Sacha wrote:
p.k. wrote:snip
Why is it that (some) people who enjoy gardening as a hobby expect
to pay hobby wages to anyone who does gardening work for them?

pk

I don't think that's quite fair. Horticultural labour, like the
catering industry, has always paid low wages. I don't think that's a
good thing but a better question would be why e.g. Jonathan Ross gets
paid hundreds of thousands a year!
We pay the man who cuts our lawns what he asks us and what he asks is
the going rate round here. He is a retired policeman (early
retirement, I think) and now has so much work on hand that he cannot
fit in one more customer.

Hobby wages to supplement a generous police pension. - while the market is
so keen to do that the market has no grounds to complain that there are so
few good and professinally trained gardeners to service the home market.

I used to do a little jobbing gardneing in wimbledon. my rate 10 years ago
was £10, I was sacked from one job where the client had been to see a friend
in the country who paid their gardener £4 per hour.

pk