No means Yes somewhere else
Now, my last blog post was slightly negative. Briefly, an old lady hired me late in the season to take care of her garden; and then last Friday she informed that her high-class chef son, who lives upstairs, had hired his own yard people. He paid for the nice surprise. She’s one lucky lady.
There are two annoying points to consider: one, the lady gave me a list of tasks and I completed them, so I’m not sure what yard work the other company did; and two, the son never mentioned other work to be done; he barely acknowledged me in the driveway. Oh, well. This happens when there is no relationship. I understand why he hired his own go-to people.
The good news is that when someone says no, you can say yes somewhere else. Three days later I was called to my residential client’s place to cover a long list of tasks. They were expecting visitors and wanted the garden to look awesome. See how this works? This couple knows me well; I’ve been taking care of their garden for two seasons now. We have a relationship!
I’m not worried about high-class chefs. My client’s wife is a neuro-scientist and she stops by to talk to me like a human being. And the husband hooks me up with extra work at their commercial property which is much appreciated when everything slows down in winter.
Tasks
Here’s what I covered, in random order:
The lawns are done for the season but I had to blow leaves off the large lawn in the back to make it look presentable.
Since all of the trees were done dropping leaves, I had to do one last leaf clean up. It was mainly Japanese maples and a hazel tree.
There is also a Wisteria on a trellis by the pool and it required a tight prune and clean-up. Once the leafiness was raked up around the pool, the beds got weeded and cultivated.
Another task involved perennial cutback: Rudbeckias and Anemones. My work on the nearby yuccas was a bit weird. The owner likes them pruned by taking the top third off, which is a bit weird. Yucca foliage should be upright and spiky but what can you do, the man insisted.
Half-way up the driveway is a rectangular patch of Hypericum (St. John’s Wort) and it gets sheared every fall. But don’t worry, it comes back nicely in spring. If you don’t prune it, I suspect it will start spilling over the edge and into the road.
I also took the time to take care of details, like the pine tree sporting one brown branch. It was an eyesore so I pruned it out. See it in my YouTube short below.
A nearby shore pine wasn’t exactly symmetrical, which annoyed the neuro scientist living in the Japanese-style house. So I bent over and I gently pruned the lower branches all the way around. I have no idea if she noticed.
The last step involved a nice clean-up blow of the inside and both entrances.
Goodbye chef!
So what do you do when you don’t have a relationship with a stuffy high class chef? Well, you nurture your existing relationships. Provide good service, get well paid, and have lots of fun. There is plenty of work for everyone. Think abundance, not scarcity.
My neuro scientist client was super happy with my work (“Looks fantastic, thank you“) and I’m sure the guests will enjoy their visit.
