Topic: What is a fair price

[allotmanye]

My allotment site is surrounded by houses and while I was working there today a lady living in one asked if I would be interested in maintaining her garden and said that a few neighbours may be interested as well. She asked what I would charge an hour and I had no idea. What would be a fair price? just general maintenance and tidying. I don't want to overcharge them but then again have to make it worth my while.  :-\

[TEL]

Hi allotmanye
some gardeners can charge up to £20 an hour around hear.
But i think about £8 is OK depending on what work you have to do.

[beejay]

A tricky one. I live in London & a few people charge £8 but that is regarded as really low. It can be anything between that & the low £20s mark. There can be a huge difference between what people are prepared to pay & what the work is worth.

[adam04]

hmmm,  find out how many people are interested first. if there are a few then you can charge less as you have more work. if there is only her then charge a bit mroe to cover costs for petrol etc.

you may have to buy a lawnmower. so take that into consideration. a garden maintanence person charge my next door neighbour £15 every fortnight for cutitng a tiny lawn and hoeing. so i think £10 per house is proabably about right. you can proably earn about £20 an hour then.

[reedos]

I was a part time jobbing gardener for a few years before the kids came along and took up any spare time I had !!
I never charged an hourly rate - as I'd seen other gardeners make sure that they spent however long to do a job just to get the amount of money they felt like earning that day, regardless of how long the job really took.
My work was mainly "maintenance" work for elderly people and I charged an amount to come every two weeks and keep the garden tidy, I'd do whatever job needed doing at the time of the visit,  the amount varied depending on how big the garden was. Sometimes the customer scored by getting a few hours of work done and sometimes I scored if there wasn't too much that needed doing. It evened out over the year.
Be ready to spend lots of time drinking tea and chatting - my biddies loved coming out just to talk ;D ;D

[reedos]

Forgot to say, my average price was around £25 for two visits, but as Beejay was hinting, a lot of people think that gardeners should come cheap. I always asked anybody who quibbled how much a brickie, plumber, joiner or anybody else who did work you couldn't do was worth....it usually worked

[undercarriage plan]

Hey Allotmanye, I work as a gardener, amongst other things, and charge £10 a hour, but I did go to college and get qualified. I am intending to raise prices, but not sure how much as yet. Why don't you ask what figure they had in mind? You can always come down in price, but not up. Good luck.
Lottie  ;D

[allotmanye]

Many thanks for the replies, they have been a great help.

Regards
Jim

[Derekthefox]

Lottie is right there, it is acceptable to lower your rates, but you could end up with a problem if you try and raise them. £10 for an hours labour seems cheap to me, if it is simple work then no problem. You may want to consider special rates for more arduous work etc.

Good luck

Derekthefox :D

[moonbells]

It's quite scary calculating hourly rates. Because of this conversation I worked out how much my salary translates to.

I think I'll start jobbing gardening in my spare time as it seems to bring in as much as working for the NHS!

moonbells

[daveandtara]

well don't try embroidery then moonbells!
 if i charged an hourly rate  it would amount to about 20p an hour!
i reckon that a job of work requires a decent wage but  'pin money' to cover the expenses of a hobby you love is different.
either way, i hope it works out to your benefit,
Tara xx

[Derek]

I am in the service industry and on my travels I have come across my customers paying between £10 and £15 per hour for gardening...usually by retired persons 

This is in Leicestershire'

Most including the guy charging £15 per hour have to turn work away

Hope this helps

Derek

[Mrs Ava]

I charge a tenner an hour, and had my hand snapped off!  ;D  Tis cheap around these parts.

[kentishchloe]

Before the boy came along, and when we were still living in Surrey I was PT at Wisley and gardened for a few clients on days off. I charged £12.50 - £15 per hour but I had 10 yrs experience in nurseries, RHS work experience & qualifications. Would prob'ly charge £12 round here 2 yrs later but less affluent area.

[allotmanye]

Thanks again, a great help.

Emma J  dumb blonde? I don't think so. Your posts are always helpfull and full of commonsense

[ACE]

Don't go in too cheap, I charge anything between £25 and £48 an hour depending on how hard the job will be and how nice the people I am working for are.

I do not mow lawns as I think that is a job for the garden owner,  I encourage them to do a bit of work in the garden. But if they are too lazy I will not work for them.

Choosy I might be, but I never advertise and rely on word of mouth for my work. At the moment I am turning work down because I am too busy.

[adam04]

agree with ACE about the encouragaing the person to do some work and turning down lazy people.

i did a little job in spring, diggin out the weeds from the beds and digging them over, planted them up with annuals, walked past the other day, weeds, weeds, weedsa and even a foot print where i must have forgot to dig. is kinda sad really, esepcially when i only charge £20 and it took me a good few hours to do.