PUBLICATIONS

Issue 44 - Spring 2008

EDITORIAL - MANAGING OUR CHARGES

The profession of the garden and landscape designer is a creative one, and there is a general tradition that creativity doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with making money. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, and all the more so now that most educational courses in horticulture and design have modules on tax, running a business and book-keeping. Nevertheless, for many garden designers, earning a living may be more of an essential but unpleasant side-effect of the profession which constantly interferes with the ‘creative process’.

The average industrial wage in Ireland is €32,000, while civil servants such as teachers and gardai can earn from €50,000 to €60,000, with valuable benefits such as pensions, holiday pay and so on. For a garden designer to earn €50,000 a year, which is somewhere in the range of ‘average’, they would need to take in at least €70,000 - €80,000 per year in design fees (including 21% VAT), with the balance being the cost it takes to do the work: cameras, computers, printing, transport, and out-services such as an occasional draughtsperson, book-keeper and accountant.

If you are a ‘one person band’, to generate this turnover you would need to bring in approximately €1,450 per week in design fees, which is no mean feat. And this is for every single week of the year, with no allowance for sickness, holidays or pension. It’s for this reason that most garden designers go down the road of sourcing plants and materials, and sometimes being the main contractor through which the whole job runs. This greatly increases the potential to earn more money, but has added stresses. These include the need for deep pockets, or a good overdraft, to manage cash flow; the extra work of having to choreograph deliveries and contractors, often for multiple projects simultaneously; and it catapults you, in the eyes of the client at least, to be their main point of contact for the project, as well as the fall-guy if things don’t go according to plan. Furthermore, it leaves you vulnerable, as the person through whom all money has passed, to any long-term failings of the project such as plant death, faulty workmanship and so on.

In Ireland, there aren’t many garden design practices with multiple employees along the lines of an architectural practice - though there are some. Most garden designers work on their own or with a team of independent collaborators. If it seems like there are too many balls in the air to be able to produce and realise successful, creative designs, one solution is to find and cultivate people who make this job easier: one or two people who can draw well and use tools such as CAD, Sketchup and Photoshop; an accountant to work out how much tax, VAT and everything else to pay; someone to take care of insurance, so that the business and anyone within it is protected; reliable contractors who can work things out for themselves in the best possible way; and one or two regular employees who can put things in the ground and be on site to make things run smoothly.

From time to time there is consternation in garden design ‘circles’ (whatever these may be) that the profession is threatened by ‘hobby’ designers, pricing at low levels only sustained by the fact that they have an alternative income. Though it may be true that their fees can be unrealistically low, it’s not the public’s affair how or why people charge what they do. Our clients have no responsibility towards a profession which may be too expensive for them to want to pay for. In fact, these very ‘threats to the profession’ may, without the pressures of having to turn over more work than they can properly handle, be the ones who produce the best gardens - which is, after all, what the whole thing is about.

There is something appealing about the image of the tortured artist with the brilliant, creative but befuddled mind, or of the ‘gentleman’ (or lady) gardener with no need to turn a profit. Neither of these stereotypes, unfortunately, would be the best person to get your garden from mess to drawing board to finished reality. In order for the profession to grow and flourish into the future, there needs to be a growing level of professionalism within the field. We may grumble about insurance, tax compliance and so on, but it’s these very things which will ultimately allow us to get on with the process of making good gardens.

Some may regard the profession as innately creative, and regard creativity as anathema to financial or business acumen. Unfortunately this cannot be the case, as much of the professionalism required in running a business successfully is also essential in running a project in a similarly organised fashion. Of course there is room for the ‘hobby’ designer and the professional, and everyone else in between. But when it comes to larger or more complicated projects it’s only going to be the more organised individuals or practices who will be able to get the job done properly. It’s with these things in mind that this issue of Compass has been put together.

Tycho Mays MGLDA

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