10 tips to select a Landscape Gardener for your Melbourne home

Life is busy enough without spending your weekends weeding and gardening. As the weather warms up you want to enjoy more time in the garden, entertaining, playing with the kids or simply relaxing with a book. The trouble is, your garden’s looking neglected:(. There are more weeds in your beds than plants and your hedges and bushes have grown into an unrecognisable wilderness, so how do you tackle it?

Your most valuable commodity is TIME, it’s the one thing you can’t get back, so it’s no surprise that many busy families are choosing to get some help with their gardening from a professional.

But how do you know who to choose?

What do you look for in a landscape gardener?

And how can you avoid common mistakes?

10 Tips To Choose The Best Landscape Gardener

Gardening is an industry that is largely unregulated so it can be easy to experience problems when hiring a gardening contractor.  Here are some key areas to look for and avoid when choosing the best gardener for you.

1. Experience

Do they have a body of work to confirm their experience and quality of workmanship within this industry?  Are they currently servicing Melbourne gardens in your local neighbourhood? When we meet a new client we always are able to provide photos of past work in relation to the specified job. Click here to see some of our projects.

2. Communication

Hiring a contractor for a project may require a large sum of money, therefore it is essential to feel a sense of trust and be able to communicate effectively from the onset of the job in the quoting phase.  Then during the installation of the project, there can be variations that occur due to unforeseen circumstances and at this point, clear and concise communication is needed to ensure all parties are informed and happy with the decisions made.

3. Punctuality

First impressions do matter and you can be sure to know that if your gardener comes late to the first quoting appointment then this may be a recurring pattern that you can become a real nuisance.

4. Professionalism and Presentation

If you have a garden that you like to keep to a high standard then you will want to find a gardening team that also holds themselves to a high standard of professionalism.  This can entail work uniforms, a professional website and all other areas in which they present themselves to the world.

5. Contract

A Landscaping contract should be clear and concise.  All job descriptions should be detailed and well presented, outlining the full scope of work and price for each service provided.  A maintenance contract should outline a plan for how the garden will be maintained throughout all 4 seasons and the frequency, duration and cost of each visit.  Care needs to be taken to clarify all the extra details so that expectations are clear and the landscape gardener can be kept accountable to their contract.

6. Reliability

It helps to know that you can rely on your gardener. Will they show up to their scheduled visits on a regular basis? Do they work in all conditions or make a prompt reschedule in case of torrential rain? Do they have a team of professional gardeners that can fill any gaps when 1 man is down?  Often solo gardeners can get sore backs or become overwhelmed with their schedule when things get too busy.  Leading them to be unreliable and not show up regularly.   We have a team of professional gardeners to ensure we stick to schedule and stay on top of all your gardening needs.

7. Skillset

Can they do construction and maintenance?  If you’re looking at installing a whole new garden then it needs to be correctly planted out with all design aspects well thought-out.  It can be ideal to find a team that will also maintain your garden long term to keep it in its best conditions and allow the garden to flourish and thrive.  When we install front and back yard landscaping, we also advise our clients as to the maintenance requirements and provide a service to care for the ongoing needs of the garden.

8. What services do they offer?

Determine the exact scope of work required for your garden or project and be sure to obtain confirmation that this is something they can handle and specialise in.  All too often, beginner tradies can take on work that is outside of their expertise, unfortunately, this can result in a poor outcome and poor finishing.   When we meet a new client we always outline any areas that we are not experts in and will refer to other professionals who can handle and deliver professional results.

9. References and Reviews

One of the best ways to get an understanding of the gardener’s quality of service is to check their reviews.  Past clients will write up reviews on Google (good or bad).  Also, you can ask for the email address or phone numbers of some of the landscaper’s past clients.  Give them a call or shoot off some emails and ask how their experience was.  We pride ourselves on delivering great results and 5-star ratings from our clients.  Check out our reviews here, on our homepage.

10. Equipment and transport

Proper equipment is a must when it comes to producing quality landscaping results in an efficient manner.  Having the right equipment needed for the job, set up in a vehicle where all the tools are organised neatly will ensure that you are not paying extra dollars for wasted time out on the job.

If you already have a gardener and didn’t ask these questions when you hired, it’s never too late. Start the conversation now and address any concerns early.

Want our expert help in your garden?

We provide a full landscaping and garden maintenance service, quoted according to your needs and budget. If you want some help, then get in touch here or give us a call at (03) 9013 6588.