Gardeners 👨‍🌾 : How much £££ ? 🪴

I think you could safely say a lot of private gardeners are not paying public liability insurance, or income tax and maybe not NI. If they ask for cash in hand, they are probably not declaring these jobs to the tax people. However, as Astitchintime says, if you are multi-skilled and costing everything properly the rates would be a lot higher!

Celieanne86

I have a fantastic gardener/handy man who does jobs inside the house as well as outside. Today he mowed the two small lawns, edged and weeded then swept the patio area discussed with me which bedding plants I want to buy then fixed a washing line a bit lower so I can reach it and to finish he offered to run the hoover round in the house for me. On Saturday he is coming to paint the fence and start rubbing down the wrought iron gates, All this in two hours at £20 an hour. He’s in his sixties recently retired and was bored at home. If there are any garden problems he asks YouTube and he watches Monty Don on the TV. He only works for older people as he says they are far more interesting to be with. Long May he continue.

Would he let me adopt him?

£20 cash per hour. Guy is retired so does it for extra money but he does a really good job and I am happy to pay that after some guy ripped me off for £50 one off payment (took him half an hour) when I was desperate to get the lawn cut.

I’m in Wiltshire and pay £20 an hour for my chap

South West £25 an hour.

Seems to be based on where you live in the country. North is around £15 per hour where South is £25 per hour. So many people start gardening businesses because it's easy to set up but they have no experience. My wife once employed a gardener to weed and dig out a border ready for planting. When I checked I found he had only dug the top couple of inches. I later found out that he had jumped off the Humber Bridge and had to kneel on the spade blade to dig.

Since retiring, me and DH do it together for £20 or £22 ph depending on distance we travel. Only do it for elderly and on recommendations.

Where I am in south east if qualified it’s £25/£30 an hour if not £15.

I pay mine £30. He charges £20 per hour but he has to drive a few miles to get to me and there’s only an hours work, if that. So I offered the extra £10 because it wouldn’t be worth his while otherwise.

Or maybe this is for horticulturalists?

AskAlice - £30-£50 is not the experience here.
Maybe that was for a specific job - such as cutting a lawn - which would depend on several things?

In Zummerzet I pay £15 an hour.

I wish I could find a gardener. Those recommended on the local Facebook page where people are always asking, seem to be “ landscapers” who specialise in putting down slabs and decking rather than proper gardening. I dread to think how much they charge,

I have a retired gentleman who does my borders and a general tidy up. He charges £15 per hour which seems very reasonable. I’m in the north east.

We live about 20 miles west of Oxford and have been paying £22 per hour. I think she’s putting her prices up. She’s excellent. Brings all her own tools, clears up and has horticultural qualifications. Her business is called The Healing Gardener!

My son is just re-launching his gardening business which suffered in the pandemic.
He has kept some of his clients who live in the wealthier areas of the nearby city who pay more, but it costs him more in petrol.
I think he charges between £20-£30 depending on the jobs needing doing.
I shall check with him though.

I don't use a gardener (yet!) but just wanted to say how good it is to see your name on the posts again FannyC! I did a bit of research online and it seems that the average cost over the whole of the UK is between £30 and £50 per hour. Of course, it depends on where you are, what you want done, and whether the gardener is really a plant person and knows what they are doing.

From speaking to my neighbours who have employed gardeners, some that they have had are just hackers and clearers and wouldn't know a dandelion from a dahlia! Word of mouth goes a long way, but the good ones are hard to find and often booked up with other clients.

Good luck with your search!

Haven't re-employed our grass cutter this season. N. Scotland and she charged £30 a cut - took less than 30 mins and was never short enough, just wizzed round

£15 an hour in South Somerset .

£20 an hour, East Midlands/Northants area.

Hello Fanny.
I pay my "girl" £17 ph but today she told me it will go up yo £19ph. She comes for 3 hours each week all year round.
She has a horticultural qualification and brings her own tools.
She mows in Summer, makes and uses compost, prunes, mulches, plants out shrubs and trees and does any jobs needing doing.
For the last 3 years she's been cultivating a meadow on part of the lawn, sowing yellow rattle to reduce the grass etc.
I do some gardening (I look after the greenhouse and veg) but it's huge and overwhelming.
She has 30 clients but I don't know how many hours she does for each of them.

When my friends ask her if she will work for them she says she's fully booked.

My neighbour, a home for the elderly disabled uses a contractor who keeps lawns and shrubs tidy.

Charleygirl5

£30 an hour NW London but recently I have paid £20 an hour because I have given good reviews. One fellow did not think I could own so much grass (I am loathe to do the work of the Council or pay for it). A couple did not have mowers and another fool came when dark to give me a quote, admitted he had no tools and was on his hands and knees feeling the grass.

admitted he had no tools and was on his hands and knees feeling the grass.

🤣🤣🤣

On that note, I'm going to bed 😂

It's not easy to find gardeners here.

Hello FannyC 👋👋👋

It's rather random, we pay a set amount for someone to cut the lawns but I'm not sure how long he takes. He's worth every penny.

Someone else comes in occasionally to weed our extensive patch, he worked for about 6 hours solidly (he had a quick lunch break) and charged £110 I think.

The hard landscapers were useless and a rip-off.

Good to see you fanny.

Our area, South west, folk I know pay £22 an hour for what you might call light gardening. Anyone wanting a major design makeover, hard landscaping or fence painting pays £30 upwards.