Spring has sprung

Hello again,

At last, the worst of the winter is over, the days are getting longer and the sun is getting a little warmer so it's time to start thinking about getting out in our gardens again.

Last summer was one of the nicest summers we have had for many years and after the floods of the previous winter, everyone was desperate to get outside and enjoy the warmth of the sun, the long dry spells of clement weather and lovely evenings spent on the terrace with a glass of something nice.

So with that in mind, take a moment to think about what needs to be done in your garden in order to prepare for summer.

Firstly, you'll need to get your irrigation systems serviced and commissioned to make sure that it is working effectively and efficiently. Then, if you have garden lighting, have it checked to ensure it is still working properly and that the cables haven't been chewed by wildlife etc.

Lastly, if you need anything else for your garden then why not call us for a bit of advice. We've been around in this industry for a long time and we know who you can trust and, more importantly, who you can't so if we can help you make a good choice then that's got to be good for everyone.


So if you need landscaping work, garden design, tree surgery, garden buildings, trelliswork or anything else garden related, give Nick a call on 020 8742 8855 and he'll be able to guide you.

Until next time...

New beginnings for Waterwell

Hello again,

Things are always changing in business and Waterwell is no exception. 

Over the last couple of years we have completely turned Waterwell on its head and redesigned it for the 21st Century. 

In a previous blog, I told you about how we had just moved the business "to the cloud" and that each engineer then carried an iPad and iPhone with all the information that they need to get the job done.  

There is no doubt that moving to the cloud has proved to be a huge success; it has increased our productivity by minimising the amount of time the Engineers are sitting in traffic (which makes them happy), it has improved the service that we provide (which makes our customers happy) and it enables us to be more customer-focused and responsive. Everyone's a winner and we're now even invoicing and ordering product that way too. 

We have also completely revamped our Garden Irrigation Maintenance Service to provide a more comprehensive offering to our customers and as a result we have seen past customers, that we had lost touch with, come back to us.

Lastly, we've got a great team who spend all their working time looking after Waterwell customers, garden designers, architects and developers and they are led by our two Operational Directors; Nick Ryan (pictured right) who looks after installations and Mark Braendler (pictured above) who runs the Irrigation Maintenance Service.

So, if you need to discuss your garden irrigation or garden lighting requirements then call the office on 020 8742 8855 and let us help you out.

Tiger Territory will be a roaring success

Hello again,

It's been exciting but Waterwell have installed the irrigation system in the brand new Sumatran Tiger Enclosure at London Zoo.

Costing £3.6m the new Tiger Territory is five times the size of the previous enclosure and includes trees, high platforms and even a custom pool for the Tigers to relax in as they love a bit of water.


The green space was designed by the successful Garden Designer, James Aldridge who certainly had to put his thinking cap on in order to come up with something that not only suited the atmosphere of a tiger enclosure but is able to thrive in the changeable British climate - definitely not your usual garden design brief.

However, the new enclosure is a success and the results speak for themselves - the new Tiger Territory is now London Zoo's flagship attraction.

Purr-fect

To book your tickets, go to http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/londonzootickets/

Until next time...

Gearing up for Spring

Hello again

Last year must rank highly as one of the worst summers we've ever had. 

It started so promisingly that you couldn't have imagined how it might pan out from there. It's easy to forget that after a dry winter before, it was really warm and dry until the end of March last year, so much so that the water companies were panicking and the hosepipe ban was introduced at the beginning of April. That proved to be the catalyst that triggered the rain, and crikey did it rain last summer. It rained almost incessantly, right through to the end of the year with, as I can recall, only two separate weeks of nice weather in that nine month period.

This year, by contrast, has started out in a more traditional pattern, with a wet early winter followed by a cold start to the year. We also seem to be proving the old adage that says "March comes in like a lion and leaves like a lamb" and it certainly has been a colder that usual start to March but now the weather is starting to improve. If we were then to continue to have a traditional year then next we have a nice Spring, we'll get April showers and then perhaps a traditional British summer, the kind of summer you remember from your youth - warm breezes, summer sunshine and evenings in the garden.

Here's hoping...

Until next time...

