Life looking rosy for Scarrows after hard graft

By ELLEN READ

Remember Dig This - the gardening programme that ran on television from 1972 to 1985?

Presenter Eion Scarrow became a household name for his weekly dose of sensible, practical gardening tips.

Since the series ended he has disappeared from the public eye, but he has been keeping busy.

With his wife, Ann, he runs a small business based in Ohinewai, just north of Huntly.

The Scarrows produce a bi-monthly gardening magazine and also host garden tours of New Zealand.

With no formal business training between them, they have had to learn on the job.

Scarrow's public image has opened some doors and helped with contacts but the basic hard graft has been the same for them as any other fledgling company.

The couple began producing the Dig This magazine in October 2000 after an approach from a friend running a local publication.

"I wasn't that keen at first but I mentioned it to Ann and she ummed and ahhed but then woke me up at three in the morning to say, 'Why don't we call it Dig This?' so I knew she was onside," says Scarrow.

The magazine is aimed at practical gardeners, unlike some of the glossy but relatively unhelpful gardening publications on offer, he says.

Many lessons have been learned over the past 18 months, including that advice from friends and mentors is invaluable.

The Scarrows had a mentor from a Hamilton business community scheme and also send each publication to a friend in the business who marks the pages out of 10 and suggests improvements.

As for the financial side, the couple take care of this themselves with the help of several computer programmes. The hardest thing, they say, is getting the bigger companies to pay on time.

"Small-business people know you rely on the cash flow but some of the big places take two months to pay," says Scarrow. "We have to pay the printer within seven days."

A few months ago the Scarrows met Hunterville businessman Robert Belmont, who runs Wonderful Kiwi Tours.

He suggested the Scarrows put together a programme for hosted garden tours.

The Scarrows had been taking garden tours for years, so it seemed a natural progression.

The result was New Zealand Garden Tours, offering trips ranging from one-day outings around Auckland and Tauranga to 16 days covering the North or South Islands.

The couple launch their tour business at the Tauranga home show today.

Ann Scarrow, who has a full-time job to supplement the couple's income, will be leaving that in a few months to work full-time on the Dig This magazine and tours.

"We're going to make sure it works. We have to," Eion Scarrow says of the leap they are about to make.

The hardest thing for them? Finding enough time to get out into their own garden.