That £26.50/hour for weeding is insanity?

[LaBellySausage]

I'm looking for someone to come around for 3 hours/week to help with weeding the garden.

I was given a couple of names of local people who do gardening. I expected to pay somewhere between £10-12/hour, perhaps £15/hour if the person was an experienced gardener. I believe minimum wage is £8something but I don't think people can live on that.

The first person wouldn't give a quote til they came to view the garden and then was hesitant to give an hourly rate, preferring to give a rate for 'the job'. It's not a job that can be finished- it's like when I shave my legs the bastards on the other one have started growing back when I start the second. I just want a few weeds less per week. He eventually said £18/hour. I thanked him for his time but said it was a bit more than I had budgeted. The second guy said £26.50/hour!

This is simple weeding. Trowel and hoe provided. £26.50/hour is about £55,000 annually.

I worked jobs like this while in uni at minimum wage. For reference, we live in a very inexpensive part of the country- he would not be weeding Chelsea Flower Show. Both candidates were local so didn't have more than a 5/10 minute drive.

Am I being unreasonable, or is this a crazy rate?

I think YABU, particularly if you want an experienced gardener for only £15/hr.

[quote LaBellySausage]@VinylDetective what is the going rate and where do you live? Because I live in the NE where the average house costs £126,000. The average house in the SE costs £320,000. I'm not running some victorian workhouse. I don't understand the animosity.[/quote]
£20 an hour, E England. You’re not getting animosity. You’re getting a reaction from someone who thinks you either pay the going rate for the job or do it yourself. And hates exploitation.

House prices have zero relevance.

My DSS charges £20ph for gardening, considerably more for tree work (he's a qualified tree surgeon). This is in Sussex.

@saraclara

My gardener mows the lawn, weeds, prunes stuff back etc, and charges £14 an hour. The job's done properly, he has a proper van and he takes all the waste away. I can't believe someone is trying to charge nearly double that. And my area isn't cheap.

Surely you can believe someone is quoting double!

Either they will get the work at a good rate, or they won't, but why would they quote less than they are worth? They set their own rates and that is what they can charge.

If they are a busy person, why they would turn down more lucrative gardening work to weed for someone?

bear in mind these people have no holiday or sick pay, no national insurance paid by work etc. etc - so actually the hourly rate they receive is probably rather less than you think once these things are taken into consideration.

YANBU, I would keep hunting. You could ask on Gumtree or something.

If you charged minimum wage as a self-employed worker, you'd probably end up taking home around £5-6 an hour once all your costs were taken into an account.

If one of my dc, or dn or any of their friends that have lost their employment in pubs, leisure, retail, cafes etc over the last year accept a job in a local area that is paying NMW, then they will take home NMW.
I mean, OP is offering considerably more than NMW, but I'm not sure what costs you are referring to.

She ISN'T wanting a gardener. I have a gardener. I understand they have to buy a van, insure and maintain it. Buy and maintain tools. Pay for disposal of garden rubbish, etc etc etc, but that is NOT what the OP is looking for, so how can the person not end up with what they are paid ?

People can charge what they like for a job.

Whether that works depends on the market conditions.

Plus the person themselves - they could charge less because they don't need as much money.

e.g. a retired person with a mortgage paid off, and a pension could charge a lot less than someone who lives by themselves, has children and has to pay a mortgage etc.

Could you pay a babysitter for an hour or two instead and go out and enjoy doing your own gardening?
Nothing more satisfying than a lovely tidy border, fresh air and exercise.

DH is a handyman, his hourly rate is £30 per hour whether he’s fixing a toilet or putting a nail in a wall for a picture. He’d do weeding if you asked, but it would still be £30 an hour, as that’s what he can sell his time for to the many other people who want his services.

I expect the gardeners you have spoken to are the same - they have plenty of people who will pay them, they don’t need to work for you for less.

why would they quote less than they are worth? They set their own rates and that is what they can charge. If they are a busy person, why they would turn down more lucrative gardening work to weed for someone?

@PracticingPerson It's not a skilled job.

@LaBellySausage I don't think you need look for 'a gardener' if that means you get charged what is not appropriate for the level of skill and experience this job requires (virtually none- just the commmon sense not to dig up something that's not a weed.)

I'd post an ad saying you're 'looking for someone to do some weeding.' Post what you want to pay in the ad and I'm sure you'll find someone willing to do it. I would do it.

Gardening, as pp have pointed out, is seasonal. Gardeners can only work for eight months of the year.

Not true. The only time our gardeners don't come is when it is snowy. Which is also coincidentally when the cleaner doesn't come.

