Clearing a garden and maintaining it.

lokz

Hello all,

I am a new to the forum and used it a lot when buying our first house recently. Need some advice regarding some clearing and maintaining the garden.

We have moved into the house 2 weeks ago and the garden needs some maintenance . The rear garden is about 50 sq meters . Our driveway is about 10 meters long and has overgrown bushes on the side of the fence. There is also a old manure bin with manure left by the previous owners which needs clearing.

We are aiming to clear the garden and have some small plants which can be self maintained rather than a gardener.

I am not really sure what i need to get the quotes on when getting multiple quotes.  It will be helpful to know some amounts what are charged by the gardener. Adding some pics  if that helps. we are located in south east England.

Thanks.

Brie

We bought a house with an absolutely stunning garden that, due to circumstances in the first 18 months of being there, went to become a jungle.   I'd say our garden is twice the size of yours.

I had spotted that an elderly couple near us had an immaculate postage stamp garden and so when their gardener appeared one day I asked him for a quote.  £20 an hour per person, 2 people working.  I then got him to come and look at our mess and estimate how long it might take.  His initial thought was 4 hours to do a general clear out with pruning a lot of the overgrown bushes.  So this session would end up being about £200 = 4 x 2people x £20per person + 4 bags x £20 per bag of cuttings taken away.  

I made it clear to him I was after a tidy.  That I had no desire to have a putting green and wanted to maintain a number of the established bushes.  

I have continued to have him and his helper about once every 6 - 8 weeks to weed and deadhead etc.  Occasionally put in some new rose bushes, remove a dead tree.  Normally it's 2 hours so another £80 as they bag up the cuttings and I take them to the dump myself.  

£20/hour/person seems to be the going rate here (south coast) for a decent gardener.  Others advertise locally for £10 or £15 but seem to be casual labour types rather than someone with equipment of their own.  

grumbler

It's easy DIY job. 
£0.00
Maybe £20 on a saw and a spade - if you want to get rid of all plants. 

EssexExile

It's compost, not manure!

GDB2222

You want to hire someone to do that work? Or, you want to know what tools to buy?

getmore4less

The big mistake often made is not cutting back enough first time.

Overdo it and it will recover in one season or die.

Best buy for us was a shredder it turns a mass of  cuttings in to a small pile ready to compost or tip.

If you want to take stuff out  buy a mattock before a spade.

There is probably some decent stuff in there give it a season.

twopenny

That's all easy to do and hasn't been left long.

Perfect time now to tidy it. Sturdy hedge trimmer and pruning saw cut back. Follow the shape there. Shouldn't take more than a day or so. Take cuttings in a bag to the tip. Would need doing once a year or so and be less work next year.

If you want those good shrubs taken out that's a whole different ball game. It will take a fair amount of heavy work and will cost more than a gardeners rates to get the roots out and a mound of stuff to be disposed of.

Then you need to have somewhere dug out for your small plants, use the compost for the new beds to get them started and less in need of watering. But they will still need maintaining.

I'd trim down those plants, dig out the weeds and plant under and you will have a quick but established looking garden. It's got potential for very little effort.

Bendy_House

Hi Lokz.

It can seem a chore, and pretty disheartening, unless you have a plan - an actual design for what you'd like to achieve.

Once you have that, then striding out there and telling half the plants, "Sorry, pal - you're out" will be easy. None of what is shown there is PHYSICALLY hard, but you just need to KNOW what's coming out, and what just needs cutting back - 'knowing' is the hard bit.

So I'd suggest pencil and paper and tape time. Drawn out a plan of what you have, mark in things that cannot be changed - eg, that concrete slab, what's going there? I'd suggest something like a raised rim of timber or concrete edging, and filling over it with decorative shingle. A place for a bench, table, plants in large pots, whatevs. Or perhaps ideal for decking? Or a summer house? Gazebo? Pergo... yougettheidea.

You need to KNOW. THEN you can make it happen.

