Gardeners in winter

[user68901]

Hi all,
My gardener came again this morning whilst I was our walking dog. Just caught him and said I thought he wasn’t coming anymore . So is he cheeky to charge £40 to blow a few leaves around and poke the borders a bit. Can I ask when most people stop their gardeners coming and when they start them again. To be honest it’s not really been necessary for the last month really . I do feel for them as it must be quiet during winter but then again I’m not running a charity for gardeners . Interest in your thoughts thanks

Ours finished last week

Not unreasonable of him to come, there's still a bit to do in my garden, loads of leaves, shrubs to tidy up and perennials to cut back. Next year you need to organise things better and discuss when you want him to come and when not.

mine only comes in the winter - thats the way i arrange it with him so they can tidy up the leaves and the grass doesnt die off. plus the heavy pruning.

It depends what you've got in your garden - I've got loads of stuff needing to be tidied up.

My DH does a lot in the garden atm.

Ours ha been planting bulbs recently.

Its up to you of course but it's a good time to prune, maintain trees and leaf clearance now will save you a horrible, soggy partly decomposed mess in the Spring. Getting these things done now will mean your garden will look better when we see the sun again. I am trying to get all my garden maintenance jobs done now so I can actually enjoy the garden in the Spring (between the mowing, weeding and planting!)

Unless you state otherwise, your gardener will keep coming on his regular weekly day. You can’t expect him to read your mind. And don’t forget: what you see is different to what a gardener sees needs/not needed doing. You might think: “leaves:, not necessary to clear”, he might think: “leaves: need clearing off the lawn, looks untidy”
As previously said - discuss with him when you want him to stop and then resume spring gardening for you.

My DP has been out in our garden loads recently clearing everything and planting spring bulbs etc

Gardener finished a few weeks ago, I just let him know if I need him to do jobs, just let your guy know otherwise he may just keep coming back to tidy 'stuff' up.

We have shifted so many leaves, and just about to go out to clear up more, then thats it for a while

We were out in our garden yesterday as it's garden waste bin collection today. Easily filled the wheelie bin with leaves, branches blown of the trees, various shrub/bush trimming, digging up dead annual flowers/plants, and scarifying the lawn to get rid of the moss. Took both of us a couple of hours and still more to do.

I suppose it depends on your garden and what "you" want it to look like. I've always regarded January and February as being the only two months when there's not much to do in the garden. If you like looking a piles of leaves, dead plants, then fair enough. But it's really something for you to discuss with your gardener as to when you want him to come and what you want him to do.

We have a monthly contract with ours ( I try to tell him to stop tidying too much) to make it easy for the wildlife to exist. I also leave the cuttings on the grass. to feed it.

We all need to think about the hedgehogs and leaving the seed heads on the plants for the birds etc. (it makes a great difference)

revenge Those soggy leaves make amazing compost , I put them straight onto the cyclamen be under the acacia tree and they look lovely in the autumn, So do the leaves during the year.

Kazzy you still have garden bin collections!

Ours stopped beginning of November which is a pain as I have lots of leaves, but compost most in the 8 compost bins we have but still collected 3 ton bags of leaves to get rid of.

And we have to pay to get garden waste taken away

That's annoying Feeling Though, I don't know if you know that you can make good garden compost if you put them damp \wet in black sacs with tiny holes in. Leave them for a year or so (depending on which leaves they are) They rot down well!

I don't have a garden bin at all - I feel that all garden waste should be recycled in the garden, as I don't use fertiliser. The one concession I've allowed myself is that I take prickly stuff to the tip - cuttings form the hawthorn hedge, rose prunings, brambles. I'm just hoping that potato peelings, banana skins, tea bags etc are enough to compensate!

I have too much to recycle, what with grass leaves cutting, there is just to much even for my huge garden (and the rest)

Composting doesn't work for us as we've got several Scots Pines encroaching into our garden, so all the leaves are mixed in with pine cones, pine needles and small branches etc. When we first bought our house, 15 years, ago,. the first winter, we put it all in a pile in a corner - years later it was still there, the pine needles/cones don't break down.

So, it all gets raked and put into the green bin for the council to do something with - presumably they shred it rather than just leave it in a pile.

Wow you could sell it Kazzy

I stayed in a B&B where the only gardening done in this huge Victorian garden with its 50ft trees was to maw the grass and gather the leaves and pile them in the bottom corner. We were there in autumn and there was the most wonderful collection of fungi that I've ever seen, in all colours including orange, yellow, red, purple, and including the bizarre earth stars which have a central spherical core with the outside split neatly around it like a star.

Yes, I've given up collecting leaves from the grass because it needs the goodness, strange how they disappear quite quickIy, I don't have too many huge leaves!, also I leave the grass clippings, this treatment has allowed the grass to respond well to the extraordinary amount of rain we've been having lately.