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...