1 hour once a week costs more than 2 hours once every two weeks.[/quote]

I am by no means an expert here but I am the poster ......about the giant leylandiis. I let my house in Oxford through an agent and the tenants were supposed to take care of the garden. Well the agency has allowed it to go to pot, so I have now included a gardening contract in the rent. These are a professional gardening company who are supposed to keep the garden up to scratch, whatever needs doing, and they will come fortnightly and charge 30.00 per visit. I actually don't know how long they are there and can't remember if VAT is included. It might be worth while ringing round a few professional companies to gauge what you think is fair. It's difficult, try to think fairly how much you would want ,realistically,to do that job. It really doesn't matter what the gardener is paid by the employer it's what they will charge you, of course the overheads for the company will be factored in. Unfortunately you don't get anything for nothing these days and a few quid doesn't go very far especially if you are using petrol!