No matter what new places of relaxation appear, whatever means people have at their disposal for spending their free time, no matter what they are fond of, but familiar parks with green shady alleys and wooden benches, on which many romantic dates take place, do not lose their popularity. Although the idea of paying for an entrance to such a park just to take a walk along it, most of our compatriots is rather perplexed. Meanwhile, private parks are far from a new phenomenon. They existed in our country more than a century ago and are still popular abroad. First of all, they attract the attention of older people who want to enjoy the peace, tranquility and beautiful views that are not typical for this region. However, children are also happy to go on excursions to the botanical garden. Moreover, various entertainment events are often held there for visitors of any age.
Such changes are occurring in the familiar concept of botanical gardens around the world. Their functions change all the time, as their owners try to take into account the interests of their visitors. In our country, botanical gardens were originally created for scientific activities, as a tool for botanists and doctors. Then such gardens began to sell materials for decorative gardening. Finally, we gradually came to the conclusion that, like abroad, the main goal of private parks is to provide a range of services for the population and, of course, to make a profit.
Nevertheless, to date, the creation of its own park can hardly be called a full-fledged business (or, at least, a super-profitable business). Its main disadvantages, which frighten off investors, include the high costs of organizing even a small fleet, a long payback period, and low profitability. But with a competent approach, a botanical park can become profitable over time, unless, of course, you have the opportunity and desire to wait for this moment by constantly investing in your project. As the entrepreneurs themselves say, such a park for the time being should be considered only as a very expensive, but very pleasant hobby. But with enough patience and perseverance, such a business in the future can become a family business and quite profitable.
So, if the difficulties do not scare you, consider the process of organizing a botanical park. Let's start by choosing the best place to break it down. Ideally, this should be a resort or at least a southern city, where many vacationers come in the summer. Even a small park requires a large territory - at least 0.3 hectares. But the park is also not worth doing more than five hectares. It takes about 1-1.5 hours to get around such a territory by an unhurried move. Accordingly, it will be more convenient to charge hourly fees to visitors: once they pay an entrance fee, they will be able to explore all the sights and relax a bit in the gazebos or in the alleys. With a large area, it is advisable either to charge a fixed fee for admission, or to take a per-minute fee (according to this principle, for example, anti-cafes work).
As for the place, give preference to sites either on the outskirts of a big city, or in an area close to it. It is unlikely that they will be able to find free half a hectare in the city, and the costs will be unreasonably high. At the same time, 20-30 minutes by car will not scare off those who want to visit your park. For the resort city, you can arrange the delivery of visitors from the city (for example, from the local bus station) to the park and vice versa.
Many people think that there is nothing easier than breaking a park: just make paths and plant trees and shrubs. In fact, both the park and the botanical garden are a very complex project, involving even laying the foundation, which cannot be destroyed by the roots of large trees, and at the same time will protect the plants from freezing the soil. There are design organizations that specialize in the design and construction of such facilities, and their services cannot be dispensed with.
Park design work
Such companies offer a range of services - from creating a landscape design project to its implementation. After you leave a request, a company representative leaves for the place of future construction, who estimates the scale of work, finds out all the details and finds out the customer's expectations. Then the designer builds a topographic plan with object references to determine the area of his work. Moreover, the plan is not drawn up “on its own”, but taking into account all the features of this area and always with the departure of a specialist in the place. If the designer works exclusively in the office and does not visit the object, it is likely that he will make a large number of gross errors. For example, after making a layout, it may turn out that, for example, one of the gazebos falls on an important engineering communications node, as a result of which it will be necessary to re-design. And this, in turn, is associated with additional time costs and material losses. Therefore, the designer must know the location of all communication networks on the site, take into account the sources of pollution and the prevailing wind direction so that the view from the recreation area does not open, for example, to a busy highway.
For the same purposes, a photo-fixation of the site is carried out, which will help to identify successful species and not very. Then experts analyze all the possible nuances that can have a direct impact on the construction itself. They carry out careful measurements to compile a relief map, which will reflect the increase and decrease of the terrain, as well as calculations of the spatial structure, which will show the percentage of volume sections. Moreover, not only the complexity of the construction is important, but even the visual effects. The specialist should also take into account the location of the site relative to the cardinal points.
At the next stage, an insolation analysis is carried out, which allows you to establish the degree of shading of the area by determining the acidity of the soil and its chemical composition. Then, an inventory of green spaces and their assessment of the decorative and sanitary condition. Moreover, all this is only a preparatory stage, after which, finally, you can proceed directly to the design based on the data. First, they perform sounding of the area, determining the sites of active and passive recreation, front entrances, garden and garden areas, and the household part. After that, a network of roads and paths is being worked out. The sketch is applied to graph paper or designed using a special program taking into account the scale of the area. After preparing one or more sketch options (of course, the more the better), the specialist comes back to the construction site to present the proposed layouts with the customer. Most likely, they will be repeatedly amended. And only after the approval of the layout, you can begin to create a master plan, which is a set of sketches for various purposes with the most detailed details that correspond to the designer's plan.
