Devizes Teenage Gardener Banned from Local Facebook Group for Promoting their Business!

Sixteen year-old entrepreneur, Katie West from Devizes, set up her own gardening business, FreshEdge Teen Landscaping a few months ago, but received a ban from the popular local Facebook group Devizes Issues, trying to promote it. In the scheme of things if it sounds petty to you, it’ll probably be what it is…..

The cost of advertising is spiralling, and can cripple a business before it gets its feet on the first run of the ladder. Marketing on local Facebook groups is an essential method to getting your initial message out there, informing people of your services. Katie mistook one administration rule of the group Devizes Issues, which allows other businesses to advertise, by mentioning where her gardening business operates rather than where they are based, and in pleading her case to the admin of the group, was ignored and promptly banned from it. Strewth; two sugars for my storm in a teacup! Would he have done the same to ol’ Alan Titchmarsh, I wonder?! 

I’m not going to put Katie up against the wall here. I believe anyone starting up a small business in this current financial climate needs a leg up, and I’m particularly impressed when such comes from someone so young. Originally I thought I’d freely offer to write this, omitting the unjust circumstance which spurred it, but, sleeping on it I thought, in fear of it simply coming off as an advertorial, the harshness of the decision to ban her from the Facebook group needs to be said.

This is not an advertorial, I would not ask Katie for money for publishing this. I wouldn’t even expect a hedge trim; I actually like tending my garden, it keeps me away from doom scrolling precisely this kind of petty nonsense on social media! The admin of the group in question really needs to grow up, or if we are to use gardening analogies, position a grow bag in line with their pelvis, lie down in it, and grow a pair!

I’m sorry, but I’m sick and tired of hearing about locals being unfairly banned from this same Facebook group for inconsequential reasons. It leaves people frustrated, and if they react, the admin plays their victim card like drama is addictive, every time. Ban those being offensive, abusive, or prejudgemental, I dare say, but Katie finds herself in an ever growing collective of covid support groups, other councillors or candidates of opposing parties, or residents who dared to speak against the opinion of the admin, and found themselves kicked out unjustly of a group which claims to be an impartial community page. Orwell couldn’t make it up!

As it is, and something you should take heed of despite not seeing it on a certain Facebook group, looking at photos of their past work, FreshEdge Teen Landscaping appears to make a top class job of it. “I’m a 16-year-old gardener offering affordable garden tidy-ups and outdoor work,” Katie explained. Her current offers are a full day gardening service for £160, and two days for £220 within the Devizes area, “no matter how overgrown the garden is!”

Her services include lawn mowing, weeding, patio and driveway cleaning, planting flowers, hedge trimming and general gardening tidy-ups. Katie, who tells me she often brings her boyfriend to help too, is friendly, hardworking and “happy to help get your garden looking great again!” And, in return, I firmly believe we should be helping our local young people with such initiatives, not casting them aside for accidentally breaking a hidden rule of a Facebook group! 

One satisfied customer said, “I asked Katie if she could weed my gravel as I find it difficult to bend as I have osteoporosis .. Katie along with the help of her boyfriend did an amazing job that has saved me hours of back breaking work … good to see young people prepared to work hard.”

You can message Katie for gardening bookings or questions here. Please support her.

As for the Devizes Issues, silly sausages say “it’s a popular group,” to excuse themselves for staying in it. Hit me with a snooker ball in a sock if it ain’t true, I say bullying is a spectator sport; leave and the powertripping is greatly reduced. 

Why stay in a group disciplined like the admin is the daddy of a borstal, when there’s others with admins who understand the meaning of words such as compromise and compassion, waiting for residents to join them? Oh, and get your garden smartened by Katie while you decide!

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