Then 'Google image' for ideas for what you have - is it a fairly typical rectangular house garden of a certain size? If so, you will almost certainly find a few ideas for a low maintenance layout that you'll REALLY like.

ONCE you have this - once you have the vision, when you KNOW what you want to achieve, I think the 'doing it' will be a doddle.

You won't want a gardener - you'll be itching to get out there yourselves.

It's the 'not knowing' part that makes it hard.

(I 'hate' gardening. I mean, I'm bored of mowing. I resent cutting back trees that just insist on growing - pah. But when I have a 'project', it's completely different - when you step out knowing what needs doing next, and what it'll achieve.)

So, a plan. And then everything else

bex2012

Small plants dont stay small! They will all grow and need looking after. However the good news is none of those plants you have shown pictures of will suffer for cutting back hard. Looks like there is some brambles and bindweed in there, but with good thick gloves, the brambles can be removed. Bindweed is a pain, but as long as it is pulled out regularly you can get on top of it.

I wouldnt say you need a gardener for any of those, just gloves, a spade, fork, and a good hedge trimmer. Oh and a couple of trips to the tip possibly. That lot wouldnt take more than a couple of hours to sort.

The only one you might want to hold back on is the big bush as you are looking out the windows. That looks like an azalea, has the most beautiful flowers. Can probably be cut after it flowers. All the others are fairly standard and replaceable. The varigated laurel on the drive (yellow leaves), you can pretty much cut off what you like & it will grow.

lokz

Thanks every one for your messages. All the messages made me think hard and I had gone quite  . I  had few quotes in the mean time from local gardeners. 

As couple of above messages suggested, we now know what we want to do ( I mean which trees to keep and which needs to go )

I got quotes for the below work

1) cutting the big tree ( by the side of garden shed)  down to ground level.
2) Clearing the compost.
3) Digging out and clearing the small weeds .
4) Removing most of the plants on the drive way with roots.

5) Clearing away the waste from the work above.

Almost every one suggested to keep 2 plants on the drive way. Only one of them guaranteed he will remove the plants along with the roots ( He has very good reviews ) , except the big tree on the back garden.

Others mentioned its difficult to get the roots off from the ground on the driveway as it might be going under into the neighbours land . They said they will use weed killer once they cut the plants to the ground.

2 quotes at around  £400 ( one of the quote was the guy who guaranteed removing the roots ) . 2 quotes around 700 and One gardener ( Hobbyist )  quoting at 20 £ per hour for his work.

I decided to keep couple of plants on the drive way but get others off.

This is our first home.  Regarding doing work on my own, Its definitely a no at this point of time due to various reasons.

Apologies for going on silent after my first post, it was mainly due to me processing the messages and wanted to get some quotes before I follow up.

I definitely wanted the big tree to go in the back garden.  ( Is this a bad idea ? )
My mind wanders between getting the work done in one go or get a gardener and gradually get the work done over few months.

Also does weed killer kills of the roots of the plants as well? I mean will those roots die and get decayed underneath?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[Deleted User]

bex2012 said:

Small plants dont stay small! They will all grow and need looking after. However the good news is none of those plants you have shown pictures of will suffer for cutting back hard. Looks like there is some brambles and bindweed in there, but with good thick gloves, the brambles can be removed. Bindweed is a pain, but as long as it is pulled out regularly you can get on top of it.

I wouldnt say you need a gardener for any of those, just gloves, a spade, fork, and a good hedge trimmer. Oh and a couple of trips to the tip possibly. That lot wouldnt take more than a couple of hours to sort.

The only one you might want to hold back on is the big bush as you are looking out the windows. That looks like an azalea, has the most beautiful flowers. Can probably be cut after it flowers. All the others are fairly standard and replaceable. The varigated laurel on the drive (yellow leaves), you can pretty much cut off what you like & it will grow.

Some do, it's better to identify the plant, see their ultimate height and spread and in what timeframe and then make decisions from that point on.