The master plan is always carried out in color on a computer or (which, incidentally, is very rare) manually. The layout drawing is intended for builders who can subsequently make canopies, build arbors, erect retaining walls for green compositions, dig reservoirs, etc. according to the specified dimensions and relative coordinates. In most cases, snapping is based on existing buildings or plantations, which allows a little reduce costs.
The master plan, in the form of an appendix, also includes a landing drawing, which will be used by landscapers, with a legend. On this plan are applied only objects for snapping and directly designed green areas indicating the scale and cardinal points. For the arrangement of trees, a dendroplane is used, which reflects the boundaries of the project, flower beds from the planting drawing and the size of the crowns of trees at the time of flowering. Sometimes a landing drawing and a dendroplane are combined into one. Near each plant on the plan are indicated letter codes indicating the name of the breed or variety in an abbreviated form and a digital fraction. The numerator is the item number in the assortment list, and the denominator is the required amount of planting materials. The assortment list is a detailed list of planned plants and breeds. The data includes the serial number, the name of the plant in Russian and Latin, the average height in meters and the required number. For convenience, experts sort plants according to certain rules. First of all, deciduous trees are recorded, and then conifers (the same applies to shrubs). Then, all creepers, perennials, various herbs and ferns are indicated in the statement.
Finally, an explanatory note is attached to the master plan, with an analysis of the condition of the site and its compositional solution. Additional information may include optimal walking routes and brief tips on plant care. Finally, the full package of documents is transferred to the customer, who proceeds with the project. Most project companies also offer author support, which assumes the contractor’s control over the accuracy of the layout in the future, and field supervision when an employee of the project company continues to monitor the project, its implementation and development for a year after execution.
Landscaping: general style and attention to detail
The main condition for the success of your park is its design. But before you turn to a landscape designer, think about what style attracts you. This can be a classic, rustic, landscape (English), Italian, French styles or even stylization of a natural landscape. True, despite the fact that the main principles of landscape design are simplicity, convenience and practicality, as well as aesthetic value, experts still do not advise to oversimplify. After all, people will come to your park and pay money not to relax in the lap of nature (or at least its artificially created island near the metropolis). First of all, they want to see unusual plants and landscapes, as well as capture themselves against their background as a keepsake. When planning a park, always remember that you, in fact, create scenery for beautiful photo shoots, the appropriate surroundings for holding various thematic events (you will not go far at a paid entrance and excursions, but you can find out more about this below).
Nowadays, Japanese gardens are very popular, but they are distinguished by a complex structure and organization of space, require the participation of a specialist and high expenses for planting material, and, just as importantly, they need daily care of plants. But no one forces you to use styles in their purest form. It is quite possible to create separate "islands" on the subject and use the characteristic elements of various styles. And in this case, careful planning, elaboration of all the details and a large amount of work cannot be done.
Do not forget also that half a hectare is still not the largest area, so try to rationally use every square meter. The principle of simplicity in landscape design involves the use of simple forms, a small number of color combinations used and minimal decoration of objects. Convenience and practicality require the creation of comfort and an abundance of rational details. There can be a lot of the latter - this is the layout of the park itself, the arrangement of benches and arbors in such a way that they appear in the shade most of the day, the location of paths, bridges through streams, etc.
Experts advise making the most of the natural landscape of the area. It’s great if there are at least some ponds in the park. Even wetland can be turned into a pond. You can visually enlarge a small pond by designing its shores with plants in a special way.
Thus, landscape design is, indeed, an art that involves the use of classical artistic techniques - symmetry, asymmetry, contrast, balance, repetition, chiaroscuro, known to designers.
Break in advance the area under the park for several sectors. About 70% of the sectors will be various expositions, and the rest will go under arbors, path paths, a playground (for example, for kids you can make a small garden or kindergarten), a greenhouse, etc.
The choice of plants depends entirely on the concept of your botanical garden, as well as on the climatic conditions of the region where it is located, and your material capabilities (equipment of a greenhouse, greenhouses, water supply, heating, etc.). The maintenance of greenhouses and greenhouses is not cheap, especially in the autumn-winter period (after all, they need to constantly maintain a certain temperature, humidity and level of lighting), therefore, in order to recoup the costs, park owners set aside only part of them for excursions, and the rest are intended for growing collection plants for sale.
When designing vegetation, the specialist thinks not only in the future - how the park will look like in a few years. He strives to ensure that immediately after the completion of construction work, the park is ready to receive visitors. For this purpose, fast-growing tree species are selected and already grown seedlings are planted. It is necessary to take into account the growth rate of planted plants: in the first year, the main decorative effect can be obtained from annual flowers and lawns, in the second year from lawns, perennials, and from certain types of shrubs, and from the fourth year, tree species will gradually be included in the composition. In this case, you don’t have to wait 4-5 years until the trees grow and your park takes on the intended look. If you purchase a sufficiently large amount of planting material, then the effect of long-term cultivation can be obtained using thickened plantings that create pronounced contours of plant groups. True, in the future, such plantings will have to be regularly thinned out so that growing crops do not interfere with each other. Even the arrangement of tall trees, which should not be too contrasted with lower vegetation, is taken into account.
