Topic: HOW MUCH DO I CHARGE?

[tim]

You'll gain a lot from her, then?

[Mrs Ava]

I did the RHS complete gardening course years back and have been gardening with my grandad since I was about 5, so 30 odd years.  I am honest when people ask, and I have more qualifications and experience than 2 other local landscape gardeners who were both city workers who wanted out of the rat race and thought gardening was an easy ride.  They are struggling!

I do need to make a good living from it.  Mark has changed jobs and has taken a drop in salary, but it has improved his health and outlook on life.  However, I only work 6 hours a day and I don't work school holidays unless mum is over to babysit.  I have a great band of customers who know the score, the kids come first, and we all work around that perfectly.  During August, I do pop around at about 6.30pm to some and cut the grass or do a spot of weeding.

Tools, I use the same ones day in and day out Tim, I have my faves and they work for me.  I have a pile of different gadgets and tools in the garage that I never use!

The great thing is for me, the chance to take seeds, cuttings and frequently, lumps of plants.  My front and back garden are packed now and I am thinking of taking on one of the unworkable allotments on our site just to plant up with spares!!

[ACE]

Now before you all go self employed as jobbing gardeners, just remember you have to be fit and healthy, looking at some of your avatars, 'dainty' ain't a word that springs to mind. You cannot give up because it is too hard, if you take on a contract you should have the stamina to see it through.

Today I have had to move by barrow,spread and level 14 tons of gravel. Even though I had minor surgery on tuesday, I contracted to do the job so I had to do it. Mind you I am £900 richer so I did have an incentive.

If you are lucky enough to get by with a few hours here and there it still pays to do the job on time and at a rate that reflects the effort you are able put in.

It ain't all sit on mowers and gentle weeding, It's bloody hard graft.

[betula]

Dear ACE,Lets see a picture of you then you miserable old g*t.Bet your not loves young dream.I do gardening and I would not tender for jobs that involve spreading 14 tons of gravel,only people not as highly qualified as me would have to do that,so if you need some work give me a call,I might consider taking you on,then again ,perhaps not.Love as alwaysxxx

[thespade08]

£900 for moving 14 tons of gravel?...........not bad for a labourer.
Must have been a big barrow!! ;D

[cleo]

I took £4 .40 today-now where should I take my next holiday???

[ACE]

Dear ACE,Lets see a picture of you then you miserable old g*t.Bet your not loves young dream.I do gardening and I would not tender for jobs that involve spreading 14 tons of gravel,only people not as highly qualified as me would have to do that,so if you need some work give me a call,I might consider taking you on,then again ,perhaps not.Love as alwaysxxx

Did I mention any names! Go on did I? Did I? No I didn't.  ;)

I took £4 .40 today-now where should I take my next holiday???

'Bout right for a bottle of cheap red. Go on spoil yourself.

[Mrs Ava]

I have to say, I agree with Ace, it is bloody hard work and just because you are qualified and have lots of certificates doesn't mean to say you won't have to barrow piles of bark, gravel or horse sh*t around for clients.  I guess if it is more of a hobby job, then you can pick and choose, but when it is your living, you do the work.  As I said, I work come rain, wind and shine, and pretty much, in sickness and in health.  Remember I had a very bad hernia this time last year and even though the surgeon told me to lay off the work until my op, I worked up until the day before the surgery, and as soon as I could, I was back out working again.

Back onto the subject - clothing!  Bet Ace will agree when I say, get yourself a really really good, sturdy pair of working boots, if you don't already have them.  I have a pair of steel toe caps for when I am shifting stuff, and when I just have a day of pottering and pruning, I have a pair of heavy duty walking boots.  Both sets are waterproof and comfy.  I also have thick walking socks to cushion my tootsies.  Thermals for the winter, looser cotton in the summer.  And sunblock!  I don't do hats, but I do put plenty of sun cream on my face - don't wanna look like a rhino when I am 50!  Also gloves, I get through masses of gloves and spend lots or little and have thick and thin.  I hate wearing them, but have been caught out and ended up with my hand in a neat pile of cat poop, or cut to ribbons when grabbing a bramble or nettle.

Good luck Betula, it is very rewarding when you look back over a garden that was once a wilderness. 

[betula]

I was being tongue in cheek with ACE EJ so take no notice of that. ;D

[Eristic]

Can I just poke my nose in here and point out that it is not so much really hard work BUT, when you work for pay you are expected to put heart and soul into it and work hard and fast and is no comparison to toddling around the allotment at your leisure.

I do gardening for a living you may be surprised to know and rarely charge by the hour. No money in that. Steam in with best quality tools and be ruthlessly efficient for fixed monthly fees plus extras. When it all gets too much to take, pick up the tools, drive off to the plot and relax with a bit of digging.

Don't forget that while it is maybe easy money in June, an overcast day in November will be 'bad light stop play' at 3.30pm. That's assuming it is not raining. Will you still earn enough money to live on if you work only 5 hrs a day 2-3 days a week or are you prepared to get soaked to the skin and stay that way from dawn to dusk.

