Cost of a gardener

Nathaniel_Essex

Hi all,

I have a small-to-medium sized garden and have admittedly not taken care of it as much I have could have. It's not in a terrible state but want it to look pretty. One of the things I want someone to do aside from the general maintenance is to remove a number of shrubs on the outer permiter and cut back some hedges that have grown over a small conservatory at the back of the garden.

How do they typically charge? One of my friends gardener charges an hourly rate but would them be the same if shrubs need to be removed?

traineepensioner

You'll probably have to pay a "one off" charge to have the garden tidied and then a regular charge for ongoing maintenance.
We pay our gardener £15 per fortnightly visit during the season. He mows & tidies the lawn and trims the hedges on alternate visits (small garden).

trailingspouse

You really need to just call them and ask - some might do it on an hourly rate, others might give you a price for the job.

Nile

Hi, we move threads if we think they’ll get more help elsewhere (please read the forum rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board. If you have any questions about this policy please email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.

I’ve moved your thread from the ‘In my home’ board to the ‘Greenfingered’ board, where it is better suited.

Regards

Nile

redmalc

We have had the same guy for the last thirty years,he comes every 14 days cuts the lawns and keeps the plants tidy and hedges cut.
We do all of the planting and he costs us £13 per hour

Nathaniel_Essex

Thanks for the replies all. The reason I created the thread is someone quoted me £250 to mow the lawn (which has overgrown a bit), remove shrubs/flower beds, weeds an cut back hedges. Again, haven't got a big garden and wanted to know whether the guy was taking the !!!! or if this was normal for a spring tidy up.

KxMx

Sounds like they didn't want the job, and overpriced accordingly.

This is a known practice amongst tradesmen, told to me by more than one gardener/handyman.

I pay £12.50 per hour for mine and he is one of the cheaper ones.

mysterymurdoch

You'll get a variety of prices. I'm fully booked till December and have a min charged of £25 per visit up to 30mins.

I work beside people charging £12/hr. If they can survive on that good for them! Trying to get a reliable gardener at this time of year could be very tricky; I've turned down customers every day since March.

ManofLeisure_2

mysterymurdoch wrote: »

You'll get a variety of prices. I'm fully booked till December and have a min charged of £25 per visit up to 30mins.

That sounds steep to me . I'm in Surrey and our gardener charges £12 hr - does a great job too.

JEN22

£15 per hour here in Lancashire

springdreams

Also £15 per hour here in Romford.

I think the differences in rates might depend on the type of gardener you want. Someone who does landscaping, advises on the types of plants that would suit your garden etc. probably charges at the higher end. However, someone who leaves the planning, selection of plants etc. to you and only does the manual labour is likely to charge less per hour.

My garden needed a spring clean and my gardener split the work over 6 weekends doing 2 hours a weekend initially, then he switched to 2 hours every fortnight.