Landscape and Horticulture Association - Landscape Juice Network

Open association for the landscape and garden for industry

Welcome to Phil's page

Profile Information

Company name (if applicable)
Landscape Juice
First Name:
Philip
Surname:
Voice
Telephone:
0844 232 4221
Email:
philipvoice@gmail.com
Website:
http://www.landscapejuice.com
Skype Name
philvoice
Twitter
http://twitter.com/LandscapeJuice
About Me:
Hello everyone,

Some of you will know who I am if you read my Landscape Juice blog but for those who don't, my name is Phil Voice and I have lived in France since October 2004, after selling my Landscaping and Garden maintenance company - still thriving as Voice Grounds Care.

I trained as an amenity gardener at Merrist Wood and later on, I qualified as a greenkeeper at Sparsholt College, Winchester.

I started my garden maintenance and landscaping business (21st May 1984) at 19 years of age and ran it for 21 years employing sixteen people at one point.

I sold up in 2004 because I wanted to have a break from the long hours and try to do something a little different.

Moving to France gave me the opportunity to get back to using my hands (which I got out of the routine of doing whilst pushing paper about) and I renovated/built a traditional French farm and built a house.

Now that the majority of the renovations (there will always be something to do) on our farmhouse are done and I needed to get my brain working again so I started the Landscape Juice blog (2006) and then the Landscape Juice Network (April 2008).

Landscape Juice keeps me in touch with what goes on in the world of gardening and landscaping in the United Kingdom and it also allows me to keep my interest in gardening and landscaping alive.

I also wanted to be a bit of a thorn in the side of the existing companies who have built their brand yet sat back and let their clients fend for themselves and I wanted to find a way of bringing equality to all of the small and medium sized land based business not represented but neglected by the incumbent trade associations.

I hope you enjoy Landscape Juice and this network too and remember, I am around most of the time to help if you need it.

Best regards


Phil

See my Flickr page.
My Landscape Juice LinkedIn page
Your Blog
http://www.landscapejuice.com
What is your profession i.e. Landscaping, gardening, greenkeeping - other
greenkeeping,landscaping,gardening,business advice and marketing
If you are a professional gardener, landscaper or garden designer, list the services or special skills that you have
I have extensive garden design and landscaping skills. My experience ranges from a £150,000 'Victorian Style' walled garden to small one off features costing as little as £500.00.

Philip Voice Ltd provided (and still provides) extensive grounds and garden maintenance services which included running all of Petersfield Town Councils sports and recreation facilities to large private grounds and gardens.

I have a range of experience of private garden maintenance and working with a very wide collection of plants and trees.

I have also gained valuable experience of building a company from the ground up and being involved in a variety of business projects.

I enjoy helping other people with business problems and I like to approach problems from a practical view point and especially costs associated with running small gardening and landscaping companies.

I would rather focus on keeping business costs down rather than chasing higher profits and would advise anyone to analyse their needs and convert it into an hourly rate based on the number of hours that they wish or need to work a year.

Follow me on Twitter
How did you find this site?
I started the Landscape Juice Network in April 2008 to help landscaping and gardening businesses.

Gardenmakers

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Latest Activity

busy editing an interview for Landscape Juice
4 hours ago
I remember somone telling me that in the road construction industry it is common that if a company goes bust that there property that is left on site becomes the property of any other contractors left on site. Resulting in a mad rush if a company go…
11 hours ago
I'm not sure - may have to double check unless anyone else knows, but if its in the t & c 's that the property remains yours until the final / completion of payment, it is just that. As such the property can't be 'inherited' or transferred without y…
18 hours ago
Philip Voice added a discussion
An interesting conundrum has been posted on UK Business Forums - it's too complicated to post it here so check it out over there and let us know your thoughts? http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1342117#post1342117
23 hours ago




Philip Voice's Blog

Philip Voice

Green-tech Horticulture welcomes Hannah Martin to the position of Area Sales Manager

[PRESS RELEASE]



Green-tech welcomes Hannah Martin to the position of Area Sales Manager, joining the horticulture arm of the business. Hannah has a wealth of experience of the horticultural industry having previously worked in the flowers division of Syngenta. Hannah, a keen horse rider and gardener, wi… Continue

Posted on August 28, 2010 at 10:00am —

Philip Voice

Downloadable business documents

Below is a list of customisable templates you can download to use in your business.

Make sure that you review and modify the detail to suit your own individual business and if in doubt, get a lawyer to take a look. Landscape Juice takes no responsibility whatsoever for any matters arising from their use.

Client documents

TermContinue

Posted on August 26, 2010 at 9:30am — 8 Comments

Philip Voice

JCB profitable in 2009 and predicts significant improvement in 2010

[PRESS RELEASE]

JCB maintained profitability in 2009 despite the deepest ever recession in the global construction equipment industry. The company saw sales drop by a third to £1.35 billion but was able to increase profit before tax marginally to £29 million (2008 - £28m).

In the face of a global market wh… Continue

Posted on August 5, 2010 at 8:30am —

Philip Voice

Managing, following and responding to comments on your wall

At first glance, the comment wall on your page might seem a little confusing.

If someone leaves you a comment, there might be a tendency to write a comment straight back using the comment block at the foot of the comment wall. However, if you do this, the comment is left on your own wall and not that of the person who's left you a comment and by you doing so, the person you wanted to see your comment might not actually notice that you have responded (I hope you're understanding this?).

Main
Continue

Posted on July 27, 2010 at 8:30am —

Philip Voice

Frequently Asked Questions

New members are joining the Landscape Juice Network all the time, which means we have members who are still to discover the huge and growing database of useful material archived within.

