By the time our April issue reached readers, spring was well and truly here. We’re coming across random gatherings of daffodils on our weekend walks now and there are Easter eggs in abundance on supermarket shelves. There’s more to look forward to as well with the first stop on the lockdown roadmap approaching later in the month.
Perhaps less exciting, depending on how your business has fared throughout the pandemic, is the end of the fiscal year in a few days. Looking ahead to this, we asked our UK Landscape Barometer contributors whether they are looking to increase staff salaries for the next fiscal year, and more than half (52%) said yes!
Some may even be in a position to grow their staff numbers; in which case, business coaches Nick Ruddle and Alison Warner share their advice for recruiting a dream team in this month’s issue.
One of the biggest topics businesses would have spoken about over the last few weeks is gender equality, thanks partly to International Women’s Day on 8 March. In honour of this event, we asked some big names within the industry what they’re doing to close the gender gap.
We also asked some industry experts whether UK landscaping should be regulated, with some interesting and mixed reviews. We’ll say no more, you’ll have to go read the responses yourselves.
Our April issue saw us celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Garden Company, which recently underwent its biggest rebranding yet. We interviewed managing director James Scott on the rebrand and the last three decades of running one of the most successful design and build companies in the industry.
Another interview not to be missed is with Benjamin Walker. He started as a graduate landscape architect at LDA Design and four years ago became a director, leading ground-breaking projects – it’s a page-turning success story.