[Hyacinth]

I bless my digi camera and laptop PC when I'm doing really neglected gardens..... slide-show pics of the before/during & ta-da! AFTER are a big hit (and, incidentally) another money earner. Didn't plan it that way, honest :o ;D but a print out album has been requested a few times - and I'm there to oblige ;) I use Kodak atm....

I keep good records of expenditures associated. If you're using your own tools, and however you maintain them, get a price from your local tool-sharpening place & according to the workload you have, calculate the amount you can claim per quarter. Gloves are quite a major expenditure...work boots, overalls etc. are all work-related for tax allowance purposes as are, of course, your tools of your trade.....

[tonybloke]

try to plan a full maintenance schedule for each garden,i.e. number of cuts to lawn, weeding program, pruning program, division of H.P's   planting of bulbs, etc. just like the contractors do when pricing a contract  to local authorities Check out the latest prices in the spons book, BINGO!!
good luck, rgds, Tony ;)

[betula]

Yes Spons is brilliant,only used  :)it at college,bit expensive but I think I will get a copy

[simon404]

I charge 15 pounds an hour, thats with 25 years experience and parks department training. If you've only just qualified I don't think you should ask more than 10 but that's just my opinion. There's some good information at http://www.thegardenersguild.co.uk

[betula]

Thanks Simon :)

[7oaks plot]

HI betula, well let me start by saying I was made redundant from an office job 14 months ago and needed to start earning immediately, Ive always enjoyed pottering around the garden, being outside and of course on my allotment so thought i would put an ad in a half a dozen shop windows saying i did gardening, within 6 weeks i was fully booked for approx 40 hours a week, then getting on for 50 hours a few weeks later and then i was turning people down soon after that. Now that must sound great, and it was, only, working 8 to 10 hours a day gardening is VERY VERY hard work, day in day out. I started off charging £12 per hour but found that most people just wanted weeding done and believe me you really dont want to be doing weeding all day every day......i found that after a while my knees were knackered and worse than that i was waking in the morning with my fingers of my right hand literally locked tight with all the continuous weeding. So what Ive done this year is to drop some of those jobs and taken to lawnmowing more instead and this way i can also charge by the job rather than by the hour. I can make more money and also dont end up like a cripple.

For a normal sized garden, lets say front garden 20 feet by 20 and a back garden 50 feet by 20 id charge around £15 and have never had anyone moan. over time you can sort of gauge pretty well how long a certain sized garden will take you.......BUT BEWARE....if they ask you to do edging, at first you might thing, oh well that wont take long but in lots of gardens that can take just as long as the actual mowing once you have walked slowly round with your edging sheers and then gone round again picking up every bit of grass in the borders, just a point that cost me at first but Worth remembering.

Then theres the ever increasing cost of fuel for the mower although to be honest a mower doesn't use much and it probably only cost me a max of £10 per week and that includes what i use in my hedgecutter and strimmer as well.

Anyway betula i hope that helps somewhat and would love to know how you get on.......oh and bye the way Ive already got a great tan already from those few warm weeks we have had so far this year, lots of people have asked me if Ive been abroad, hehe......no, just Sevenoaks i say.

all the best, Mark.

[betula]

Thanks Mark,glad you are busy and enjoying it.All that info is very useful.I will let you know how I get on. :)

[tim]

Isn't it wonderful - the tappable experience that we have?

[Garden Manager]

I think it depends on 2 main factors. Firstly the work involved, ie amount of skill required, time it will take, equipment needed, other overheads (travelling, waste disposal etc). So for simple maintainance charge a lower rate than for say clearing an overgrown garden which might need specialist equipment as well as waste disposal. The second factor is the client themselves and what they can afford. A wealthy client could afford £10 per hour plus wheras for a pensioner this level of charge world seem excessive and put them off hiring you. In other words, although it may seem harsh you should tailor the charge (to a certain extent) to the client.

I speak from experience here. I normally charge around £10 per hour. However recently I have been doing some work for a retired couple who are keen gardeners but have been having health problems and could not keep up with the garden. Due to these circumstances i lowered my hourly rate to £6 per hour. This I am quite happy to do since they live within walking distance of my home (no travel costs) and being gardeners the clients have all the tools I need to do the work.

I hope this helps

[Mrs Ava]

I actually think it depends on whether it is a hobby job Richard, or your full time employment.  I would not be able to afford to charge £6 per hour because of my overheads, ie insurance, tool depreciation, fuel expenses etc.  I work for an elderly couple a few doors away and I charge them just £12 an hour as I don't have to drive, but I still have to be insured and my tools still take a bashing.  You do have to be careful, people will happily plead poverty to get the job done cheaper, everyone wants something for nothing.

Regarding insurance, I'm sure a lot of hobby gardeners don't have it and work away in other peoples gardens, but if you break a window, one of their tools, cut through a power line or damage an expensive plant, you will be expected to pay for the repairs, also, if you injure yourself at work and cannot work, you will be loosing income.  It might never happen to you, but it probably will.