Garden maintenance - cost per hour?

Ebe_Scrooge

Eldi_Dos said:

A retired guy with a bit of gardening knowhow who pops round a couple of times a month and uses your tools and equipment will have completely different overheads than someone  who has to pay for a van and a load of expensive equipment.I know which one I would be looking for.

Exactly this.  Which kind of comes back to my first reply.  If you hire a professional gardener, someone who makes his living from it, then of course he's got overheads, costs, a van to run, tax to pay, etc. etc. etc., on top of which he's got to make a profit.  That's a very different proposition to the "keen amateur" - many of whom are actually pretty knowledgeable - who just wants to do a few hours a week to make a bit of extra income.

J_B

We have a guy with his own van and tools that comes here as and when to blitz/prune etc.

He charges £15ph (N Midlands) and I tell him he's too cheap!

twopenny

They have to cover fuel costs, insurance and if you want them to prune successfully they need to know what they are doing.
So someone who can reach you on a bike and use your tools will be less than someone with a van, own tools, insured.
If you have public liability on your house insurance you can go for cheaper.
But judging by the west country I'd expect £20ph.
Having said that they do a descent job but their knowledge of pruning is poor.

greensalad

I pay £17.50 per hour for 8 hours a month (typically once a fortnight). 

Only just started and so far he's completely cleared beds at the front of the house that had been neglected, ready for new plants. He mows the front and back lawns and has tidied up all the winter leaves. Now that a fair amount of weeding has been done I am hoping going forward he'll have more time to prune and get it really neat!

He brings all his own equipment but did request that I sign up for green bin collection (which is £45 per year).

I'm also a keen gardener but know I'd be overwhelmed with the size of garden we now have just keeping up with it all. Our old garden was always weedy and my OH hated it (but never wanted to help!) So now I enjoy pottering about with my pots (lol) and planting out what I fancy knowing maintenance is taken care of. He's also been able to give me some really good advice on what to plant and where, as well as lifting out a few shrubs to move which is a real help as I'm not particularly strong!