The Garden Network gets a new owner

After just over a year, it's time to hand The Garden Network to someone new, as I'm expecting another child, so will soon be looking after '2 under 20 months' very soon! So with my hands full running Toddington Manor's gardens, our courses and tours, plus Applegate Gardens and Garden Design Pro - something has to give! As of the 27th of March, Tim Matcham of Tim Matcham Garden Design, Wiltshire will be running the TGN website.

TGN has been great fun to get off the ground, the first and easily largest of its kind - unique in the professional way its members have participated and contributed, including the established trade associations. I was happy to hand the site over to Tim, because he intends to continue in its original guise of a FREE website, helping small businesses and homeowners to meet, network and improve gardens.

TGN has grown very quickly in the last 12 months with a peak of over 100 new members signing up in just one day from approx 1,000 unique visitors, and nearly 8,000 members in total. It really shows whats possible by organic growth on the internet, without advertising, any PR, 'dirty-tricks' campaigns or traditional press coverage - just an original concept, professionally managed and exposed to a large online audience. Long may it continue!

I've met some interesting members in the last year, doing some great work - which has been very enjoyable, we are lucky to have some great people in this industry. There are however, still some quite outdated opinions around and we did get some hostility from some of the associations initially (understandably I guess), but once the site proved itself to be professional, it was good to see evryone participate. We have certainly influenced the future shape of this industry online, which is set to change dramatically over the coming 12 months...

Good luck to Tim and all the best with TGN, hopefully everyone will make you feel welcome!