If you, or anyone you know, have a solid background in the landscaping industry, preferably with a CCDL, then please send your CV to sophia@arbworx.com along with a covering letter telling us why you want to work for Arbworx.

We’re looking for talented and enthusiastic people, with a can-do attitude, who share our passion for perfection. You’ll need to be responsible, motivated and enjoy hard work.

Our people are our biggest assets and that’s why it’s important for us to recruit talented individuals to drive business success.

In return for your high level of commitment we will provide a fun and challenging work environment, and will positively encourage you to develop your career in the areas you are most interested in.

As you’ll know from having looked through our website we have incredibly high standards so only serious applicants need apply.

Arbworx Ltd is an equal opportunities employer. A copy of our equality policy is available on request.

Here at Arbworx we love the Spring time, for us it means working outside in warmer and drier weather, but aside from the practicalities we also love the beauty that Spring brings with it.

With that in mind we have decided to launch a photography competition, open to all UK residents aged over 16 years so that we can see just what Spring means to you.  We would love to receive your photos and will display the best entries on our website.

We want your photos to depict what Spring means to you and show us just how beautiful Spring is here in Sussex.  Your photo can include flowers, trees, birds or animals but not people please.

Please email your entries (one per person) to sophia@arbworx.com by Friday 1^st June 2012.

We will judge the competition on Monday 4^th June and post the details of the winning shot by Friday 8^th June 2012.

And I hear you ask, what is the prize if I enter? Well I can put your mind at rest, it is definitely worth entering because the prize is a stunning, hardback copy of Gardens of the National Trust by Stephen Lacey, one of Britain’s best-known garden writers. Glorious colour photographs illustrate the entries, complementing the text to bring the gardens to life; enough to inspire even the least green-fingered photographer.

Please read the competition rules below before sending in your entry.

CLOSING DATE FRIDAY 1^ST JUNE 2012

Arbworx Spring Photography competition rules

1. This competition is open to UK residents only.
2. You must be over 16 years of age to enter.
3. You must provide Arbworx with your name, address, telephone number and e-mail details if you wish to enter this competition. Arbworx will only ever use your personal details for the purposes of administering this competition, and will not publish them or provide them to anyone without your permission.
4. Only one entry will be accepted per person and entries will not be returned.
5. Deadline for receiving entries is 12h00 GMT on Friday 1^st June 2012. Results will be announced on the Arbworx websites by Friday 8^th June 2012.
6. The prize is one hardback copy of Gardens of the National Trust by Stephen Lacey.
7. The site editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
8. You agree to take part in any competition publicity if asked to do so. The prize may only be taken as stated and cannot be deferred. There will be no cash alternatives.
9. You must supply full details as required above, and comply with all rules to be eligible for the prize. No responsibility is accepted for ineligible entries or entries made fraudulently.
10. By submitting your photograph into the competition you agree to grant Arbworx free of charge the right to publish the photo on our website when announcing the winner(s).
11. Your entry must be entirely your own original work, not defame anybody nor breach any copyright.
12. If your photograph features any person or people, they should be aware they were being photographed and permission should be obtained from all involved (or their parents/guardians if under 16) for their photograph to be submitted in a competition. If it is clear that the people are not aware of their picture being taken or are embarrassed in any way in any entry we receive, we reserve the right to disqualify the entry.
13. This competition is not open to Arbworx employees or contractors or any person involved in the running of the competition, or their immediate family members.
14. Arbworx reserves the right to cancel this competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside its control.
15. If a winning entrant is unable to be contacted after reasonable attempts have been made to do so, Arbworx reserves the right to either offer the prize to the next best entry, or to re-offer the prize in any future competition on bbc.co.uk.
16. Arbworx reserves the right to disqualify any entry which breaches any of these rules or to withhold a prize if in its opinion entries do not reach the required standard.
17. These rules are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

Some of our favourites have formed the subject of previous blogs but it was at Thursday night’s Marshalls Awards ceremony that all our hard work finally paid off with the Arbworx team scooping not one, but three awards.

The occasion was the final night of the Marshalls Spring Road show; an opportunity for the sales management to meet the landscaping firms who have achieved or maintained their coveted status as Marshalls Registered Installers. Arbworx joined their ranks back in July after completing a thorough assessment process, and the team were encouraged to enter one of their largest projects for the Marshall Regional Awards.

