FreeLance Friday

My temporary van situation

Every Thursday evening as of late I arrive back home from my "normal" day job landscaping gardens and ram the back of my VW Golf full of garden equipment, mower, strimmer, blower and a combination of hand tools including the very handy Wolf-Garten multi hand tool system. To prepare myself for the Friday ahead maintaining some lovely gardens within the Tyne Vally.

This is where the 'Freelance Friday' comes in. I've been landscaping gardens for over 4 years now and have finally decided to drop a Friday a week and focus on my on business under the name of Matthews Garden Care, very imaginative but it does what is says on the tin and it does it well. This venture is something I've toyed with and procrastinated over in my head for a while now and its finally happening!

So, a little about me. The lad behind Matthews Garden Care. I'm 28 years old situated in the stunning country side of Northumberland, in the small village called Slaley. How I got into gardening? I was working as a customer advisor in a B&Q garden centre, unfortunately I sharply learnt that this is where plants go to die. Stock sent in ridiculous numbers to such a small store, hardly any punters and the ones that were there were always hovering around the sales trolly like midgies next to water. None the less this got me more intrigued into the vast and amazing world of horticulture. I got myself onto an 2 year apprenticeship at the amazing, most organised college that they call Kirkly Hall Northumberland college... I'm using 'amazing and organised' very loosely. I did however have an unreal tutor though called Lee, he made Kirkly Hall and that experience for me very much more bearable. I was also very fortunate to be employed by a local company, Premier Gardens whom I'm still working for. I can't rate the owners Nicky and Duncan highly enough, very supportive and not only bosses but good mates who go above and beyond to do as much as possible for their employees.

Qualification, very proud

Coming away with a level 2 distinction in Horticulture and doing hard landscaping for the past 4 years, 2 of those years were spent in college one day a week. The qualification and my passion for gardening has become a little lost within all the paving, mortar and sub base. So I decided to create Matthews Garden Care, being more hands on with general garden maintenance swapping pushing a wheelbarrow round full of sand to pushing a mower round a nicely clipped lawn, cutting hedges and pruning shrubs, abit of odd planting here and there.

Gaining a little more responsibility and hopefully creatinga good reputable business that people can count on for quality and a professional gardening service. Starting this venture has really sparked my passion for gardening and why I got into the industry in the first place. Also being able to create my own arsenal of tools and machinery that you really don't have to purchase when starting out but I love a tool and a tool or machine that has a purpose, so I've been online shopping, reading and watching reviews about which gadget I need next. I might introduce a tool of the month category, let me know in the comments if this is something anyone would be interested in.

But yeah that's a little about me, Matty behind Matthews Garden Care. Thank you very much for reading this, hope you enjoyed.

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