How much do you pay per hour for a gardener and what does he or she do?

[LegoTherapy]

My mum’s garden needs a huge overhaul. There’s a front and back garden and a small border running down the drive. Hedges to cut back, a lot of mare’s tails, general weeding, two lawns that need log rolling and mowing. At the moment it is more weeds than plants but lots of established shrubs and two small fruit trees. Lots of containers on the patio. It needs about 15 hours to get it decent. I used to do it and do it thoroughly but can’t do it anymore. I’ve been quoted over £600 “bank price” tax dodging price is the cash price over £150 less and that’s for a full day with two men plus clearing everything to the tip. A full day is possibly 6 hours because I’ve never known a workman do an 8 hour day.
I’ll obviously get more quotes but it’s helpful to know the going rate. I don’t want someone who just turns over the soil to bury the weeds and cuts the grass and hedges. They need to actually remove the weeds (as best as possible with the mares tails).

I'm a gardener with decent horticultural qualifications and lots of plant knowledge. I charge £30 and hour for this sort of one off work, slightly less for my regular weekly clients. I only do "bank price"! I'm in Scotland, it would be more in the south east of England. The Gardeners Guild has a list of gardeners by location and advice for clients on pricing and choosing the right person.

I think £30 per hour is fair and I live in outer SW London.

But there are gardeners and gardeners and most are of the worse type! Most are good at clearing and tidying and cutting back, but I have been surprised how few can really advise on plant care, feeding, when to prune etc etc.

£30 is a lot for a glorified labourer, but I would happily pay a little more for a true plantsperson.

My Gardener comes once every two weeks.. mows my huge lawn front and back.. cuts two large bushes.. makes lawn edges tidy.
Takes him an hour.. £30.
Plus a cuppa and slice of cake.

Mare’s tail is very difficult to eradicate as they have extremely deep roots. I’d be very suspicious of anyone who says they could do it in one day. They may also have to pay to dispose of the garden waste at the tip if they are commercial gardeners. I’d get three quotes and go from there.

Some of the young ones I’ve got out with roots but most are a bugger. The gardener who has provided a quote so far has said it would be two of them doing it and they wanted to put weedkiller down which I’ve never used.
we e had a terrible time with gardeners not turning up or just making it look like they weeded by turning over the soil and essentially burying the weeds. No idea about plant care at all. One lady who was RHS trained was great but couldn’t do the hours needed. She was £25 an hour and slow but thorough. She knew what she was doing and was able to give advice on plants.

I pay £25 an hour. I found someone retired who loves gardens and has won local garden prizes.

she mows front and back lawns and weeds the front every 2 weeks. She does a winter and spring clean up.

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