Positive growth

Every working day is a happy one for Danchai Praison, an award-winning landscape designer. In the year since he started working in his chosen field, he has taken more than 40 jobs and almost never had any trouble.

"People who love gardening have good hearts," says the 24-year-old from Chiang Mai. "They are gentle and talk nicely to me. I'm so happy to be working with them."

On weekdays, Danchai is a full-time architect at Mono Simplex. However, after work and on weekends, he's a landscape designer at Ging Gaan Bai (branch, stem and leaf), his own landscape-design company. He set up the company with two partners.

"When you find a job you like, you never feel like you're working," says the architecture graduate of King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Lat Krabang.

"It's all about attitude, you have to think positive. When you go to work, you must find something good about it. Think of all the new things you can learn from each daily task. Be excited about meeting new people and solving new problems.

"With positive thinking, everything will go smoothly and you'll have more energy [from your full time job] to do other things you love as well."

Danchai won first prize in a landscape-design contest under the theme "Twilight Garden" last year at the annual Baan Lae Suan Fair organised by Amarin Printing and Publishing. It was the first time he had entered the contest.

"People want their gardens filled with lots of trees and plants. But it's not always possible. City people normally don't have much time to take care of their gardens - if they have any. They leave their house at 6am and don't return until 8pm. So they only have weekends for gardening. Trees and plants, though, need you for more than two days a week."

It's best to go simple, Danchai says. "When the customers see pretty trees and plants, they want to put them in their garden. However, many times they're too tired to take care of the plants, which makes it impossible for the plants to survive. Then they have to remove them.

"Simpler plants or gardens might not be as eye-catching, but they fit the lifestyles of city people better," says Danchai.

This simplicity is reflected in his designs. Danchai included one big tree in his awarding-wining garden, but focused on details and the use of space. He used bamboo sticks with lights on top, representing fireflies, in the bamboo garden, and aroma candles for relaxing. A small pond with plants brings family members closer to nature.

"I wanted to design a garden where family members could come to rest and chat together, and where they can come and listen to music and read."

Danchai won out over 220 other contestants to receive the Bt20,000 award. The work was judged under the following criteria: creativity, use of space, beauty, appropriate budget and theme.

In the past year he and his partners have made a minimum of Bt50,000 and a maximum of more than Bt1 million for each landscape-design job. They take care of everything from the design to the completed garden until the plants and trees are well-rooted and strong. Each month the firm earns an average of Bt70,000-Bt100,000.

"The key is to communicate with customers clearly and be sincere about what is it they want, and what is and is not possible. They may want plants and trees that need to be exposed to the sun, while their garden is in a shady area. But it's up to them."

Danchai says a career in landscape design is in demand. "City people normally live in a limited space and long for nature. So they love to have a garden at their place, even though it's just in a small space. Also, there're not many landscape designers. People who design gardens these days are really just plant sellers who try to further their business by offering a design service.

"So if you have a background in design, are creative and love plants, you should do well in this business."

Danchai can be reached at (081) 376 8401.

By Rojana Manowalailao

The Nation