To think £40 ph is alot for a gardener?

[allinadaystwerk]

Just that really. Had a quote to give garden a good tidy, clear leaves, neaten low hanging tree branches shape the edges of the lawn, weeding.. just getting it to look half decent after winter.
Quote is £240 for each day worked 10am till 3.30/4pm.
Grass area is app 6x6m and similar patio area so not a big garden.
Am I just deluded and need to pay the bloke or is he having a laugh...

@Westfacing

I pay £25 per hour, plus £10 per large bag of waste taken away. He is a proper college-trained plantsman.

I'm in London and good gardeners are hard to find - had to wait for weeks for him to fit me in.

Just to add, he sends an invoice and I pay by bank transfer, so he's paying tax, etc.

Gardeners are in demand, but you can def shop around, and I doubt it's to do with you being a woman - some gardeners are more expensive than others!

I remember being gutted when my 'old' gardener stopped working in our area, but then I found a guy who was cheaper and twice as good.

I paid him £20 every 2 weeks to cut the lawns, and he would be about 20 mins to half an hour - so I guess that's £40 per hour? But he also only charged £80 to do my hedges, and it would take him a good 3 hours. He would also do random odd jobs for free - he once repaired my fence without me asking, for example!

If you aren't happy with the quote - just get some others. As someone said above, some workmen hate particular jobs and will charge a really high rate to make it worth their while if they are taken on.

@ZenNudist

That's too much but everyone takes the piss nowadays.

How is it taking the piss to recognise the level of demand for your service and charging accordingly, or are the working class trades just charging beyond their station?

I pay £16 an hour. My gardener is knowledgeable and we are in the middle of the country.

Yeah, I think that’s a lot. More quotes required I think.

@allinadaystwerk

Just that really. Had a quote to give garden a good tidy, clear leaves, neaten low hanging tree branches shape the edges of the lawn, weeding.. just getting it to look half decent after winter. Quote is £240 for each day worked 10am till 3.30/4pm. Grass area is app 6x6m and similar patio area so not a big garden. Am I just deluded and need to pay the bloke or is he having a laugh...

Mine's half that

Is he Alan Titchmarsh?

All Self employed persons are running a business.
So they all have fixed and variable costs these will differ between companies-people.
The purpose of the entity is to make money.

I have call out business 1st HR is £100-£60 an HR after, weekends are double.
Other work is fixed priced quote-materials carry a variable mark-up from 50-500%.

£16 per hr, what's the point. Some customers don't know the difference between revenue-costs-profit.

It's a one-off job - he should charge for the whole job. The hourly rate is completely irrelevant. One--off jobs always cost more. Plus he will have to get rid of the waste afterwards. If you think it is so easy then do it yourself.