Garden lighting

Hello again,

It's now the beginning of autumn, the traditional time to look at installing garden and landscape lighting.

Garden lighting is a fantastic medium and can be used in so many different ways to create a range of fabulous effects. 

It can be used all year round creating views from the house and to create a lovely atmosphere when sitting or eating outside in the evening. It can be used for practical purposes to guide you around the garden or for security. It can be used to create longer views or a backdrop to the garden, to link in with the "borrowed landscape" and to add a focal point in a view. It can even be used to guide the eye away from a less desirable view, something that cannot be done during daylight hours.

Why not light an individual sculpture, illuminate a pond or water feature, silhouette architectural shapes or to build ambient light levels around a dining terrace - the choices are endless.

There are also many choices when it comes to what type of lighting to install. Traditionally, gardens have been lite with halogen light fittings which were able to provide warm tones of light, good light levels at a reasonable cost. However, over the last five years LED lighting has now become a viable alternative to halogen lighting and has a number of significant benefits including low heat, very long lamp life and even a colour-change option.

When it comes to the fittings themselves, the choice is huge; uplights, downlights, wall lights, flood lights, aluminium, copper and stainless steel fittings, remote control, colour change LED, strip lighting etc - the list goes on and getting some advice can save a lot of time and hassle.

More recently, solar lighting has flooded onto the market and in theory, seems to be a good idea ie a garden light that doesn't need and switching, cabling or labour to install it. In practice though, solar lighting still cannot produce enough light to be useful in a garden lighting context. They can be used along a path edge as way-markers but cannot realistically be considered as part of a garden lighting scheme.

Most importantly though, when having a lighting system installed, is to ensure it is installed properly and the component parts are professional quality, durable and robust. Don't be tempted to buy cheap products because they will prove to be a false economy and they will fail, probably much sooner than you think.

At Waterwell, we source and test the right product for your garden and we ensure you can rely on every component including the switching, the cables, junction boxes, transformers and the light fittings. After all, there is no point in investing in good quality light fittings if one of the components between the house and the light is inferior because any lighting system is only as reliable as the weakest component.

That said, it doesn't mean you have to spend a fortune buying the most expensive light fittings, you can achieve fantastic results with entry-level light fittings but if you wish to "go the extra mile" and upgrade to superior fittings then the choice is yours.

If you would like to discuss garden lighting then email Nick Ryan and he will gladly help you. 

Until next time...

Horatio's Garden

Hello again...

Over the past year, but mostly in the past month or so, we've been busy helping with the building of Horatio's Garden at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury.

This is going to be a stunning garden, built for the benefit of the patients, staff and visitors to the hospital.

The nature of spinal injuries is that they are usually sudden, often catastrophic and certainly life changing and on top of that, the rehabilitation can be lengthy and difficult as the patients come to terms with a new way of life. The garden has then been designed to enable the patients stay in touch with the elements of sun, wind and rain as well as enjoying the sights, sounds and scents of a garden during their time at the hospital.

The garden is being constructed in memory of Horatio Chapple, a young man who was planning to study medicine and had already done some voluntary work at the Spinal Injuries Treatment Centre (where his father worked) before being tragically killed in an accident whilst on a British Schools Exploring Society trip in Norway.

Horatio's Garden has been designed by Cleve West who has, for the first time in Chelsea Flower Show history, won the coveted "Best in Show" accolade for two successive years. He has brought all his talent to bear and designed a fluid garden that meets the needs of the patients and is a hugely positive place for patients, staff and visitors to spend time.

Until next time...

Come and see us

Hello again,

This Saturday, we will be at the Society of Garden Designers Spring Conference which is to be held at Imperial College, London.

If you are going to be there then do come over and see Nick and Tom, who will be there all day.

They can show you how to beat the hosepipe ban plus all the ins and outs of LED lighting and remote control for garden lighting.

Until next time...

£7.7 billion annually on maintaining gardens?

Hello again..

That's right, British folk really do love their gardens and collectively we spend £7.7 billion per year on maintaining them and part of that spend is on garden furniture. 


Garden furniture has been around in all shapes and sizes since the 18th Century and over time has been developed in all sorts of materials including wood, stone, rattan, cast iron and more recently, there has been a move towards man-made materials.


