At The Garden Gate Gardening Services believes that their job is to create the garden you envision, with as little or as much involvement of the client as they choose. Courtesy Photo

ALMA – When you combine lots of sunlight with plenty of moisture and rich soil, the results can be somewhat predictable: things grow, and they grow well. Unfortunately, under those conditions, everything grows well, the weeds as well as the plants that are the basis of a beautiful garden.

Fortunately, Rachel Hewetson, the owner of At The Garden Gate Gardening Services is only a phone call away.

Hewetson has a wealth of experience in helping gardens show their best side to the world. This is her second year as owner of At The Garden Gate Gardening Services, the company she founded, and she says things are going very well.

“Yes, very well, my clientele has probably doubled, its excellent,” said Hewetson. “I had to hire a girl to help me. She’s anywhere from part-time to full-time, depending on how many hours she can give me each week.  So, yeah, things are going really, well, I’m very happy.

“The weeds just won’t stop coming,” she adds. “Lots of people need help. People who thought maybe they only needed me the one time are now calling for another visit.”

If ever there was a year for getting an early start on preparation, this was it. “I suggest trying to get an early start on those gardens,” said Hewetson. “I mean, the sun and the heat came quick, and with the showers and the rain, it was all of a sudden, the plants were huge. The weeds were huge. You know, even two weeks after going to people’s houses it was amazing how things got going, and if you don’t keep on top of it, it just gets overgrown. So, that’s the best way. Just keep on top of things, at least trying to keep on top of it. But come July, when it gets hot and it’s 40 degrees, people just don’t want to be out there.”

Hewetson is a member of The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) and both the North Dundas and South Dundas Chamber of Commerce and has clients in both these areas as well as a few in Ottawa. She is located centrally in Alma, which allows her to cover a wide area. I asked her what a first visit to a new client looks like?

“The first thing I do is do a site visit,” said Hewetson. “See what they need doing, what they’re having problems with, what type of plants they have. Are they invasive or non-invasive? How is the weed pressure? How long do I think this is going to take to do what needs to be done?”

She also needs to determine what the client’s expectations are. “I need to know what they want. Do they want me to just go ahead and do it all, or do they want to have some input? Do they want to, you know, pick their plants? If they want to, I always let them. When they want to put mulch down, I know there are gardeners out there who only install one type of mulch. Me, I’m of the opinion that this is a customer’s garden, so it will be what they want, what they prefer? And I will put in what you like. That’s why, when you see my pictures of gardens I do, they have red mulch, or they have black mulch or brown because it is what the customer wants.

“It’s their garden, right? They’re the ones looking at it every day.”

There is no disguising that gardening can be hard work, especially when the sun is beating down, but that hasn’t decreased the pleasure Hewetson gets from what she does and what she like best about it. “It’s the people I’ve met,” she says without hesitation. “There’s been a few rotten apples in the bushel, there always is, everywhere. But overall, people have been just lovely, just nice and they all have that same interest:  They all want a garden, they want something nice.

“It’s nice to be able to, I shouldn’t say, make my own schedule, because I’m working harder than I did for another company, but it’s different, it’s busy, but it’s different. And meeting so many nice people, and a lot of them, generally, 90% of them are all older and they love their gardens.”

You can reach Rachel Hewetson and At the Garden Gate Gardening Services by phone at 613-619-4041 or by email at rhewetson75@gmail.com. You can find out more about what they can offer by visiting their website (atthegardengate.ca) and on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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