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Shared garden strip beside a row of townhouses

Garden care for body corporates, one gardener and one invoice.

The shared garden at a small complex belongs to everyone and gets looked after by nobody. The strip lawn along the drive, the beds by the letterboxes, the hedge on the boundary. It takes one person on a regular visit to keep it tidy, and one contact on the committee who can reach him.

I look after shared gardens at complexes across the west side. One gardener every visit, one invoice to the committee or the manager, and the same hourly rate as every other job on this site rather than a figure buried in a tender. All my power tools are electric, so the visit is quiet for the residents. Waste is bagged and taken away, or goes into the complex's green bins where there are enough of them.

How big a complex I can look after is a straight question of hours. Size and season set the frequency and the labour, so send photos of the shared areas and I will give you a range of hours per visit and a suggested schedule for the year.

What a visit covers

  • Shared lawns mown and edged
  • Common beds weeded and shrubs cut back
  • Boundary and driveway hedges trimmed to their line, as high as I can reach from a standard stepladder, or single-storey roof height
  • Paths, drive and letterbox area swept
  • Waste bagged and taken away, or into the complex's green bins
Communal lawn and garden beds at a small complex

How often

The size of the complex drives the frequency as much as the season does. A small block with a strip of lawn and a few beds is often fine on a monthly visit outside spring; a larger complex with a lot of hedging wants a fortnightly visit through the growing season. I suggest a schedule from the photos and adjust it once I have done a couple of visits.

A regular visit is usually two to three hours. The first one is often longer, because the garden has to be brought back to a state a shorter visit can hold. After that it never gets to the point where it needs a rescue.

If you would rather start with a one-off tidy up and see how it goes, that is fine. A regular slot after that is set up around your preferences, and you can change it or pause it by text.

Prices

Item Price
Garden work, any service $60 per hour*
Minimum, regular visits 1 hour
Minimum, one-off jobs 2 hours
Green waste removal $30 minimum, which covers the first bag. Then $25 per 280 L bag or $40 per wool sack. Trailer loads are time at the hourly rate plus dump fees at cost.
Other waste (soil, rubbish, flax, bamboo, palm, anything mixed in) $45 minimum, then time at the hourly rate plus dump fees at cost.

Every service, lawns and hedges included, is charged at the same hourly rate for the time I am on site.

*I am under the GST threshold, so no GST is added. That could change at any time; if it does, GST goes on top of the rate and this page changes first.

How this works

There are two ways to start. Send me a few photos and I reply within 24 hours with the hours the job will take. Or book a visit straight away and I sort the scope with you on the day.

  1. 1. Get in touch. Send photos through the estimate form, text them to 028 416 1624, or book a visit online.
  2. 2. Agree the hours. From photos, I tell you the range of hours within 24 hours. If you have booked straight away, I look at the garden when I arrive and agree the hours with you before I start. Either way, if the job turns out bigger than expected I tell you before I keep going, and if you have a set budget I work inside it and do the most useful things first.
  3. 3. I turn up and do the work. A text the day before and another when I am on my way. The clippings leave with me, and the invoice is for the hours worked, with a photo of the garden as I left it if you were not home.

Waste. Everything I cut leaves with me unless you would rather it went in your green bin. Removal is priced per bag in the Prices table.

What I don't do

I am a gardener, so a few jobs go to someone else. If yours needs one of these, I will say so up front.

  • Tree felling, stump grinding, and tree work above stepladder or single-storey roof height: an arborist
  • Hard landscaping, paving, retaining walls and decks: a landscaper
  • Lawn renovation, returfing and new lawns: a lawn specialist
  • Anything inside the house
  • Written maintenance schedules or reports

Related services

FAQ

Who signs off?
The committee or the manager gives me one contact. That person gets the estimate, the invoice, the text when I arrive and leave, and the photos.
Can you quote a fixed annual price?
No. I charge for time. What I can give you is an estimate of hours per month across the year, so the committee has a budget figure, and every invoice shows what was done on the day.
What about owners' own gardens?
Happy to, as separate bookings invoiced to the owner. Several small gardens at one address is an efficient morning.
What size complex is too big?
If the lawns need a ride-on or the hedges need two people and a truck, it is too big for the way I work, and I will say so from the photos.
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