Choosing which project to enter was a tough decision, given the high standards to which all our works are completed, but in the end we selected the Quadrant Landscape Garden Makeover in Shoreham-by-Sea as it most closely fitted the criteria laid down by the Marshalls judging panel. We had used several Marshalls landscaping products during the build and felt that the scale of the transformation Arbworx had achieved was testament to our expert landscaping skills. We were not wrong!

The evening was a well-planned event by the Marshalls team and included several seminars on new services aimed at Marshalls’ trade customers as well as updates on improved customer service and sales techniques designed to support landscaping firms in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

However, it was the Awards themselves that everyone had really been waiting for…

The first few awards for ‘best project to a certain value’ were won by long-standing Marshalls installers. Then came the award for Best Newcomer. The Arbworx team held its collective breath, and… Yes! A win for Arbworx!

And this was not the only one either. We went on to win a second award for ‘Most creative use of Marshalls products’ and then a third – the only team to do so – and this time for ‘Best engineering achievement’.

Jon Lee collecting the award for best engineering achievement

Proud, happy, ecstatic? I think all three descriptions fitted that night. Recognition by your peers on such a scale is immensely gratifying and a well-deserved reward for the team’s maintaining such a high standard of expertise throughout such tough economic conditions.

So, what’s next for the award winning landscaping firm? Well, our success in the regional awards means we will be put forward to the National round with a chance of becoming the Marshalls best landscaper for 2012. Watch this space for further news…

Arbworx wins three landscaping awards

In the meantime we have several more exciting projects in the pipeline as we move towards the Spring. We’d also like to remind our customers, new and existing, that however cold it is outside at the moment, the summer will be upon us sooner than we think.

If you’re considering having work done in your garden do please give us a call sooner rather than later and we’ll ensure everything is completed in time for you to really enjoy the summer in style.

I have always been acutely aware of the amount of paper that our business uses and the sheer waste of resources that this is. To combat the volume of paper that we use we now supply our key staff with iPhones so that they can have their job sheets emailed to them and enjoy all the other benefits of an iPhone for working digitally whilst on site. This small change in our business practices dramatically reduces the amount of paper we use in the office and the amount that ends up cluttering up our vehicles.

I am please to announce another initiative that we have just launched on our website, along with our ‘get an estimate‘ online form we now have an ‘accept and estimate‘ form. This allows our clients to not only request a site survey online but when the estimate is sent to them (electronically of course) they can now reply using the online forms. This will virtually eliminate the need for paper in the whole communication process.

Another step we have taken is to ask all our suppliers to use e-billing and e-invoicing wherever possible when working with Arbworx. We have had great success with this initiative as all but one have now signed up to the practice.

A review of our waste disposal methods has revealed an opportunity for potential timber disposal/recycling. We are now looking for a company that can process our waste timber into a saleable product for the log burning/wood burner community. We already recycle all our green waste and timber logs and soon we will be able to recycle off cuts, old fences and posts as well. Along with recycling all our hardcore waste into crushed concrete for resale we are really making a difference to the amount of waste we as a company generate.

Jon Lee ND arb

We have been busy clearing up wind fallen trees and fences for the last couple of weeks and there seems to be no shortage of it to be done!

The phone has been ringing steadily all of this, usually,  the quietest of months for us as landscapers. Just when I thought a nice little holiday was in order the wind blew and hop to it..we were all going great guns again.

Now as the days start to get longer we all start to think about the coming season in the garden. What to plant, where to put such and such, and how much will it all cost if the weekend is to be kept for enjoyment and not propping up leaning fence panels that we all know need to be replaced…. just not now!

The thing to remember is that although it may not seem the best time to be working out in the garden you are preparing the framework that all the planting will be able to show off later in the year. The amount of times I hear “we want to start in March/April for the summer”. Well I have news for you… If you want to start your project then, when all the other people who have been waiting for the glimmer of light to signal summer will also want theirs done at the same time. Guess what??? “well I Am very busy now but I can do it after May for you!” That is not the answer you want to hear when the first signs of summer are upon you and you’ve just been to the garden centre and ordered your new summer house hot tub and bespoke arbour!!

