typical GBP 15-30/hr by region
fortnightly Mar-Oct = ~16
Advanced options
Rates run GBP 15-30/hr (region + whether they bring machinery): one-off jobs (clearances, hedge reductions) price by the job + waste disposal (green waste licensing is why quotes include "removal"). The hours multiply fast: the DIY kit for the same jobs (mower you own + GBP 100/yr of fuel, blades, hire) is cheaper on paper and costs your Saturdays: the house-cleaner page's time-trade logic applies verbatim. A regular slot beats ad-hoc: gardens compound neglect.
What The Gardener Cost Calculator Works Out
- Annual cost: hourly rate x hours per visit x visits per year. Gardeners charge GBP 15 to GBP 30 an hour depending on region and whether they bring machinery; a fortnightly two-hour slot from March to October (about 16 visits) at GBP 20 lands around GBP 640 a year.
- DIY comparison: the same garden done yourself costs roughly GBP 100 to GBP 200 a year of fuel, blades, hire and kit wear, plus the hours. The honest question is whether your Saturday hour is worth more than the gardener's rate; mowing is some people's therapy and some people's tax.
- Getting value from the hours: a good gardener earns the rate on skilled work (pruning to the plant's calendar, border planning, diagnosing the yellowing hedge or the moss lawn) where enthusiastic DIY does slow damage. Mowing and weeding are labour a teenager or a robot mower undercuts, so the efficient split is to automate or own the labour and hire the skill.
- Travel or call-out and waste removal (advanced): many gardeners add a minimum charge or travel fee per visit, and green-waste disposal is a real cost because carrying waste commercially needs a licence. Both are added per visit.
- One-off jobs (advanced): hedge reductions, clearances and the spring blitz price by the job. Enter the yearly total so the budget covers the lumpy items as well as the regular slot.
- VAT registered (advanced): most sole-trader gardeners are below the VAT threshold; larger firms add 20% to labour and job prices. Check which a quote is.
- Your DIY kit cost (advanced): override the GBP 150 a year assumed for fuel, blades, servicing, hire and wear on your own machinery; a robot mower or a ride-on changes it in opposite directions.
- All-in annual cost, monthly budget and true cost per hour (advanced): everything above added together, spread over 12 months, and divided by the hours of regular visits to show what each gardening hour really costs against the headline rate.
- Gardener vs doing it yourself (advanced): enter what your own hour is worth and the card says which route is better value once your time is priced, or shows the break-even hourly value if you leave it blank. One-off jobs are excluded because most households would hire those anyway.
- Hiring well: word of mouth and visible local gardens beat directories, public liability insurance is the professional marker worth asking about, and winter is the time to find and trial a gardener because the March-to-October rush books out the good ones.