Welcome Back - 16/July/10
Welcome back to K and M Garden Services who have reapplied for membership after membership lapsed last year.

Too Many Enquiries - 09/July/10
We were today asked by a member to change the picture of a man using heavy cutting tools on the complimentary webpage we had created for them - the member said that they had received too many offers of commercial work and wanted to focus on domestic work! A new version of the member register is coming soon which will make it easier for people to find a gardener and allow members to personalise the public facing pages of our site. 

New Member - 22/June/10
Welcome to Andrew Porter of Andrews Horticultural Services in Halifax. Andrew trained at Huddersfield College and attended 10 day courses on fine turf and grasses, has qualifications in the safe use of pesticides, strimmers, and mowers as well as their safe maintenance and servicing.

Member Newsletter - 18/June/10
This months newsletter included info about heat stroke, health and safety updates, help the MET office by giving feedback about their services, a useful website based on organic pest control and some information about Perennial - the gardeners charity.

New Member - 21/May/10
A warm welcome to new member Matthew Barlow of M B Lawn Care and Landscapes.  While already holding a NPTC certificate and a HND in horticulture Matthew has just completed a foundation degree in horticulture - it's great to see gardeners taking their personal development seriously.

New Member - 10/May/10
A big welcome to Neil Martin of Gardenwise. Neil lives up to his business name with 3 horticultural qualifications.

Edit Your Invoices Online! - 08/May/10
Members can now edit our form templates online and convert instantly into a PDF for emailing to customers or printing/saving to their own computer. Form templates include risk assessment, quotations, invoices, receipts etc

New Member - 07/May/10
Big welcome to new member Julian Ridgewell of JR Gardening who joined today.

Data Backup - 20/April/10
Data protection involves more than making sure you keep peoples information safe - its also means you don't lose it! We have today started a remote back-up of all our computer files. This means that should our computers be damaged in any way we can carry on working from another location. Having a disaster recovery plan, including remote servers and an 0845 telephone number, means that we can continue to serve our members even if the worst should happen.  

Twitter - 19/April/10
Both Dobbies garden centre and the RHS are now following The Gardeners Guild Tweets. Visit http://twitter.com/TGGTradeNetwork

New Members - 16/April/10
We typically notice a lull in membership applications at this time of year as gardeners work flat-out during the growing season.

Member Newsletter - 16/April/10
This month members were told of a new banned chemical, where to get 45 free bedding plants, a new media for advertising, a new factsheet on Knowledgebase to help learn Latin plants names, Landfill tax increase, types of waste being banned from landfill, budget summary, new interactive 'paper tools' coming soon to Knowledgebase, Health and Safety updates and much more...

New online Public Forum - 06/April/10
We have today added a public forum to our site for visitors - professional and keen amateur to contribute ideas and share knowledge and experiences. There is both a public forum and a members only forum. Visit Member Forum.

Price Increase - 01/April/10
Membership prices increased today to £30 a year to cover the addition of the 24/7 Health and Safety advice line. Because membership is such good value we have also had to introduce a registration fee to ensure no-one tries to join just when they need legal advice as this wouldn't be fair to genuine members.

New Member - 01/April/10
Welcome to Rich Smith & Cath Johnston of Flourish and Bloom - their application was scanned and emailed to us - its great to see gardeners embracing technology that will help them run a professional business in an industry that is typically 'outdoors'.

New Member - 24/March/10
Welcome to Christopher Zdanowicz who runs a gardening business called The Horticulturalist Inc. City and Guilds qualified, Christopher also has over 20 years professional experience.

New Member - 23/March/10
A big welcome to our latest member Gaynor Bradley of Honesty Gardening Services who is both RHS and City and Guilds qualified.

New Members - 19/March/10
A warm welcome to Christopher Barkway of SC Gardens and Andrew Newbold of Blakehill Landscapes - more top quality gardeners who take their career in horticulture seriously. 

March Member Newsletter - 15/March/10
This months member newsletter told members about the RHS top 10 pests for 2009, employers responsibilities for protecting staff from cold, free design software, how to get a free website, warned about a tax refund scam, added a sample complaints procedure to Knowledgebase, summarised some relevant health and safety convictions so that members can avoid having similar problems, warned about changes to commercial tipping, changes to sick notes, added an article to Knowledgebase about protecting against illness caused by vibration.......

Too Much Work! - 08/March/10
We have received a request from a member to have their phone number taken off the member register as they have too much work - well done!

New Members - 05/March/10
A big welcome to new members Carla Munday of Happymundays Gardens, David Philips of Pristine Gardens and Simon Abbotts of Blooming Garden.

New Member - 04/March/10
A big welcome to Tom Bagnall of Bagnall Gardens. Tom is RHS qualified. We have also had a new peak of daily visitors to TGG's website.

Blogger.com - 02/March/10
Gary Edwards, the founder of The Gardeners Guild, has started a blog at www.thegardenersguild.blogspot.com commenting on industry topics and trends.

New Record High of Visitors - 22/Feb/10
This week produced another record high of unique visitors to the site in any one week. We were also pleased to receive feedback from one of our most recent members to say that they had already received work from this site less than 2 weeks after joining.

New Members - 17/Feb/10
A warm welcome to Anna Klimek and Gareth Bilkey from Cornish Gardeners who have NVQ's, Lantra Awards and NPTC certificates. We have also seen a new high for daily visitors to our site.

New Record High of Weekly Visitors - 15/Feb/10
This week we reached a new high of visitors to our site showing continued and consistent growth in both the number of unique visitors and hits.