Below is a list of the most frequently asked questions in the forum and tips on using the site:

General siteContinue

Posted on July 25, 2010 at 9:00am —

Comment Wall (336 comments)

At 2:47pm on April 22, 2008, Philip Voice said…
Hi and welcome to the Landscape Juice interactive and social forum
At 11:38am on April 23, 2008, Stuart Bulbeck said…
No worries, I hope I can help with the growth of your site and if I can be of any help in any way to you please feel free to contact me.
At 11:57am on April 23, 2008, Richard Loader said…
Hi Phil - OK - I'll admin if you want - I have just been approved as webmaster of the GPA (Garden Photogs gpauk.org) so the more the merrier!
At 4:23pm on April 23, 2008, Richard Boyd said…
Hi All

Good to see you!
At 3:11pm on April 29, 2008, steve said…
Hi Philip i have fallen into gardening i hated it i have had no training what’s so ever i started of as a handyman for the company i work for 12 hours a week they couldn’t find a gardener for love or money so i said i would do it for them and now i have landscape it all they have a further 6 nursing homes they would like me to do i have had twenty people ask me if i do it professionally the funny thing is i love it now i have been doing it for four years now and the directors have given me a free rain i would like to grow bigger i make my own garden furniture i also brick and lay slabs i would like to become a bigger concern could you give me any pointers on how to go about this any help would be great I also have a garden centre which is well know locally that would like me to taken on some of there collage students as they have seen my work the thing is Philip I can see an opportunity here and I don’t wont it to slip through my fingers so any guidance from you would be most
At 5:48pm on May 5, 2008, Keith Paterson said…
Ok Philip How do I go about adding the gardening post to my Silver Surfers Site ?

K
At 5:51pm on May 5, 2008, Keith Paterson said…
My original question was how to get the plastic nut off that holds the blade on an old Qualcast over. I am sure I must be turning it the wrong way. Ideas please
At 8:49pm on May 7, 2008, Neil Petrie BSc Landscape Mgt said…
Yep, now that it's not winter anymore it's fabulous! Excellent service you have put together here - look forward to helping out and being helped out. Still young in the business; lots to learn, eager to learn it.
At 7:36am on May 10, 2008, Susan Gallagher said…
Glad to find you all! We really need a place where professionals can interact here in the uk. Its been a steep learning curve for us, and I look forward to sharing our experience and learning from the experience of others.
At 9:11am on May 18, 2008, Andrew Fereday said…
Hi Phil,

I just happened across your site while looking to see what gardening blogs are out there. This looks really interesting - a sort of gardening facebook! I was wondering what the culture of gardening is like in France? I have family in the US and they say that the gardening culture over there is very different to the UK - mainly lawns and the odd shrub here or there but not much in the way of borders like we think of them over here. How do you find the differences in France?
At 7:27pm on May 20, 2008, martin said…
Cheeers Phil

Loving the site
At 10:14am on May 22, 2008, Kevin Hoyle said…
Thank you, I will do.
At 8:46am on May 28, 2008, Salman said…
Hi Phil, thanks for your message. Yes, big move alright. I just wonder: brave or foolhardy? Still, it's got to be done, no point in sitting around wondering. Am looking to do part time study and work experience while doing a bit of bookkeeping to pay the bills until I'm trained up. Wish me luck! All the best
At 9:46pm on June 3, 2008, keith said…
Hi Phil,
Yes it is Pembrokeshire, and the coast path is fantastic. As I can suffer from vertigo these days, I am afraid that I don't walk it any more, but did before that problem kicked in.
At 7:51pm on June 8, 2008, karen johnson said…
thanks i will have fun looking aorund and hope to connect up properly soon
kj
At 10:42am on June 15, 2008, Andrew Fereday said…
Eeek! I've just noticed that in your profile picture you're not actually admiring a piece of hosepipe but that you've caught a snake! I assume that's some sort of adder is it?

I really ought to pay closer attention to these things. Or get my eyes tested...
At 10:47am on June 15, 2008, Philip Voice said…
Hi Andy,

It is a grass snake (rather large female) :-0)) don't worry, I didn't harm her but took her into the meadow and let her go.
At 8:44pm on June 16, 2008, Sefton Paine said…
Hi Phil. I checked out this site a little while back and the more time I get to use, I think how beneficial it will be. It is very difficult to combine a passion with business much of the time and I feel this site is going to provide the join in which is sometimes an abyss between the two.
At 7:27pm on June 17, 2008, Lara Warner said…
Hi Phil

Thanks for the warm welcome. I hope that this site will be a place where us contractors can bounce ideas around and progress our business and the industry as a whole.

I am interested in the whole customer charter idea however I think that the Landscape Network would be a great idea if there were some vetting and verification processes.

At this stage I should declare myself to be a Director of Yourlocaltrades which is a site similar to the concept of Rated People. We have vetting in place for all our members and would be pleased to ensure that Landscape Network members were returned first on the search results for their area.

That site is still in BETA mode and is not due to launch properly until later in the year. But I think it would give a further layer of credibility to the network and I would propose all Landscapejuice members who join would have no membership fee - for life! There will also never be a pay per lead charge.

If anyone wants to take me up on the offer visit www.yourlocaltrades.co.uk and register as a trader for free.

All the best and look forward to a great summer - I can't wait for winter just to have time to enjoy my own garden!

Lara
At 9:52am on June 18, 2008, Philip Voice said…
Hi Lara and thanks for the feedback.

"I am interested in the whole customer charter idea however I think that the Landscape Network would be a great idea if there were some vetting and verification processes."

This is something that is being considered but I I do not want to add too many barriers for those who wish to participate.

Vetting can only be successful to a point and I feel that by creating a strong ethos will serve well as a self regulating theme for the members.

I will look at your site and get back to you on.

Kind regards


Phil

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