What is a good price to have a hedge pruned by a professional?

Interesting thread.

We live in an area that isn't cheap (neighbour's 4 bed place is up for sale at 800k) but nobody round here would pay £50 an hour for garden work. One-offs is a different matter.

£20 per hour for regular gardening is the max here, and plenty who do it cheaper. Small jobs are priced but longer work is per hour.

We have a gardener who does a full day when he comes here. He charges £14 an hour but we usually top it up, give him lunch and multiple cups of tea.

We have a lot of hedging but our privet is about 40 - 50 metres long and 2m high. It's only cut on our side and the top. The hedge is wide enough to only be able to just stretch across the top. It takes about 3 hours to cut (not difficult as it's done three times a year) and clear up. Cuttings either go in the wheelie bins or on the bonfire. So probably costs us no more than £50.

Gardens here are reasonably large so he would get a full days work in each one.

Re other work (not gardening): I have just had some plumbing work done by a company (not an individual) and excellent work. They charge £45 +VAT an hour.

 

@Liz the pot I also agree with looking after employees (who all ended up as friends). I paid the best money in the area, helped them with all their domestic and legal problems, helped organise their holidays, weddings etc. and although I have been retired for 17 years I still look after a lot of them. They bring me their problems, we're godparents to their kids, and I even look after the disabled son of one of my staff who died in 1983 (only Friday dealt with the Occupational Therapist and local authority to organise a wet room in his flat). None of my employees aver left me except to raise a family or start their own business. If they started their own business I helped them to get started.

We trained our gardener (he was a young lad who wanted to learn the business) and got him a lot of his customers. He's not capable of running a proper business (dyslexic and has trouble reading and writing etc.) but is a hard worker and likes his work. He has already refused to take more money from us. He does have a back problem - can't get it off the bed! He was supposed to be here this morning (he doesn't normally start until 10 a.m.) but hasn't arrived yet - not unusual. Apart from gardening he has been trained in tree work, fencing and paving (by family) and does the work very well. He can't work for anyone because he has trouble with organisation.

I've not known any gardener charge more than £20 per hour for a full day's work in this area and we're in touch with very many people round here. Much more than that and they wouldn't get the work.

Big gardening companies service the businesses and they charge a lot more more.