When you sit down to look back across 60 years in an industry, you quickly realise that every memory leads to another, says 'landscaping legend' Alan Sargent. The biggest changes haven’t just altered the daily work; they’ve transformed the entire landscape of how we operate, think, and survive in the trade.
Looking back, the evolution comes down to two big shifts: legislation and attitudes.
When Sargent started out, there was no internet to look up a technique on a screen. Success was built entirely on two things: physical skills and mental knowledge.
Sargent started with the painstaking, patient work of budding and grafting. He remembers working down in the quarry, packing charge holes and setting off dynamite to clear rock.
He moves on to building gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with a Cellnet 1990 garden prompting the title of this book.
The former policeman (until 1967) became a landscaper and many adventures ensued. He has built, designed, and project-managed over 60 RHS show gardens across major events, including the Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, Tatton Park, and Gardeners' World Live. He also founded the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) and the Professional Garden Consultants Association.
This book from the designer, landscaper, consultant, lecturer, expert witness and author is published now and available from Sargent at £12.
He has also published and On-Site Manual for Landscape Team Leaders in The Landscape Library series. These information sheets are for designers, specifiers and landscapers and cover professional liability, building regulations, surface water, levels and thresholds, planning law, boundary law, H&S, contracts and site surveying. The manual is plastic-bound for use on site and for staff training. Cost is £20 + P&P from alansargent.co.uk
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