New Members - 10/Feb/2010
A warm welcome to Jeremy Hudson of Snowdrop Gardening Services - Jeremy is another gardener who takes his career seriously being already a member of both Buy With Confidence and The Guild of Master Craftsmen. Jeremy also holds an RHS gardening certificate as well as diplomas in design and gardening. 

New Members - 08/Feb/2010
A warm welcome to new members Cecilia Litvinoff from Cecilia Litvinoff Gardening, Martin Worswick from Classic Gardens and Jason Felstead from Tree and Palm Garden Services - it's great to see such a high quality of qualifications among our members.

Newsletter Subscribers - 05/Feb/2010
Newsletter subscription is increasing at a rate of around 1.5 new subscribers each day - this is great news as the newsletter helps us stay in touch with those looking for a gardener and we can encourage them to spread work throughout the year by telling them what work needs to be done in their garden and when.

New Record High of Visitors - 01/Feb/2010
We were pleased to see a new high of visitors to our site in January!  This beats last years peak number of visitors and shows that this new site is having a positive effect.  

Top Google search result for 'find a gardener' - 26/Jan/10
Since losing our top position last year when this new site was launched, we are now pleased to be back at the top! It is the result of much work adjusting the site and promoting our members. This also indicates that the public prefer to hire professional gardeners. TGG makes this easy by distinguishing qualified gardeners from well-meaning amateur labourers. We are also top or first page for many other search terms on all of the major search engines.

News Blog Started - 22/Jan/10
Since attending the e-marketing seminar we have created this short online blog as a way of keeping visitors informed about our progress. Below is a summary of activity so far.

TGG Attend E-Marketing Seminar - 21/Jan/10
Business Link are a government support agency for business. They offer free courses on a variety of subjects. This week we attended a E-marketing course to help us promote our members through electronic media. We would recommend all our members register with Business Link so that they are kept up-to-date on the various free courses available - you even get lunch! Our next newsletter will include a summary of what we have learnt.

January Member Newsletter - 15/Jan/10
A new year already! This month we shared some ideas with our members about how to build a strategic pricing policy for the year that would help them to focus on the work they wanted and avoid wasting time without being perceived as more expensive than other traders. We also gave them updates on some health and safety convictions outside of horticulture that we could all learn from and tips on the safe use of a ride on mower.

December Member Newsletter - 15/Dec/09
This news letter included details of a low cost/free business bank account with Alliance and Leicester, a free government site for contract work aimed at small businesses, health and safety updates, tips for dealing with stress and a new NHS stress-line, suggestions for cutting costs when work is slow during the winter and a warning of some scams that are in circulation.

TGG introduces Health and Safety Advice Line - November 09
This new service gives members access to health and safety advice as well as discounted training and audits. TGG will soon be an appointed H&S trainer so that we will eventually be able to offer training to our members for a level 1 Health and Safety certificate.

Healthcare Benefits - October 09
These benefits, provided along with a very personal back-up service to subscribers, are made available exclusively by an established healthcare provider to members of associations and professional groups, and have already been appreciated by  thousands of members of other participating organisations over the past 30 years. These arrangements provide TGG members (and their families and employees) with a simple means of securing the high quality benefits and services offered at the special low cost TGG rates.

Members can now subscribe by Direct Debit - October 09
In order to keep membership fees low it was essential that we collect annual subscriptions by direct debit so that fees are received on time and we can reliably cover our running costs. Clearly, gardeners spend most of their time out of the office and they can now focus on working knowing that their membership is active and that they have the support of our services including free legal advice and soon a 24/7 health and safety advice line.

Guild asked to write articles for GardenCentre.co.uk - July 09
GardenCentre.co.uk has asked TGG to write articles for its fortnightly newsletter. The newsletter reaches over 5000 people and grows at a rate of over 400 new subscribers each month. This is a great way for The Gardeners Guild to increase awareness of its members and help them find new customers.

Knowledgebase is launched - July 09
Knowledgebase is designed to provide members with all the administrative tools they need to run a robust and successful business. Giving access to form templates and factsheets makes it easy for members to comply with the law and protect themselves. Knowledgebase also helps our members to avoid hours of tedious research to find the information they need.

Guild Helps Channel 4 - March 09
Researchers for Kirstie Allsopp (Location, Location, Location) recently contacted The Gardeners Guild asking for help from our members to find certain styles of gardens for a new show called Kirstie Allsopp's Homemade Home. The gardens would be featured in the show as examples of the style of garden Kirstie would like for her own home.

New website - Feb 09
This new website is created in-house and gives us the flexibility to update it as often as we want as well as add new features.

Unearthing Talent - Jan 09
The Gardeners Guild was asked to write an article for the January 09 issue of Somerset Life. The article gave advice on how to find a gardener and qualities to look for. We would like to thank Somerset Life, particularly the editor Rachel Curran, for their support of professional gardeners and for recognising how important a gardener is to those who love their garden but can't maintain it themselves.

Free Legal Advice - Jan 09
The Gardeners Guild has arranged free legal advice for its members  - without increasing the membership fee! This service allows for telephone legal advice whenever they need it. The service also includes online templates of legal documents and factsheets covering all aspects of personal and commercial law.

Guild wins Recycling Stars Gold Award - Jan 09
The Gardeners Guild is proud to have received the Gold award for our attitude towards recycling. Our members have excellent opportunity to recycle much green waste and also to encourage their customers to compost and ensure that nothing goes to waste in the garden.