On 1/1/08 20:59, in article , "Kate
Morgan" wrote:


The message from "Kate Morgan" contains
these words:

My daughter and son in law need a gardener just to keep their garden
tidy,
you know the sort of thing cutting the lawn and the odd bit of pruning,
nothing heavy. They have approached several people and the charges are
£25
per hour but the gardeners wont do less than 2 hours work. The family
are
in Edinburgh, any comments, surely that a bit expensive.

A small (father and son) gardening company in Perth charge £8 an hour
for general 'tidying' work, cutting grass, hoeing beds, light pruning,
etc. but that is on a regular maintenance agreement. They may have
charged more for the initial work undertaken, I wouldn't know.

I wouldn't be prepared to pay more than double that, even in Edinburgh...

Someone cuts the grass for us, trims hedges occasionally, uses his own
machinery, tidies up after himself etc. and charges £15 per hour. The £25
might be for two people, perhaps?


--
Sacha

Not sure Sacha, I think it was only one person but what is annoying is the
fact that they want to do 2 hours work, I still think that £50 to get ones
grass cut and a bit of gentle sorting out is excessive.
I appreciate what Rod says re. costs etc and I note Steve's comments. Maybe
my family don't want a gardener at all, maybe what they want someone who is
retired and just needs a gentle job with a few pounds in cash and bacon
butties at the end of a bit of work. I could do with some-one like that but
no one around here in Gloucestershire wants a little job. I have ride-on
mowers strimmers brush-cutters etc.etc so they would not even have to use
their own tools but we still cannot find anyone to help.

kate


The chap that does ours is a retired policeman. He set up with his father
who then died and now D carries on alone. He does house painting and
putting up shelves and jobs like that in the winter, if he's not doing hedge
cutting etc.
Your daughter and son in law might find that a couple of hours a week from
themselves keeps things as they want them, perhaps? After all, while the
grass might need to be cut every week, hedges don't need to be, nor trees
pruned! If they are too busy to do it themselves, or the garden is too big,
it might be worth asking a local gardening club, putting up a postcard in a
local PO or just asking whoever cuts the grass in their local churchyard.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'