Currently there is a lot of choice of furniture on the high street and on-line but I have to say that there isn't much innovation. Go down to your local garden centre and you will see the same products time and time again - perfectly good furniture but mass produced and uninspiring none the less.


At the other end of the spectrum there is a market for bespoke, one-off furniture for those who see garden furniture as art or for whom originality and exclusivity are important factors.


At Waterwell we have always had a really good understanding of customers' likes and dislikes, what is on trend and what suits a London garden. Also, having been in business for over 20 years we have built a pretty useful contact list of the best furniture designers, sculptors and artists around the UK.

We have always acted as "go-to for gardens" advisors for our customers and have been helping them in an ad-hoc way for years by showing them who they might like to use and just as importantly, whom to avoid.
So, for the first time we are acting as the middle man to enable innovative and creative people to showcase their product on a dedicated page on the Waterwell website. 


The best designers, made to order products and most importantly, they can be adapted to fit the space perfectly. This is not off the shelf product or bespoke product, this is Waterwell product, perfectly suited to your garden.


Until next time... 

Our "Cloud" update...

Hello again,

Over the last year we have been moving Waterwell to "The Cloud". 

We set out on this course with a view to providing a better level of service to our customers whilst saving the business money and time.

I had previously researched the idea about 4 years ago but at that time the choice of software was limited and the risk was too great. Since then though, things have moved on rapidly and when I revisited the options in the second half of 2010, I was delighted to see the possibilities unfold.

We set ourselves a challenge of introducing, testing and refining our Cloud within a 12 month period with a view to getting rid of our server before the end of 2011 if the project proved to be a success.

Initially, we introduced the iPads and our choice of CRM software to just the Maintenance Engineers who, in their work, have to visit over 500 customers in a short period of time in the Spring. We developed a simple Job Sheet app that the Engineers populated when they visited a client and was then automatically stored directly in the client's account, on the cloud. 

Buoyed by this success, we have now broadened the use to everyone in the business, everyone uses and Ipad (with iMacs in the office) and we have now introduced an accounting package to work in harmony with the CRM package. 

The reality is that when a new customer calls the business, their details are securely keyed directly into the CRM package, emailed plans are also stored along with the estimate, acceptance form, details of any customer contact, photos and anything else that relates to the client or the site. Product can be ordered via the iPad and sent to site and then, when the job is complete, the invoicing completes the cycle.

In terms of results. From a customer point of view, the Engineers have all the information at their finger tips and can answer any questions immediately. From a business point of view, because the Engineers don't now have to come into the office in the morning we have gained about 15% productivity and the guys are happy that they don't have to sit in traffic all day long. 

We are now completely committed to working with iPads and on the Cloud and we won't be turning back. For us, this has been a win:win and if you were wondering, we got rid of the server just before Christmas.

Until next time...

100% Design Show

Hello again,

The 100% Design Show is currently on at Earl's Court once again and as ever, it aims to showcase all that is new in design from around the world. It includes bathrooms, fabrics, lighting, accessories, furniture, materials, flooring, kitchens and much, much more.

Part of my job is to attend (rather than exhibit luckily) various shows both in the UK and occasionally in Europe and on the whole they could best be described as tedious. It nearly always involves traipsing up and down endless aisles hoping to find something new and interesting whilst ensuring you catch up with your existing contacts and suppliers.

To my mind, trade shows are generally, as Samuel Johnson once put it, "a triumph of hope over experience".

To be fair though, 100% Design has generally bucked the trend and managed to stay fresh and interesting when all others around it have flagged.

It started off as a slightly alternative show, with relatively small companies demonstrating their wares. Year by year, it grew quickly and took in much grander architectural elements and extra halls at Earls Court. Presumably though, they have felt the effect of the economic slowdown and 100% Design is now about the same size as when it began, a really nice size to get around in a morning.

Fortunately, 100% Design still manages to showcase the work of small companies and students too, which is a credit to the organisers. This is unlike another show which I used to actually look forward to, Ecobuild.

Ecobuild also started off as a relatively small show demonstrating alternative building methods and environmental building products. However, it is now a massive show, totally swamped by the big corporations who have seen that there is "gold in them there hills" and will try to do anything to look "green and eco".

