Blossoming offshoot spreads its tendrils By Jonathan Moules
Alice Bowe’s attempts to create a niche business in the gardening sector may at last be blossoming into a much bigger enterprise.
English Landscape and Garden Design, her bespoke garden design business, has won various accolades in its short existence, including BT’s Essence of an Entrepreneur prize of her use of the web to organise jobs.
The company, which operates out of the former Bird’s custard factory in a distinctly ungreen corner of central Birmingham, has been profitable since its first few months of trading, thanks to its low overheads.
However, 27- year-old Bowe admits that the highly labour-intensive operation of designing people’s gardens meant that up until recently it has been impossible to scale up without employing an army of horticultural specialists such as herself.
This has started to change with the creation of an online shop, Gardenboutique.co.uk, selling all the gardening paraphernalia that she has spent the past few years tracking down for her clients.
