22 September 2026 · 6 min read · Oscar Markham
The landscaping year: when to advertise and when to stop
Landscaping has a shorter selling season than almost any trade in Ireland, and the most common mistake is advertising in it. By the time the weather is good, the people with real budgets have already chosen someone.
January to February — where the money is decided
Design-and-build enquiries begin well before anything can be planted. Somebody who wants a garden finished by June is talking to landscapers in February, because they know the good ones book out.
Advertising here is cheap, uncontested and reaches the people spending the most. It is also the period most firms sit out entirely.
March to May — the crowded part
Everyone advertises now. Costs rise, the enquiries get smaller, and a growing share are people who want a lawn tidied rather than a garden built.
If your book is already filling from the winter campaign, this is the time to shift the message from availability to lead times. Saying you are booking into July is not a deterrent; it is proof.
June to August — stop selling availability
Mid-season, most decent firms are full. Advertising availability you do not have irritates callers and wastes budget.
Better uses: maintenance contracts for next year, and content that gets you found by the people who will start planning in January.
September to November — the second window
An underrated period. Autumn planting, hard landscaping that does not need good weather, and people who have spent a summer looking at a garden they dislike.
Costs are lower than spring and the enquiries are considerably more serious than August's.
The thing that carries the winter
Maintenance. It is unglamorous beside a thirty-thousand-euro build, and it is what pays wages in February.
It also needs entirely separate advertising, because somebody who wants their garden kept tidy is not the same customer as somebody redesigning theirs, and one campaign speaking to both speaks properly to neither.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.