Coming back to !00% Design, my hope is always to try and find one or two companies, in our sector, that are designing and making something new and interesting. This year, I came across a company called Kirv, a British company who are manufacturing these really nice garden seats. They are beautifully made out of bent, stainless steel tube which is then powder coated to a RAL colour of your choice. Well designed, comfortable and innovative, a great example of a British company doing their thing.

Until next time...

"Get the duck out of here"

Hello again

You've got to love a 5 foot duck haven't you. I photographed this one in the garden of a small hotel in Belcastel, France.

It made me smile

Until next time...

Spring flowers, it doesn't get better than this

Crikey, what a fabulous Spring

Hello again,

There's no doubt that spring has sprung, and sprung early. We haven't had an early period of prolonged warm and sunny weather for many years and it is quite a change. A sunny Aintree for the Grand National, no April showers, no late frosts (yet)- just wall-to-wall sunshine for about six weeks (at least, where we are).

I have to say, I haven't heard many complaints about the weather except perhaps from gardeners, who, like farmers, are never happy with their lot; it's always too cold, too wet, too dry, too windy. Like prima ballerinas, it's all tutu. And yes, I count myself in the former group (gardeners) at least, from an allotment point of view.

Instead of the usual slow start to the allotment year in which I consistently prove that I don't have the patience to wait for the soil to warm up, this season has got off to a flying start - I've been like a whippet out of the trap.

Normally, I sow seeds in pots too early and they either go leggy or I plant them out in the cold ground and they sit there and look miserable for weeks or even months. Normally, I optimistically sow on the allotment early in the hope of early crops only to stare abject failure in the face. Normally, I stand there wet and shivering, thinking "I wonder how those old allotment fellas seem to get good crops, year after year?"

This year though, it's been hectic; early potatoes in, followed by cabbage, broad beans, pak choi, parsnips, lettuce, carrots, peas and spinach. At the house, I've sown french beans, courgette, squash, sprouts, plum tomato, cherry tomato, sprouting broccoli and flowers for cutting like Echinacea and Aster. It's been all go since the beginning of March,

How's the rest of the season going to pan out? Well I have now at least learnt one thing about allotment gardening; don't try to guess, work with what you have got and do your best because it never, never goes to plan.

Until next time...

A cloud on the horizon!

Hello again,


Ordinarily, to an irrigation company, clouds are definitely a mixed blessing. 


Waterwell is a service business, part of a sector that generates a mind boggling 3/4 of the UK gross domestic product. It is vital therefore, for the economic health of the nation, that the service sector is efficient, productive and profitable.  


Over the last six months we have gone through a complete assessment followed by a total re-organisation of Waterwell. We looked at every aspect of the business and asked the questions; how can we do this better and what more can we do for our customers?


As a result of this rather brutal, cold-blooded process, we have rebuilt the business, from the ground up, hopefully to take us through the next decade. Part of that rebuilding is that our business system will be now be cloud based. 


What is cloud computing?


Think of cloud computing as something like renting your IT over the internet; a specialist company provides the server space and the software, you provide the data and your company accesses it all over the internet - you just pay a monthly premium for the privilage. 


Why do it?

• It's quick to set up, highly effective and requires no up front capital expenditure. 
• It's flexible; if you don't like the software or the company starts to waver then vote with your feet and move to another.
• It is constantly being improved; the provider wants your business so it's in their interest to keep improving their offering.
• It's ideally suited to service businesses especially if your staff are out and about and on the road

From our point of view, it will enable us to provide better service for our customers, hopefully every time.

If this all sounds a bit alien then worry not, it isn't. You are probably already using cloud computing without realising it - think Facebook, Flickr etc

Until next time...

Pressure!

Hello again

My kids want a dog, they really want a dog, they don't want to hear excuses, they don't want to hear justifications for not getting one - they just want a dog.

I have had to resist in a grown up parent kind of way, spouting on with "who's going to take it out", "who's going to clean up after it" etc but mostly I have resisted because we don't have the right sort of car to move a dog in; I have an Audi TT and my wife has a Fiat 500, neither of which can accommodate a dog cage - what am I supposed to do?

