I Have A Gardener But It's Expensive

Mojisola

Kimberley wrote: »

I don't know, I can't tell because the garden looks the same as when they did it last. I'm at work when they do it.

Would you pay someone to wash your car every month if it still looked the same after their "work" as it did before?

A photo would be useful but you also need to check whether your gardeners are actually doing any work.

graspandsave

Growing season: mainly spring and summer seasons.


Ask your gardeners what they do each visit- you are paying therefore you have a right to know


take pictures before and after visit from your gardeners....will give you a better idea of what they do and ask direct q's


Most people don't have a gardener visit them as regularly in the non-growing months ( roughly end oct- end feb depending on where you live). Consider scaling back, if you really cant face gardening yourself.


a 100ft garden mainly laid to lawn, with a decent mower shouldn't take more than 1-2 hours to mow in season each time, so you shouldn't need to give up a whole day per week to maintain your garden


As suggested earlier, nothing to say part of it cannot be sectioned off as a seating area- with gravel or something similar, so potentially even less mowing./ less of your time.


A garden wants to be enjoyed, but as you describe it: "mainly weeds" that's not one anyone wants to spend time in. There's nothing attractive about most of the weeds that I find in my garden, which is why they get pulled out.


If, when you arrived at your current residence the garden was full of weeds, you should have complained to your HA, as, you are being to asked to maintain a garden that from the sounds of it was NOT/NEVER(?) maintained previously?
(A maintained garden is not one that is full of weeds, a maintained garden should have some sort of structure- lawn being the obvious one with possibly some flower beds.)


BTW Weeds will grow anywhere they can, that's why they are weeds!!!, so will your garden will need ongoing weeding. :eek:


Tools: IF laid to lawn a mower- (roughly £100 will buy you a decent enough one)


A hand trowel and hand fork- get both for around £10, for a decent pair - you can buy cheaper, but its a false economy IMO. cheap ones never last.
a hoe (excellent for weeding), a spade and a garden fork look to spend roughly £10 on each for ones that last.


that's the basic min I'd say- but get hooked by the gardening bug then come back on here and there are loads more tools /gizmos you could add to your collection!




BTW- studies suggest gardeners have lower stress levels than non-gardeners!:cool:

lostinrates

Kimberley wrote: »

I don't know, I can't tell because the garden looks the same as when they did it last. I'm at work when they do it.

I'd take. Photo on the morning they are due and then another and then have a good look.

My bil used to say this about his day's cleaner, but it was him being Blond to what had been done. Sometimes its hard to see 'maintenance' type work.


But that you are saying its so weedy etc is a confusion.

Kimberley

Hope this works. This is the garden

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/Araswooon/photo.jpg

Kimberley

Have to go to work now so catch up on replies tomorrow, thanks x

Kimberley

Graspandsave

My garden was full of weeds last summer, really high as the fence and all along the garden, neglected by me, it cost me £175 to clear it all and opted to pay the £25 every two weeks to maintain it but if I can do it myself than I would, I just don't know how. My little Grandson also lives with me and it would be nice to have a garden for him to play in.

topsales

I can't believe that you pay £50 a month to have that looked after!! Your gardeners must be having a larf!

topsales

Seriously though - i would put grass seed down on the bottom part (in the spring) - your grandchild could then play there and you could have a seat on the gravelled part at the top with maybe a few tubs of flowers? Would take about an hour or so a week to maintain in the summer - nothing in the winter.

poet123

We pay our gardeners £18 per hour (two of them) per fortnight in all year apart from Nov to March, when we don't have them. It is a large front plot, tiered and elevated, a large side plot laid to lawn, and a large tiered, heavily planted back plot. Going off what our garden requires and looking at yours I think you are paying over the odds for little result.

Dizzy_Ditzy

I think your gardeners saw you coming

Sorry.

I agree with topsales- you could easily put it to grass at the bottom, your grandson could have somewhere to play and you could put seats and a few pots around the rest of the garden

Bit of reading up on various things garden and things will start to make a whole lot more sense

Bin your gardening guys off. Immediately