£250 + Vat to clear weeds. Is that reasonable?

[Toddlerteaplease]

Need to get the weeds in my garden cleared. I've been quoted £250 plus vat to spray them with industrial strength weed killer. I have no idea if that sounds reasonable or not. It's a fairly small garden.

That seems like a lot - do you definitely want them to use weed killer (which will kill all biodiversity and wildlife and may be a risk to the cat?) or could you ask someone to handweed instead?

It seems a lot to me, always best to shop around and get more than one quote for everything. Definitely check if it's pet friendly.

That seems an awful lot based on that photo.

I'd probably suggest hand weeding the larger ones. The pebbled area could then probably be hoed to get rid of the smaller weeds.

Industrial weed killer is very strong and won't be good for your cats at all.

Weedkiller will kill the weeds but won't remove them - you'll just end up with dead plants.

Is it a legitimate gardening company, or a garden clearance outfit who have leafleted the area? Did they actually use the term 'industrial strength' weedkiller? That would make me suspicious - basically they want to nuke your (small and sparsely planted) garden.

Depends what the weeds are really. Bindweed, mares tail, ground elder, couch grass etc you'll never get rid of by hand weeding - they have underground root systems which need killing if you don't want them back. Industrial weedkiller is strong for a reason.

It's extortionate. I paid £35 recently for a similar size garden. Shop around.

However if the pic is the extent of your weed problem, yes, that sounds a lot. It'd be useful to know what the weeds are.

Please don't use industrial strength weed killer - it is incredibly harmful to the environment

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news-archive/2020/new-research-highlights-impacts-of-weedkiller-on-wildlife

Thanks, it's a proper company (I think) I thought it sounded a lot. He said it was pet friendly as soon as it was dry. There are some bulbs and a couple of weeds that are quite pretty so I wouldn't want them all to go. That photo was taken after I'd had a go with normal stuff.

I'd rather avoid chemicals, but want the issue solved on a more permanent basis!

Wouldn’t go for it if you have cats.

Either pull up by hand or cover with ground cover and let them die off though lack of light.

industrial strength weed killer sounds dangerous to your cats.

If you want to go down the weed killer route then do it yourself and cover the ground afterwards. You are still going to have to pull the weeds up

Personally with that many weeds I would pull the weeds up, remove the gravel and put down a proper weed suppressant then put the de weeded gravel back and go out once per week to remove any weeds that grow back from the gavel layer

@Plexie he said it was the stuff the council use.

Seems very expensive for the service offered when you could go buy the strongest OTC weedkiller from a hardware store for £12/bottle and spray it on yourself. It won't help with all the leftover debris though.

Without making it sound like child labor, do you have any kids old enough, or nieces or nephews, younger siblings etc who may do it in return for some pocket money? In the past we have paid nephews for a hand with gardening (with approval from their parents ofc), they loved doing it as they got to buy themselves a new video game that they wanted.

There is no truly permanent solution to weeds. Even the stuff that's supposed to block them from coming back degrades and the weeds will come back. And £250 is nuts for that small area, the stuff is not that expensive and it can't take more than an hour to do with a sprayer. What have they said they will do - rip up the weeds then spray?

@andymary alas no available children!

@LadyGardenersQuestionTime After two weeks I'd have to rake up the dead ones.

Cheaper to pay someone to weed once a month for the summer!

Plus, weed killer just leaves behind dead weeds which compost down and provide more growing matter for more weeds. It's a pointless exercise.

Surely you could do that yourself in 15 minutes with a Roundup spray?

I am amazed it is still allowed to be used. These sort of products have been illegal to use where I live for a couple of years now. However I do remember when I lived in the UK my neighbour would pour bleach on her driveway every spring to clean it. It was so hard to mind my own business.

The solution you've been offered is wrong for your job and ridiculously expensive.

I'm a gardener by trade, RHS qualified and run my own gardening business. I can't see any troublesome type weeds there, just a bit of a weedy mess that needs a tidy.

If I came to quote for pulling up all those weeds by hand, removing them and having a little sweep and tidy I would say it will take an hour and would charge you £25.

Round up and 'industrial strength weed killer' are harmful to pets, people and wildlife. Best avoided.

That part probably is true. My cat is locked indoors today because my LL did ours this morning, I won't let her out until tonight. It is safe when dry.

Find out the name of it and look it up though.

Also, find another company who aren't trying to fleece you.

You could get 10 1 hour visits from a proper gardener for that money. That would keep your garden weed free for months. Weed will start regrowing quite quickly after using weedkiller. To be honest I could clear that in an hour, it isn't a big job at all. No offence to any gardeners but this is the sort of thing that they are good at, clearing everything, the problem with them is getting them to tell the difference between plants and weeds in my experience.

Your cats can be kept in but what about other cats and wildlife?

I've done that already!

@ChrisPNoodles don't suppose you line in Nottingham?!!

Forgot to say, one spray isn't enough with the pet friendly stuff. My LL did mine 2 weeks ago, today, and will look again in 10 days to see if it needs a third.

That should then be enough to keep them under control this year.

When were they gonna tell you they actually want £750 out of you?