Start working your ideas out now and plan ahead. It will save you money and having to make those last minute decisions that you are not entirely happy with later. If you intend to spend a serious amount of money make sure that you are getting value and what you actually want, not what the local ‘trendy’ landscape gardener wants to sell you. There are so many contractors out there that do about 3-4 different garden styles and that’s what they are good at. I know ..I used to be one of them. We had our style and that was great for the time when everyone wanted that but I soon realised that I may have been building gardens for myself and not so much my clients.. bad man!

If you are not sure about what you want then fine ask questions and think about the answers rather than losing yourself to the first idea that you see. (although I have to confess that some of my best work may have happened like this). Its all about having the time to plan for the coming months and getting the right result from your garden.

And remember if its instant then you haven’t given it time to GROW!!

Enjoy the coming season, its going to be fun…

Jon Lee ND Arb.

Arbworx

With the days getting shorter and the air getting colder winter is well on its way, which means your pond will need a little maintenance to ensure it will look good throughout the winter and your fish have no problems during the colder months.

Plants

Before winter really sets in it’s worth going round your pond cutting back any dead vegetation left over from the summer. This will help to reduce the amount of organic matter entering the pond during the winter which will, in turn, reduce the risk of any water quality problems in the future. It will also make your pond look much tidier.

Any hardy water lilies you have in your pond should be moved to deeper water and any non-hardy lilies, such as pigmy lilies, should ideally be removed from the pond and placed in a large container of water and stored somewhere away from the cold, such as a garage or garden shed.

Fish protection 

Being cold blooded creatures, fish will start to enter a semi dormant stage with the onset of winter becoming a lot less active and feeding less frequently. As the temperature of your pond reaches around 10-12^oC you should switch to a good quality wheat germ feed for your fish and reduce the frequency and quantity of their food. Any uneaten food should be removed from the water.

Once the water reaches around 7^oC the fish will stop feeding completely and will enter their semi -dormant stage, spending most of their time in the deeper areas of the pond where the water is likely to be slightly warmer.

It is worth moving your pond pump and the out flow from your filter to ensure this layer of warmer water in the deeper areas of your pond is left undisturbed; alternatively you can reduce the flow on your system. Whatever you choose to do, mixing the colder upper layers of water with the warmer deeper parts should be avoided.

Ice can be a problem in the depths of winter; a solid layer of ice will stop the exchange of gases in your pond, preventing oxygen entering the pond and stopping the carbon dioxide produced by the fish from exiting the pond. Pond heaters are available but these only raise the water temperature by a few degrees and are expensive to run, instead it is better to keep the surface of the water moving by keeping your pump running throughout the colder weather or by placing an air stone in your pond.

Sandra Packham and the giant 11 foot 6 inch sunflower

Sandra and her husband David are foster carers and encourage the children in their care to grow sunflowers from seed every year.

Sandra believes that seeing such wonderful flowers grow from their own small sunflower seeds gives the kids a real sense of achievement and everyone enjoys the sight of those cheerful yellow blooms out in the garden.

This year their tallest sunflower measured an incredible 11 feet 6 inches and was a clear winner in our competition.

Our runners up

Our runners up were Beth Spencer from Virginia Water in Surrey whose tallest sunflower reached over 9 feet tall, Elliot (6) and Darcia (4) Payne from near Cambridge, and nine year old Colin Gallagher who grew his sunflower from a seed at school. Colin lives in Madison Heights in Michigan USA and I must say we were amazed at the number of entries we received from outside the UK.

Entries from near and far

When I received Colin’s entry from his mother, Stephanie, I had to ask her how she had heard about our competition as we hadn’t expected entries from so far afield. Stephanie told me that the family had originally posted the picture of Colin and his sunflower on Facebook and people commented that they should put it in a contest. So Stephanie googled ‘biggest sunflower contest’ and up came the Arbworx competition on the first page. Oddly enough there didn’t seem to be any competitions in the States so Stephanie figured that they would give us a try and sent in the picture of Colin and his sunflower.

Stephanie told me how Colin had come to grow such a great sunflower. “In school they always do an art project to give moms a gift for mother’s day. The third graders this year made little ceramic pots and tossed in some seeds. When he gave it to me I put it on the window sill. After a few weeks Colin and his grandma planted it in the backyard with some pumpkins. He watered it and next thing we knew it was this huge sunflower!”

