When my wife and I bought our first garden centre in 2002 we were unprepared for what we were getting into. With limited experience in retailing and the public in general, we had no idea what the next twenty years were going to entail. Life would have been much easier if we could have read this insight into the garden industry as we were starting out. Long before we figured out how to import from Asia, we had to learn how to fire terrible clients, explain rat infestations and avoid people stealing from us. This book is a funny and unfiltered look at every aspect of this business. As our small nursery grew into a large retail farm operation and a simple garden consulting service grew into a full landscaping division, the strange stories kept mounting. What happens when you sever a gas line in the middle of town or how do you learn how to build a pond with confidence when you have never done one before. Find out what to do when a client has a full temper tantrum in the middle of a busy nursery or marvel at the purchasing power of the most wealthy clients. Told with humour and honesty, this book appeals to anyone who has ever planted anything, visited a garden centre, watched a garden improvement show, paid to have landscaping installed or has ever seen a tree. As the number of stories from dealing with the public were growing I kept thinking "I Should Write This Down."
