Hiring a gardener - what would you do?

I'm sorry you have to get help with the garden now jjordie and hope you find a reliable one.

Our next door neighbour has a wonderful chap who does one morning once a week to keep her garden ship shape. There really isn't that much to do over winter but she still pays him weekly otherwise she is afraid he will find something else to do and lose him. He still comes in the winter and finds odd jobs like fixing fence panels or something indoors like painting.

At the other extreme a work colleague told me he employed a new gardener only to find he pulled up and composted his ornamental grass collection thinking they were weeds. All I can think to prevent something like that happening is to go around the garden with any new gardener and point out the plants you wish to keep or label them all up beforehand.

 

It's always a good idea to do a walk round when the gardener turns up and show him exactly what needs doing. We still do this although he's been with us some months and only takes five minutes. 'ding dong!' He's just arrived and rung our bell! Shall carry on in a few minutes.

He comes once a fortnight so even if we've told him the previous time what we want done this time we may have changed our minds by the time he arrives. The first job I've given him today is to cut down a 20 year old lilac tree that has just died.

One thing to remember is that you should be very brief with your instructions. If you spend too much time just chatting it's costing you money for him to talk to you. Some gardeners can work whilst talking and others can't