Congratulations to all our winners and to everyone who took part in the competition. Thank you for your entries and I hope you enjoyed growing your sunflowers.

How to harvest your sunflower seeds

To round off the competition here are a few tips on how to harvest your sunflower seeds once the plants have finished flowering.

• Wrap the heads of the sunflowers in paper bags and secure with string or twine. Cut the bagged flower head from the plant about 12 inches below the paper bag.
• Hang the flower head upside down somewhere warm and dry.
• When the back of the flower head has turned dark brown and gone very dry the seeds will be dry and ready to harvest.
• To remove the seeds rub your hand across the flower head and the seeds will just pop right off the sunflower. Collect them in a colander and rinse well with cold water. Drain them thoroughly and spread them out on a paper towel to allow them to air dry for a couple of hours.
• They will be ready to eat from their shells just as they are and are a great addition to any lunchbox.

Beth Spencer's 9 foot sunflowers

Elliot and Darcia Payne's 8 foot 7 inch sunflower

Colin Gallagher and his sunflower from Michigan, USA

APL & HTA

Balau screen for contemporary garden makeover

We heard this week that our application to join the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) had been successful. The application process meant that in addition to detailing our experience in the landscaping industry, providing evidence that we are committed to customer satisfaction, and that we are fully insured, we also had to provide a list of customers who would be happy to stand as our referees, confirming that our work was of a high enough standard to qualify for membership.

All our referees were contacted to confirm that we had carried out the works ourselves and to a high standard, and that they were happy with our services. The APL assessor also visited one of our sites this week to check on the quality of our workmanship for himself and we hope that he went away as impressed as our client was!

The APL represents the UK’s best individual landscape professionals and their companies, and our membership of this organisation means that we have joined a select group of around 180 firms who design, construct and maintain gardens and open spaces for domestic and commercial customers. Joining the APL also means that Arbworx receives the TrustMark accreditation confirming that we are a reputable and trustworthy organisation and that we adhere to a strict code of practice that includes insurance, good health and safety practices and customer care.

Our next step will be to enter the APL Awards 2011 where we hope to scoop one of the coveted prizes for outstanding landscaping work!

Marshalls

In addition we have also been approved to join the Marshalls Register of Approved Landscape Contractors and Driveway Installers. The application process was similar to that for the APL and HTA in that we provided references and all of the sites were visited, but this time our MD, Jon, also had to undergo an intensive two hour interview so that the Marshalls assessor could be satisfied that we really know our stuff when it comes to landscaping, paving and driveway installation.

We would like to say a big thank you to all of our customers who were kind enough to stand as referees for us. We appreciate that it can be a nuisance being asked to complete reference forms when you are so busy, and we are very grateful both for your time and for the very nice things you all said about us.

CHAS

Last, but most certainly not least, and thanks to some painstaking hard work by Gavin, our Health & Safety Supervisor, we have finally been confirmed as complying with the very strict standards of the Construction Health & Industry Scheme (CHAS). This not only reassures our clients that we are compliant with important parts of health and safety law, but will also help us save time and resources when tendering for larger projects in the future.

It has been a long process since although we have always been very conscious of the health and safety of our team and the general public on site and in our yard, we have never had to document everything as is required by the CHAS scheme. Gavin has spent long hours cataloguing all our equipment, producing risk assessments and drawing up our health and safety policy but his efforts have paid off and we received notification earlier this week that we had at last been confirmed to the scheme.

Constructionline

The CHAS accreditation is also the last piece of documentation I needed to complete our application to join Constructionline, the UK’s largest online database of pre-qualified contractors and consultants. It’s another long process as we have to satisfy a wide range of requirements as to our qualifications, experience, insurances, licences, company policies and finances, not to mention providing references for all the categories of work we undertake, but it will definitely be worth it in the long run as we will be pre-qualified to supply work to UK government standards and will be able to whiz through the tender process for many large projects.

Congratulations to Gavin for all his hard work and to all of the Arbworx team who continue to produce quality workmanship on some really outstanding  projects. Keep up the good work!

