Machine gardening work is a specialty in itself

Green Support knows with what, where and how to do it

The selection of gardening equipment grows year after year, and time after time there is the promise that it will allow you to get your work done faster. It can. Provided you use the right machine in the right place and in the right way. Because this is where the shoe pinches on a regular basis, Frederik Vanderhaeghe decided a few years ago to focus completely on machine gardening and to offer support to his fellow gardening contractors, among others.

Green Support provides machine support to garden contractors, arborists, green services and so on.

Vanderhaeghe had been active in garden construction and maintenance for several years before he founded Green Support about five years ago. "Like other garden contractors, I was confronted with the evolution that everything had to go faster, and that with fewer and fewer people. In response, I began to expand my machinery. To recoup that investment, however, it was essential that the machines be used sufficiently. Thus, I eventually began to specialize in machine gardening."

From Roeselare, Green Support now offers machine support to, among others, green services, arborists, fellow garden contractors, companies and a small number of private customers throughout West Flanders. Extensive machinery and a five-person team ensure that the company can respond quickly and that work can also be carried out more quickly.

Green Support also has the necessary machinery for preparatory work such as earthworks.

Knowledge of business

The decision to specialize was previously unseen in the gardening world, according to Vanderhaeghe. "The garden contractor likes to be a jack-of-all-trades," he notes. "He wants to do the ground work himself, lay terraces, install swimming ponds and so on. However, all that also requires numerous machines. Because it is virtually impossible to invest in all that machinery at once, most garden contractors turn to a rental company. This offers flexibility, but unfortunately also has its drawbacks. For example, the right machine is not always available, the landscaper is not always aware of which machine is most appropriate for the planned work, and it can take some time to master a particular brand or device. There is a specific machine on the market today for just about every task, but if you use such devices only sporadically, it is impossible to master them all. As a result, the time savings that machine-based work can bring are regularly negated."

"By turning to a specialized partner like Green Support, on the other hand," the garden contractor continues, "you do achieve those time savings. This is because we work with a full fleet of our own machinery and know our machines through and through. This means that we know perfectly which machine to use where and that the work is carried out quickly and qualitatively. As a garden contractor you can therefore devote more time and attention to other activities and still serve the same number of customers with fewer staff."

Wood edges and wild hedges are trimmed with hedge trimmers on cranes and tractors.

Various activities

The activities for which Green Support provides support include soil and drainage work, ground leveling, spading, mowing and pruning, silt treatment and so on. "In landscape gardens, for example, we also maintain a lot of wood edges and wild hedges," says Vanderhaeghe. "That's done with hedge trimmers on cranes and tractors, so for most garden contractors that's not a viable option. By the way, we also make sure that material is processed on site as much as possible. For that, we have the necessary mulchers, shredders and shredders."

Another activity for which mechanical solutions are increasingly being sought and in which Green Support can assist both public green services and garden contractors and companies is weed control. "Now that sprays are virtually banned, weeds must be removed mechanically. We have the necessary weed brushes with collection tray for this, so that we can quickly and efficiently make terraces, sidewalks and other paving free of weeds."