Gardening rate per hour?

[Mull]

hi guys, im self employed doing grass cutting etc with ride on to large houses and large commercial grounds, i just do grass cutting and leaf clearence thats all, rest of my time spent renovating property, i charge £28-£32 per hour for ride on work and £20 per hour for strimming, leaf blowing etc which im more than happy with. On one of the jobs the customer has asked if i can recomend someone to look after the plants, weeding, take cuttings etc so i have said my mother might be intrested as shes a very keen gardener but has never taken the leap to make it a job, so to get her started this job would be perfect, 2 afternoons a week or 1 day which suits her as she can keep her part time job but not sure what to ask for her time doing these tasks, she would need to supply the fork, spade, hand tools for the job. Would £15 per hour in south wales sound ok or more like £12? Dont want to sound like were taking the piss as its a very good job for me and defently dont want to loose it but want it to make my mother a good fair waige.

 

 

 

Any thoughts would be very welcome. Jamie

 

 

Ask your mother what she needs to make it worth her while and charge that, sorted!

[mowingjamie]

If i left that up to her we wouldnt get paid at all! Im no charity worker for these companies... It wouldnt be worth the hassle for less than £12 per hour i know that!

[Mull]

If she's good at what she does and has experience anything less than £15ph is cheap.

[Big Beech]

My wife has 15 yrs horticulture experience + and specialist nursery work and in depth knowledge of what she does, and has just completed a 5 yr degree. Around these parts its £20ph for gardening work etc. for a non skilled mum charging the same seems a bit way off if you ask me. I wouldn't expect to pay over £10ph

[kentjames]

Never price yourselves too low to start. Having said that I started out at £15 per hour when i first went back to gardening 5 years ago. That price was set with the clients I took over from my fathers retirement but we have increased over the years through £20 and now can justify £30 per hour for one man or £50 per hour for two.

 

This is including all equipment, fuel, rubbish away (as long as its not loads and loads or thats more) and fully insured. Most people like the fixed rate per hour and it works for us, we can usually do most gardens in 45 mins and we have a £50 minimum charge now too.

 

We only do gardening work per hour and that's only if it's going to be a regular. All tree work is quoted and agreed before starting.

 

Other work such as manuring borders or wood chipping borders or hedge cutting if more than a few hours is quoted. But gardening can be hard to quote for some times and you actually win if you have it hourly.

[HertsWood]

Sub-contract specialist gardeners get £25 - £40/hr, grass cutting with Kubota G21/G23 @ £450 per day, 2x man tree fang upwards of £600 per day here in Hertfordshire.

[jamesd]

Never price yourselves too low to start. Having said that I started out at £15 per hour when i first went back to gardening 5 years ago. That price was set with the clients I took over from my fathers retirement but we have increased over the years through £20 and now can justify £30 per hour for one man or £50 per hour for two.

 

This is including all equipment, fuel, rubbish away (as long as its not loads and loads or thats more) and fully insured. Most people like the fixed rate per hour and it works for us, we can usually do most gardens in 45 mins and we have a £50 minimum charge now too.

 

We only do gardening work per hour and that's only if it's going to be a regular. All tree work is quoted and agreed before starting.

 

Other work such as manuring borders or wood chipping borders or hedge cutting if more than a few hours is quoted. But gardening can be hard to quote for some times and you actually win if you have it hourly.

 

Interesting do you basically just cut the grass when "gardening". Its quite a broad term and i do a lot of commercial "gardening" or landscape maintenance and that involves everything from weeding, hegecutting and mowing.

I think if i was just weeding borders i would have to charge a lot less!

[Richard 1234]

Sub-contract specialist gardeners get £25 - £40/hr, grass cutting with Kubota G21/G23 @ £450 per day, 2x man tree fang upwards of £600 per day here in Hertfordshire.

 

 

I could not get near that money for grass cutting with 7ft ransomes highway mowers never mind smaller tractor type mowers!!

I live in the wrong place!

[Arbtech Tree Services]

......Would £15 per hour in south wales sound ok or more like £12?......

 

Don't know whereabouts you are but a local gardening outfit in Cowbridge advertise @ £17.50 per hour and leave the waste in the customer's green bags for them to put out. They turned up on one job and told the customer to go to the council depot and pick up another dozen bags!!

 

Regards,

 

Steve.

[LoadhandlerUK]

I could not get near that money for grass cutting with 7ft ransomes highway mowers never mind smaller tractor type mowers!!

I live in the wrong place!

 

You're right. Different areas accept different rates. Round here people pay top dollar to trades that (apart from doing a good job), turn up, look neat, have kudos with badged polo shirts and tidy vans.

 

Gardening here - without power tools - would be up to £15/hr. It also depends on how long you're employed for. 2 hrs at £15 is not really worth the hassle of turning up. 6 hrs would be. If you've got a decent gardener here and someone reliable with mower, hedgecutter, washer etc without an oily van and a roll-up hanging out, you'd be stacked out with work. £20 is the going rate for power tools and mowing. And then there's paddock, fencing and pasture work - but that's a different story...£££