Gardener destroyed my garden

[Kam123]

Today a gardener hacked away 3/4 of my perrenial garden. Our house is going on the market in a week and I have a 3 month old baby so the garden was out of control, and I hired a gardener to weed and mulch it. I didn't keeping an eagle eye on him because of caring for my baby and packing up my house, and before I knew it he had mown down the majority of my garden. Dozens of perennials, trees and bushes now just stumps. I'm so sad I can't go backwards in time, so pissed since my house is going up for sale in a week. I'm just devastated. 7 years of making a beautiful garden ruined in one afternoon. I have no idea what I'm going to do - I hired him because I don't have time to garden, and now I'm left with patches of nothing.

TBH the only way to get decent tradespeople is by personal recommendation
I deal with lots of gardeners
none of them advertise because they do not have to

anybody advertising on a website like that cannot get work another way

But how do you get a gardener if no-one you knows has one?

Facebook recommendations ?
Ask at the garden centre?
Walk around and look for a gardener's van and then ask the homeowner?
Ask at the local sheltered flats ?

I'm gutted for you op.

Agree with pp that lots of gardeners are 'mow and blow' merchants (good phrase!) and with little knowledge or interest in actual gardening.

Facebook recommendations ? ... which are often form the "gardeners'" friends and relatives

Ask at the local sheltered flats ? They're usually done by a tidier-upper rather than a gardener.

That's not a gardener, that's a cowboy. Make a list of everything, including the full-sized tree and get a price for like-for-like replacements.

Then sue the shit out of him.

God I'd be so devastated, I have a gardener in the family and they're so knowledgeable and passionate about wildlife too - as was the one my parents had when I was young. I assumed they were all like that!
Have you heard back from him?

God I’d be crying if that happened to me. I can’t believe he would do that. I get not knowing what plants are called, but surely it’s obvious what are nice flowers and trees and what isn’t. I’m so angry on your behalf.

I had someone like this. He wanted to dig out my bed and put plastic and bark down and some shrubs. Boke.

My father had a beautiful garden in his home, planted solid with tropical plants (not UK). When he died we bought out the other heirs mostly to preserve it. I lived abroad, so couldn’t really have any involvement in the process.

After all was sorted, I was talking to my mother and she mentioned having to mow the lawn. I asked what lawn, and she told me that the gardener she had hired to do some weeding had ripped out every single plant, so they had had to put in a lawn.

I cried for a solid hour. More than anyone in my family had seen me cry over my father’s death.

It still upsets me, and it’s been 20 years...

We used to have a shop which sold plants. Our best supplier was a woman who grew a lot of unusual but lovely perennials and the only gardeners who bought plants and were women. Apart from Alan Titchmarsh.

As a result my first choice for a gardener would definitely be a woman. Or Alan Titchmarsh.

Go to a small plant nursery and ask who they suggest.
Think outside the box.

TBH when a contractor damaged some of the plants in my garden I totted up the replacement value and deducted it from their bill, reminding them that I'd slag them off to all and sundry if they complained.

That’s terrible. Did you take pics?

I’d be so upset. I’ve used gardeners but they’ve been good at just weeding and tidying,

My partner send a private message to his business Facebook page and we got a refund, plus the extra I requested for the destroyed plants! He ignored my emails at first but I guess he realized he couldn't ignore the problem.
Then my 72 year old mom came for 2 days and fixed things while I packed and took care of the baby. It's a great relief, although I'm still especially sad about my ancient caryopteris that he hacked to the ground.

Same happened to me. Asked for a tidy up and got demolition. 3 months later at lot is growing back but I now need to get a professional in to help me distinguish between the returning plants and the weeds.

I work with two very knowledgeable gardeners who both are very good with plant identification,time of season to cut back,spacing,full Sun /part shade planting correct soil etc.If you have no friends that know of gardeners and you see a neighbour with a regular gardener just ask the owner of the house for his details.When I have worked with customers plenty have said how good their last gardeners were but unfortunately usually had to stop because of retirement or bad backs etc.There are lots of competent gardeners arund,well here in London and Surrey anyway.

Really glad you got a refund. I also feel sad about your garden.

@Chemenger

In my experience this is what gardeners do. You say the word “tidy” they hear “reduce to a post-apocalyptic wasteland”. It will grow back but not in time for your house sale. Gardeners hate weeding if it involves distinguishing between weeds and plants one. I think it’s because many people who describe themselves as gardeners are actually just people who cut grass, they have no garden knowledge.

Agree. Had this happen once. So-called gardener thought a two-year-old, two-foot syringa was "a weed." Killed plants my late mother planted for me despite me specifically pointing them out as iin bending over and putting my hands on them 30 min earlier.

They are too lazy to pull by hand.

Sorry OP. That's devastating. They owe you compensation for reducing the value of your property.

@Kam123

I went running out before he finished off the last of it and said "you cut everything down! Including a tree!" And he replied that it was all weeds. Tonight I sent him a list of all the plants he ruined in hopes that he will replace some of them (although not sure o want him touching my garden again). It seems the only plants he can identify are hostas, peonies and roses - everything else in his opinion, is weeds. Including lavender, perennial geranium, lupines, black eyed Susan's, Russian sage and more.... The weirdest part was i distinctly asked him to save anything flowering to make the garden look nice, and it's like he did the opposite.

Where did you find this person? What are his credentials?

@CatherinedeBourgh

My father had a beautiful garden in his home, planted solid with tropical plants (not UK). When he died we bought out the other heirs mostly to preserve it. I lived abroad, so couldn’t really have any involvement in the process.

After all was sorted, I was talking to my mother and she mentioned having to mow the lawn. I asked what lawn, and she told me that the gardener she had hired to do some weeding had ripped out every single plant, so they had had to put in a lawn.

I cried for a solid hour. More than anyone in my family had seen me cry over my father’s death.

It still upsets me, and it’s been 20 years...

Devastating. So sorry you went through that. It hurts to think about.