Today would have been legendary horticulturalist Gertrude Jekyll’s 174th birthday (it’s even today’s Google Doodle).

In her time, Jekyll created some 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and America.  And her influence on garden design has been pervasive to this day.

One of her most famous quotes was:

“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.”

Her viewson Gardens is very much like ours on Business.

You need to define and agree what your end GOAL is. Whether it’s your garden or your business; what is your VISION and how will you know what success will look like?

You need the right gardening conditions – removing weeds before they impede growth.  The same is for business; you need to set up your ENVIRONMENT with the right roles, people, values and culture in place.

You need a PLAN and a timeline; you can’t start growing potatoes for your Christmas Dinner in a few weeks’ time, you’ve missed that boat.  But you can start planning for next year, now.

And you need to get into a RHYTHM and ROUTINE; a gardener needs to water and fertilise on a regular basis so will have PROCESSES and SYSTEMS in place for this – like you need in your business.

But there also comes an element of TRUST; allowing nature to take cause.

Just like a business, a garden has all the ANSWERS, you just need to know what questions to ask it.

And once a garden is planted?  Well, the real work begins.  

You can’t just leave it to tick over and run itself. You need FOCUS, the right TOOLS to implement, and you need a way of putting MEASURES in place to alert you of any issues before they arise.

A decent gardener knows different plants need different types of care and attention.

Finally, the most important part…you need your ‘EXIT’  What’s the point of slaving over your garden, battling the elements all year round, if you don’t take time out to sit back, take it all in, and enjoy it.