Anybody who has 27 separate garden areas obviously cares a great deal about the kind of maintenance & care that their yard & garden will get. I doubt that you would ever be happy with any of these 'slam, bam, thank you maam' or 'mow, blow & go' sort of crews that you cannot even communicate with. A self-employed professional gardener (who owns the business & does ALL the work themselves) is most likely to satisfy your needs.

Spring garden tours are a great place to request the names of their gardeners. As you drive around town, keep an eye out for lone gardeners providing maintenance for small businesses. Garden clubs, Master Gardeners, etc. can also probably provide you with such local sources.

I wish you the best of luck, and offer my condolances on your recent loss.

Larry

Thank you Larry for your kind response. I guess the crews you describe is what I am afraid of. I did not think of the Master Gardeners but now will make a call. Yes, our home has always been very special to us and we worked diligently in the yard as a labor-of-love. I do know quite a bit about gardening which probably makes it more difficult to turn this over to someone else but there is only so much time in the day! I just need to learn to be patient! Marcia

Nobody says you have to hire the same people for lawn mowing and garden maitenance. If you have or can find a reasonably priced lawn person, you can then look for a reasonable, but KNOWLEDGEABLE gardener.

Landscapers and gardeners are two different animals. Hiring a legitimate landscaper to do garden maitenance could be overkill. Some, however, do garden maitenance between their major projects.

The master gardening program isn't meant to be a labour pool. They aren't to use it for such and that title tells you nothing about their credentials, except that the extension department uses them as volunteers. Some have a lifetime of experience and some have a few weeks. Unless they have a service vendor's license you can also take it to the bank they are not covered by liability insurance should they damage your property, nor are they covered by their own insurance should they injure themselves on your property. You could be held liable.

There are such things as "gardeners". They are becoming a growing niche profession, and it's long overdue. They don't do design, they don't usually do major tree work, they often don't do mowing. I'd be looking for somebody in that catagory.

Calliope, I didn't intend to suggest that Marcia use the MG as a labor pool - but as an information scource to provide the names of gardeners such as you just described. We have a number of highly talent professional gardeners in my area (who work for a very reasonable fee), but they simply don't advertise their services. They don't have too. You'll only find them through word-of-mouth. That's why I suggested the MG. MGs, who are active in garden tours, often know who these highly talented business people are. There is one such gardener ( a friend) who has 6 homes on the tour. Her work is exceptional (she has helped me) and she charges $25/hour for herself and equipment.

The gardeners that I know will all do lawn care IF they have a gardening contract.

Larry

I misunderstood, sorry. Unfortunately I have seen so many posts over the years where people try to get into the professional end of it, thinking the MG was a credential and it just simply isn't. But, you have a very good idea there.

I hope it's okay for me to ask someone to say more about what to expect. I have a similar question, although I only have 1/2 an acre. I hired someone 5 years ago, who has since turned the work over to several others. More than once I've had to call and leave a message asking him to ask his crew to not weed wack my perennials. Today I found someone spraying something he could not identify. He said "yes" when I asked if it was an herbicide. His not speaking english did not help. I was under the impression spraying herbicides was not okay without a certain license.

Many nurseries or garden centers will have referral lists of landscape professionals - designers, arborists, contractors and maintenance gardeners - they recommend. This might be a source. If there is a local horticultural trade school or college offering hort degrees, this can also be a good source. When I was in college, our hort department kept a job posting for students of positions such as you describe. It is an excellent way for the students to supplement their incomes while developing or increasing their experience level. Many of these are extremely knowledgeable (don't think your typical late teen-early 20's college student). IME, most hort students tend to be pretty mature, some even middle aged, and frequently are already established in the profession but validating their credentials through structured course work. Estate gardening (large residential landscapes) or "gardener", rather than "maintenance" (mow, blow and go and/or just pruning, etc.) positions were especially desireable.

Nanelle, what you describe is all too common. Accessing a cheap labor pool of typically untrained recent immigrants who are dumped at job sites with little or no supervision. Your only solution is to contact the owner and require that he have an English speaking crew leader on site at all times to supervise the crew and translate your requirements. Otherwise, dump 'em. There are too many other maintenance companies out there looking for regular clients to put up with that neglegence. FWIW, it is only the owner that is required to have a pesticide license, not necessarily the individual actually applying the stuff (although again, supervision of the crew is a requirement). The owner is therefore liable for misapplication of any pesticides.

Tippycat, I'd like to make a suggestion. I work at an independant retail Nursery with several 'plant and gardening addicts'. A couple of us have picked up gardening jobs at customers houses. We enjoy working for someone who LOVES thier yard and like working with people who know what they are doing.

I personally am asked at least 3 times a week ( totally unsolicited) if I would be willing to plant, or help them garden, esp at the fall and spring cleanup times. If you have a person you have clicked with at your favorite nursery, try approaching them and see what happens.

Hi debinca1,
Thank you for your suggestion. It amazes me how the obvious is right in front of one's nose sometimes but you just can't see it. I will pursue getting referrals from the garden centers I frequent the most. I have to laugh because I just returned from a trip to Chicago to visit my daughter for my birthday and loved all their tulips and other flowers planted throughout the city streets. I arrived back in Cleveland to over a foot of snow!!!! The forsythia of course are now history and my magnolia looks incongruous against all the snow!! I still have a vase of daffodils blooming in my kitchen. Good thing I picked them before I left!