three sizes.  Go to cobrahead.com to see selection.   

Kathy Jentz of Washington Gardener Magazine – on her monthly Gardening Calendar and other handy tips:
Kathy introduced us to her gardening task calendar, a month by month list of important tasks for garden maintenance.  The calendar is available in three formats, a hard copy version on heavy stock paper with beautiful garden photos for each month, and a monthly task list in her magazine, both hard copy and online. To order the calendars go to https://www.cafepress.com/washgardener.1436102069 .  NOTE that the calendar defaults to start on the month you order it, so be sure to adjust that to what 12-month timing you want.
Kathy also posts a garden tip of the day on her Twitter account, on Facebook page, Google + account, and on the Washington Gardener Yahoo group. (See links at washingtongardener.blogspot.com). She recommends switching Yahoo groups soon to Google.IO as yahoo is no longer reliable.
Lynley Ogilvie on Client Contracts:
Lynley’s approach to contracts is based on her 17 years as a contract attorney, her particular business model, and her belief that a straight forward, non-legalese contract makes for the best designer-client relationship.  Lynley’s business model is to provide the garden design, purchase of the plants with a 100 percent mark-up and a one-year warranty.  She recommends landscape contractors for the installation and then charges the client ten percent of the contractor cost for her oversight of their work.   She based this business model on The Thriving Landscape Designer: A Practical Guide to Client Management, Marketing, and Profitability by Catherine B. Wiersema, APLD, which describes several models for designers and which she highly recommends.
Lynley’s client contracts consist of three parts:

1. A retention or engagement letter describing the scope of work, her fees, and how she works with the client.She requires the client’s signature, acknowledging and accepting these terms. Thus design work commences. Lynley delivers the project design, invoices for the design work, and presents an estimate for the project.
2. An estimate includes; cost of plants and materials, her fees for oversite of the contractor installation, the deposit amount, the terms of the guarantee, the watering requirements and debris removal.She requires a 50 percent deposit of the estimate and the client’s signature accepting and approving these terms. The installation contractor is an independent contract with the client.
3. An invoice itemizing the final costs of the project, including plants and materials, her labor costs, delivery charges, the balance due and a statement of the guarantee on the plants.

Conferences:  At the end of the meeting Julie shared a list of upcoming landscape design conferences.  Members added other conferences to the list and it will be posted on the LDG website as a standard feature.