Private park as a business
Despite all its beauty and uniqueness, botanical gardens and parks are much inferior in popularity even to the banal amusement parks that are in every city. This is understandable: of course, it is nice to stroll through beautiful places and admire the nature, but people are more willing to pay money for more active types of recreation that children like. Large botanical gardens themselves already have an educational component. And with a well-thought-out infrastructure, such a project does not require additional “bonuses”.
But the owners of small parks have to take into account the needs of their visitors and come up with more and more additional programs. The latter can include both various types of entertainment (for example, holidays dedicated to certain dates), as well as more serious events - from tea ceremonies to yoga. Private park visitors are also offered services such as wedding photo shoots (garden trips with a photographer and video operator, wedding registration), romantic dates, shooting of the now popular love - story, photo shoots for everyone, meditation practices, excursions, trainings and master classes in floristry and landscape design, cinema clubs, etc.
All these services are usually paid. The exact cost varies by region. Today, the very first and currently the only private park in this region located in the south of Russia has the following rates: a walk in the park - 200 rubles. per hour per person (children up to seven years old are free), accompaniment of a guide - 500 p., photo session - 200 p. per hour per person, wedding photo session - 1000 p. per hour per person. The park is open from 7 am until the last visitor. In addition, there is a summer cafe on the territory of the park (stays on its territory are not paid).
Many visitors are unhappy with paid photo shoots, considering that already one hourly payment for staying in the park is enough. The owners of parks and botanical gardens explain their price lists ... with the Russian mentality. Most visitors try to take something from the park with them as a keepsake. Причем стандартная сувенирная продукция их не интересует. Они с удовольствием срывают листья «для гербария», отламывают ветки или вырывают побеги. Хотя большого смысла в этом нет, ведь большинство растений, которые растут в ботаническом саду, черенками не укореняются. Нередко недобросовестные посетители воруют даже растения в горшках. На свадебных фотосессиях пьяные гости гуляют, садятся, ложатся и падают на клумбы и газоны. Как результат всего этого – испорченная экспозиция, на создание которой ушло немало времени и денег. Взимание платы за проведение фотосессий позволяет паркам компенсировать ущерб и не уйти в минус.
Кроме того, немало средств уходит на поддержание парка в хорошем состоянии, на реконструкцию старых и строительство новых теплиц и оранжерей, ремонт беседок и т. д. Дополнительным источником доходов парка может стать продажа излишков растений. Как правило, ботанические сады и парки закупают и сажают больше растений, чем необходимо из расчета, что несколько саженцев могут и выжить. Затем образовавшиеся лишние кусты и деревья продают. Например, метровый фикус можно приобрести в таком саду за 500-1000 рублей, а укорененные побеги мирта – за 100-200 рублей.
На базе парка можно создать собственную студию ландшафтного дизайна или флористический центр, выращивать цветы на продажу, оказывать услуги по оформлению помещений с помощью цветов, проводить платные консультации по уходу за растениями, семинары, лекции, мастер-классы и т. д. Вариантов дополнительного заработка существует огромное множество – все дело в вашей фантазии.
Успех бизнеса во многом зависит от вложений в рекламу и продвижение. В преддверии сезона запускаются массированные рекламные кампании в местных средствах массовой информации. Но владельцы парков не обходят своим вниманием и интернет – активно работают в социальных сетях, на региональных сайтах и форумах. Частные ботанические сады – явление новое для нашей страны. Спрос на них отсутствует, но не из-за невостребованности предложения, а по незнанию. Так что само явление частных парков работает с опережением – предложение есть, а спрос пока не сформирован, с чем и связаны основные трудности ведения такого бизнеса.
Что касается расходов, то по данным владельца такого сада на его благоустройства требуется от 700 тыс. рублей на 100 кв. meters. Готовый же бизнес оценивается в 51 млн. рублей. За эту сумму можно приобрести парк общей площадью 0, 35 га с землей в собственности с пятью водоемами, несколькими строениями, автоматической системой полива, скважиной и 1500 взрослых сформированных растений. Для обслуживания такого парка достаточно двух-трех рабочих.
Но эти внушительные вложения не окупятся в ближайшие 5-7 лет даже при благоприятном стечении обстоятельств. В целом, частные парки – прибыльный бизнес, считают эксперты, но… в перспективе. Когда наступит эта перспектива и когда россияне начнут ценить красоту и ландшафтное искусство, они затрудняются сказать. К сожалению, пока большинство людей предпочитает проводить выходные за городом с шашлыками и алкогольными напитками.
Свою негативную роль играет и сезонность бизнеса. Это крупным ботаническим садам с большим количеством оранжерей и теплиц есть что показать посетителям даже в зимнее время года, хотя и они сейчас переживают не лучшие времена: нет средств на реконструкцию оранжерей и расширение экспозиций. Небольшие же частные парки с осени по весну уходят «в отпуск». Хотя работа там и не прекращается в эти месяцы (и следовательно, надо платить заработную плату работникам), но прибыли нет: желающих прогуляться по заснеженному парку немного.
Sysoeva Liliya (c) www.clogicsecure.com - a portal to small business business plans and guides08/18/2019