I thought that this kind of logic would make sense and that they would "understand" the point I was making. Sadly not, all they hear when I resist is "no" followed by "blah, blah, blah" and nothing except "yes, let's go and get a cute puppy" will do.

Just to ram the point home, they went to their school Christmas Fair on Saturday and returned with a little reminder for me!!

Until next time...

Punk - a trip back in time

Hello again

The Haunch of Venison Gallery in Burlington Gardens has done it again. Their latest exhibition, Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper is fantastic.

It captures a moment in time during the seventies when Punk scene burst into the public conscience. The moment when the country first had to face up to the snarling, spitting aggression of anti-establishment, the in-your-face names of the bands, the mad hair, chains and safety pins. Punk was a new movement that took no prisoners, it didn't want to be liked, didn't want your respect and definitely didn't want your approval.

The exhibition is a collection of posters, fliers and fanzines from the early days of Punk; a fantastic mixture of uprising, anger and innocent naivety.

The style and quality of the imagery really do two things: 1) it demonstrates how Punk really did come from the underground and rose up to challenge society and 2) it demonstrates how far graphic design has come in that time.

The early posters are handmade and then photocopied using images cut out and pasted onto a master, often with hand-written instructions about where, when and how much the gigs were. In terms of quality (not content), these are the sort of posters my young children make today. These fliers & posters were really crude; both in the sense of them being graphically unsophisticated and often in the sense of being vulgar. But that is part of their charm, punk challenged everyone, it was deliberately over the top, it wanted to upset you, it wanted to get under the skin of the establishment and it succeeded.

In the (slightly) later posters, you can see how the record companies must have seen the pound signs flashing and seen the opportunity to take advantage of the situation. They instinctively brought in the professionals to promote the bands and take them to the main stream. In the sense of the punk movement and music this must have looked like "selling out" but the upside of this is that they took the graphics to a different level and produced what are now iconic images of the 1970s eg the Public Image Limited and the Sex Pistols branding .

A really interesting half hour in an excellent gallery, just off Jermyn Street. Go and see for yourself.

Until next time...

Watch out for evil Guinea Pigs!

Hello again

I need to tell you about a terrifying experience I suffered this weekend.

My daughters have a Guinea Pig each; Polo (nearest the camera) and Cookie (in the background).

On the whole, I have no issue with their existence alongside mine, the girls love them, my wife loves them and they in return love the girls and my wife. When the girls or Teresa walk past the cage, Cookie and Polo put their front paws on the cage and tweet hellos to one and all.

It's not the case with me though, I get angry chirping noises. That aside, the pigs and I get along ok and although I occasionally try to buy there affection with celery or broccoli, we all know the real truth

On Saturday, I was sitting on the sofa minding my own business, fiddling about on my iPad whilst the girls and my wife had the Guinea Pigs out for a cuddle on the same sofa (I don't cuddle the pigs, I'm not keen on all that scratchy, scrabbling they do). Then, without any notice Polo leapt from my daughter, straight onto my throat. It was terrifying, like a flying fox jumping from one tree to another or that film with the vampire bats attacking the man. Shocked and terrified, I screeched like a little girl "get it off, get it off" only to see my wife and daughters laughing hysterically at the situation. After a few moments Daisy (9) picked it off me, still laughing.

The girls believe it was "just trying to say hello" but in hindsight, I think the Guinea Pig was giving me a warning - a bit like Chukky in the Child's Play horror film.

My card is marked

Until next time.

Bowood House

Hello again,

I had the pleasure of visiting Bowood House in Wiltshire last week. It is a really good example of an English country house, garden and park and well worth the time for a visit. We had the added pleasure of being escorted round the house by Lord Lansdowne who's wonderful enthusiasm really brought the history to life.

Like a lot of country houses, it has had a very chequered past with layers of history built by the family and, to top it off the parkland was designed and built in the 18th Century by Capability Brown and contains one of the best cascades in the country, designed by Hamilton.

Go see it

Until next time...

Look up and enjoy life

Hello again,

With busy lives, distractions and a world focused on doing it, doing it, doing it, it's easy to become jaded and not see the obvious beauty around you, beauty in many different forms.

Enjoy

Until next time...