ABOUT REDEFINE LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Janis Neimanis is the proprietor of Redefine Landscape Design and has been involved with the horticultural industry for over 30 years.
Throughout this time he has seen huge changes in the spending habits of the ‘typical’ retail consumer at their local garden centre and landscape supply yard.
There is no doubt Australians have always had a real passion for improving their own little piece of outdoor space, however this trend has really accelerated over the last 10 years or so with the advent of an array of lifestyle television shows aimed squarely at luring people off their lounge chairs and into the garden. Whilst most of these shows have been helpful to the horticultural industry in raising peoples awareness of what can be achieved in a landscape, they have also been equally detrimental in their portrayal of reality versus actuality for the benefit of TV ratings.
More often than not, the people who choose to replicate what clearly looked so easy and quick on the TV screen end up feeling a little deflated at the end of day one of their project, when it clearly doesn’t resemble the TV shows condensed ½ hour version of the same project.
Landscaping work is a very physically demanding job which we believe shares the same sort of philosophy as a quality painting job. That is, if the preparation work is done properly, then the final result will last and look great indefinitely. If the correct preparation is sacrificed in favour of a less arduous route, the final result will eventually suffer in varying degrees also. A hot summer’s day wheeling in barrow after barrow of compost, for example, is a perfect excuse for someone to skip this vital step and feel satisfied that everything will work out just as well regardless.
Unfortunately nature has been around for a lot longer than all of us combined and it ultimately decides what is right and wrong! As testimony to these points, Redefine Landscape Design generates over 60% of its annual turnover from being called in to rectify these types of works. Whilst very profitable for us, it is also very disconcerting for us to see hundreds or thousands of dollars of the Client’s initial investment up in smoke as a result of cutting corners.
The obvious cliché that comes to mind is ‘do it once, do it well’. This cliché is the cornerstone of our business.
