"My wife and I first met Rick when he and his colleagues prepared a concrete base and erected a large shed in the grounds of our new house.  The shed was erected and finished with despatch, care, and to a very high standard.

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Noting the logo on his vehicle, I asked Rick if he would take on a large landscaping job.  This involved ripping out some 1,500 square meters of overgrown old back garden and rotting structures while saving a sickly acer tree; removing old trees, including one awkwardly placed big one; reducing the height and depth of a long beech hedge by around 50%; radically reducing the size of a large oak tree, and trimming others; saving some relatively healthy grass areas; grading the remaining some 900 square meters or so and installing new turf.  Many of 37 fence panels around the property needed replacement and all needed staining.  A paved patio area and steps were to be created by an extension. The front garden needed the removal of structures, a new curved, rendered block retaining wall, major new underground drainage, and the installation of a large new shingle surface, a curved path, an area of setts and another of tarmac.

After preparing the soil, some 40 roses would need to be selected and planted, and a new short beech hedge provided.

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Rick reacted entirely positively, and with sound, practical and thoughtful ideas from our first meeting and throughout the works.  It was remarkable how he assembled and led a cohesive team of skilled workers.  It was also remarkable how hard everyone worked, inspired, we thought, by Rick’s tireless and energetic example.  They worked through all weathers, to excellent effect, and cheerfully, even while our back garden resembled the field of the Battle of the Somme.  The team worked without fuss, and so well together.  On one occasion, the drainage work proved especially challenging: Rick led his colleagues (Sam and Fred) in working extremely hard, both intelligently and physically – and without a break until 7pm to solve the problem permanently.  

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Rick planned and executed the extensive landscaping without adversely affecting the partly contemporaneous building works – a signal achievement. 

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For the provision of the roses, Rick consulted his father, an excellent horticulturalist.  Mr Farmer Senior came and advised my wife on how to design the perimeter surround of roses, and helped greatly with the choices.  He tended the new garden with great care, and then planted all the new roses, some 95% of them bare-rooted.  The results, in their first summer, were spectacular and a fine surprise.

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This is a short version of a long, thoughtful, sometimes changing series of landscaping and allied works.  Rick and his team deserve the highest of tributes for all they did, all they thought, and all the care and effectiveness they displayed. 

 

My wife and I could not recommend Minehead Landscaping more highly."

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Sir Roger Carrick