These oh so cheerful plants are native to central America but thrive in the UK and across Europe. Hugely popular with gardeners of all ages, sunflowers are loved by bees and butterflies whilst in flower, and by birds as soon as their petals have fallen and the seed heads mature.

To encourage even more of our lovely friends and followers to grow a sunflower or two in their gardens this year, Arbworx is running a ‘Tallest Sunflower’ competition so to be in with a chance to win, get planting!

We will be offering a deliciously colourful and practical prize for the winning entry and the three runners up will be rewarded too with a little something for their gardens in 2012.

It’s super simple to enter – all you need to do is:

• Grow your sunflowers as you would normally do (see our helpful hints for successful growing below)
• Then, when you’re absolutely sure your sunflower won’t get any bigger
• Take a picture of yourself standing next to it and
• Send the picture to us along with its measurements (the flower’s measurements, not the photo’s…) and your name and contact details.
• You can send in your entry by post to Sophia Lee-Spencer, Arbworx Ltd, 51 The Gardens, Southwick, West Sussex. BN42 4AP or by email to sophia@arbworx.com
• The closing date for entries to be received is 5pm GMT on Thursday 1st September 2011 and the winner will be notified on Monday 5th September and will receive their prize as soon as possible after that date. We will also be publishing a photo gallery of all the pictures we receive so we’ll have something cheerful to look forward to as we head into the Autumn…

If you will be posting your entry to us and would like your photo returned to you, please ensure you include a stamped, self-addressed envelope along with your entry.

How to Grow Super Sunflowers

Dig over your soil, compost it well and rake it finely.

Sow your seeds thinly, 12 mm (1/2 inch) deep in drills 30cm (12 inches) apart and watch them sprout. Germination takes only 21 days.

When they’re large enough to handle thin the seedlings to 30cm (12 inches) apart.

Nurture your sunflowers throughout the summer, water them regularly, talk to them, even sing them songs – anything to encourage them to reach up as high as they can.

Most sunflowers will have grown to their full height by August so measure them regularly that month to make sure you get them at their tallest.

Watering in a new lawn with 'everedge' lawn edging fitted

We have completed three decking builds, three paving projects, 320 square metres of turfing and over 450 metres of fencing this month alone!

A cost effective way to cover old paving and brighten up the garden

I suppose this was all helped with the Chelsea flower show getting so much attention in the media and companies like ourselves seeing the increased interest from the nation of gardeners that we all are!

Arbworx director Sophia Lee-Spencer with Gavin and Alex at Chelsea

One special little treat that the team got was an all expenses paid trip to Chelsea to see the standard of work that we all strive for. The attention to detail that was to be found at the show gardens at Chelsea is unrivalled across the world and I was keen to point out the craftsmanship that had gone into producing some of the hard landscaping features that complimented the planting so well.

A superb water feature, my personal favourite of the show

When you look at a water feature and see the water flowing perfectly over a long edge it is very difficult to achieve. Water will always find the lowest level and so it needs to be perfectly level and the flow even.

Water flowing across the stainless steel

We all left Chelsea with ideas and inspiration to pass on to our clients and improve our skills for future projects.

Our supervisor Gavin examining the water features at Chelsea flower show

May also saw two new members of staff join the team, Nathan Orrell and Martin Eccles.

Nathan learning the ropes on a decking project

Nathan has joined us  from a London based tree house installer and has really had to hit the ground running with the decking projects that I had lined up for his arrival. To say that the learning curve is steep is an understatement but he has grasped the challenge with both hands and soon will be producing works to our high standards without supervision form his mentor Gavin.

Martin Eccles

Martin has come to us from another local landscaping company and has stepped up to the mark already leading a team looking after a complete garden makeover in Crawley when Ben managed to crack a rib. (Not a good injury when you lift things all day!) Martin has a solid background in landscaping after completing his National Award in Horticulture (Garden Design) with a distinction grade.

Our new re-branded Arbworx vans

If you live in the Sussex area you may well see our new liveried vans around now too as we are nearing the completion of our re brand after a delay due to being just ‘too busy’ to pull them off the road to be sign written. The team are now in their new summer uniforms changing from our navy blue over to the new green layouts with our tag line embossed on the back.

Arbworx

Nature……by design!