I'm bemused by how many people are blithely suggesting 'anyone' can weed, or, think a typical teenager would be able to do the job well. I mean, if you wanted a bed totally cleared of everything - fine. But I really wouldn't be happy to let 'anyone' (without plant knowledge) loose on my garden, especially this time of year and once Spring gets going, when so many plants are only just starting to emerge - and wouldn't necessarily look established to the untrained eye. You've got all sorts of bulbs poking through, perennials which could have died back completely and might still look pretty grotty right now. Then you may well have any number of seedlings from plants that have self seeded .... you'd first need to identify that these weren't stereotypical weeds, but also be aware of course that any unwanted plant in the wrong spot is effectively a weed so you can approach your client and let them know you've found loads of baby foxgloves, nigella or lady's mantle or whatever and should they be left, thinned or removed. As for classic weeds, again, 'anyone' probably wouldn't know how to get rid most effectively ..... digging out as much bindweed root as possible and taking care not to leave even tiny bits on top of the soil that'll sprout into new plants, going really deep to get dandelion roots out and so on.

I'd say all that is a skill worth paying for if you want the job done properly.

I'd post on your local community Facebook group if possible.

Every one saying you don't need a gardener just a labourer, they need to know which are weeds. My "gardener" cuts the grass and will do heavy work but hasn't the first idea about gardening and doesn't know a weed from a rose. He was charging £12 an hour but has just increased it to £15. Cheap part of UK.

Those rates are insane. I would expect it to be minimum wage or a little above (because it's back-breaking work). Plenty of people who do jobs that require a degree and professional experience are paid far far less than that.
I think you need to look for a local person who wants to make a bit of money, perhaps a teenager, not a professional gardener.

I pay £25 p/h for experienced gardeners (South East). They know the difference between a weed and a perennial. They prune shrubs and trees at the correct time of year, and they're very knowledgeable.

But I once had someone inexperienced in to weed and they pulled out all my giant nepeta, roots and all. They look a bit like nettles before flowering so I can see why he made the mistake. But it goes to show you get what you pay for.

Depends what you class as weeding and what the weeds are. Dandelion in the lawn, dock and thistle are a bugger to get out. What's your soil like, horrible hard clay full of stones or good quality easy to dig. Are you wanting every visible weed gone from a border and lawn edges trimmed or do you just want a border cleared so you can start again.
Personally I'd pay whatever to get it to the standard you want then cut them back to once a month and you just keep on top if mowing the lawn.

Gardeners have a flat hourly rate - so whether it is weeding or other gardening work it will be the same. Your neurosurgen/cleaner analogy isn't the same thing is it? If you want two hours of my husband's time it's £20 an hour. If you don't want to pay that that's fine but you can't complain about how much people do or don't charge - that is their choice and their business, not yours.

@Shrivelled

It’s clear you don’t value the work that a skilled gardener does. Maybe the one that gave you the higher quote sensed that. I always give high quotes for jobs I don’t want to do, like most tradespeople.

... and freelancers. I do this, too.

I think you're probably right.

allsunflowersandbuttercups Great post.

[quote LaBellySausage]@Junobug I view it in the same way as a cleaning job which people have to travel to. My cleaner charges £13/hour. The skill level is no different and the labour is of a similar intensity.[/quote]
This has cracked me up 🤣 You don't think that being a gardener needs any skills and you're comparing it to being a cleaner. For a start it's immensely helpful for a gardener to know the difference between weeds and self seeding plants.
I wouldn't ask my cleaner to do my garden and I wouldn't ask my gardener to clean my house. Good luck OP

Yes, considering an FY1 doctors basic hourly salary in £13.15.

Why shouldn't a gardener earn £55000 a year? He's got a trade, likely been to college, skilled...

The truth is he's probably got better jobs than crouching in your garden pulling up dandelions! Employ a local youth/ youthess for cash in hand.

Sorry £13.50*

But anyway, mumsnet is full of people happy to pay £30 an hour for a semi-skilled worker, or married to a tradesman who is a millionaire. I was initially sceptical about how many people are married to tradesman - millionaires, but judging by the number of people on here happy to pay £30 an hour for relatively low-medium skilled work and make up fantasies about why its justified, its perhaps believable. Sort of.

I'm convinced that many of the tradesmen around my way (also an inexpensive area) are wealthy enough to turn down overpaid work. They come out to quote, the quote comes in and its quite pricy, but out of desperation you don't quibble and instead message them in an upbeat way to say thats fine, please let me know when its convenient for you to start, and then you never hear from them again.

My suspicion is that a lot of them depend on contacting it out to people who actually have the skills and the work ethic, and when they're not available, go into hiding. I also think a lot of them must have inherited wealth, or live off their wife's salary, as so many of them seem to have the luxury of only turning up for the big jobs. But of course as anyone knows, small jobs can lead to bigger jobs.

I say semi-skilled, as I have a manual skill which I used to do during university holidays. I worked as an employee doing it for a decent but not massive wage and didn't work freelance because everyone that does it freelance is usually a waster who can't hold down a permanent job. The hourly rates that freelancers think they can get away with are farcical and they mainly live at home with mummy and daddy into their thirties in order to afford the luxury of working freelance.

So yes, if you want to fetishise semi skilled workers and hear about how wonderfully talented and hard working they all are, you've certainly come to the right place! If not, and you aren't stupid or silly enough to pay £26 an hour for some weeding, then congratulations for having some common sense!