How to hire
Start with the job in your own words. A gardener keeps the garden you have: mowing, edging, hedges, weeding, pruning and seasonal tidy-ups, usually on a repeating round. A landscape gardener reshapes it: patios, turf, beds, fencing and drainage. Tree work at height is a third trade — ask who climbs and what certificates they hold. Say which of the three you need when you first enquire, and pin down whether they charge by the hour, per visit or a fixed price for the job.
Then settle what a standard visit covers before anyone starts: which beds get weeded, whether clippings are mulched, bagged or taken away, and what finished looks like for the lawn edges and paths. Agree access too — side gates, alarms, dogs — and what happens when either side cancels a visit. Put the round agreement in writing, even for a small monthly job, so both sides can point at the same list.
Anyone who carries your green waste away for payment must hold a waste carrier licence, which you can check yourself on the Environment Agency public register by searching the business name [2]. Ask where your waste goes — back in your bin, to the tip, or uplifted by a carrier — and get the answer into the written agreement, including who pays any tip fees. A gardener who cannot show a licence number but offers to shift soil and old sheds is one to leave alone.
Check the basics on every shortlist. Ask for public liability insurance with the cover limit in writing — mowers, ladders and falling branches all carry mishap potential near fences, cars and greenhouses. Look the business up on Companies House to confirm it trades as it claims [3], and see whether it appears on the TrustMark register of firms whose trading practices and customer service have been checked [1]. For chainsaw or pesticide work, ask to see the NPTC certificates by name; for a design-and-build project, search the BALI directory for accredited local firms [7]. Ask for dated photos of two recent local jobs, or addresses you can walk past.
Get two or three written quotes for anything beyond a basic round, and compare them line by line: visits per month, tasks per visit, materials and feed included, waste handling, the VAT position and cancellation terms. Spring is the busiest booking season in Telford, so rounds agreed in late winter get the reliable slots, and autumn tidy-ups and leaf clearance book out fast too. Treat an outlier quote, far above or below the rest, as a question rather than a bargain, and ask what is included or left out.
Pay per visit or monthly for maintenance, never months in advance, and keep a simple record of what was done each time with every quote, invoice and receipt filed together. For planting that survives Telford clay and exposed new-build plots, the RHS publishes free guidance on matching plants to soil and aspect [4]. If something goes wrong, Citizens Advice sets out your rights and the steps to complain, mediate or claim [5]. End each season by walking the garden with your gardener and agreeing next year's round in writing.
Telford and Wrekin adds local detail. The council collects garden waste free all year in the green bin, plus up to four extra clear biodegradable sacks beside it on collection day, with both recycling centres open daily — but soil, rubble, turf and timber are excluded, so agree who moves those [8]. Eight conservation areas cross the borough, including Wellington and the Severn Gorge, where tree works need six weeks’ notice and an Article 4 direction tightens control over minor changes [9].
Bigger builds can need permission: garden decking stays within permitted development only while it sits no more than 30cm above the ground and covers no more than half the garden, with tighter limits inside the World Heritage Site, so check with the council’s pre-application advice service first [9][10]. Say where you live when you enquire, from Wellington and Dawley through Madeley and Lawley to Ironbridge — side access, steep banks, shared drives and tight parking all change the labour time, and a good quote is measured on the plot itself.
A typical job runs the same course. You send the task list with photos and your postcode, the firm visits to survey, and a written quote follows. You agree the scope, price, waste handling, payment and start date, then the work begins using the access arranged. Each visit ends with the garden left as agreed, and the job closes with a walk-round, a snag list put right, and the final invoice and receipt filed with the quote.
The written quote should name every task, visits per month and what each covers, materials and feed, waste handling and tip fees, the VAT position, the fixed total or rate, the start date, and how either side ends the arrangement. At the end, keep the itemised invoice and receipt, the carrier’s licence number where waste left the site, any planting aftercare notes, and the guarantee terms for walls, paving or turf. Paperwork this complete turns a later dispute into a short conversation.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, national cost guides put regular garden maintenance at £15 to £40 an hour, averaging around £30, or £120 to £320 for a full day [6]. Inside that range, grass cutting runs £15 to £30 an hour, hedge cutting and pruning £15 to £35, and weeding £15 to £30 [6]. A one-off reset of a neglected garden usually means a full day at the top of the day range, and a badly overgrown plot can take several visits to bring back under control [6].
Four things move the quote: the size and layout of the garden, its condition on the first visit, whether one gardener or a team turns up, and the season — spring and summer demand pushes prices up [6]. Access matters too: steep plots, narrow side gates and nowhere to park all add labour time. National averages are lifted by London and South East rates, so Telford quotes often land lower down each range; compare two or three local quotes on the same written scope rather than budgeting to the top [6].
Ask whether VAT sits on top of the quoted rate and whether waste removal, tip fees, materials and feed, equipment hire or a minimum call-out charge are inside the price or alongside it [6]. Get the scope in writing before work starts: the task list, visit frequency, who handles waste, the VAT position and what changes the price if the garden proves worse than it looked. Keep every quote and invoice together, so a dispute starts from paperwork rather than memory [5].
Lawn care prices move with size, slope and frequency: national guides updated in June 2026 put grass cutting at £15 to £30 an hour, averaging £25, with strimming around £62.50 a job [6]. Hedge cutting and pruning sit at £15 to £35 an hour in the same guides, rising with height, length and the volume of waste to shift [6].
Clearances and tree work price the awkwardness: removing a small hedge runs £100 to £250 and a large one £250 to £400, while a tree surgeon trimming a medium-sized tree falls between £420 and £600 [6]. Climbing equipment, tight access and tip fees push these further than the hourly rates suggest [6].
Projects price materials and groundwork: turfing runs £12 to £30 per square metre, flagstone paving £65 to £80, and decking £50 to £120, with whole landscaping projects spanning £250 to £2,500 [11]. Levelling at £20 to £120 per square metre, drainage and poor access move the total more than the finish does [11].
Red flags
Gives a fixed price for a clearance or a regular round without seeing the garden first.
Offers to take green waste, soil or old sheds away but cannot show a waste carrier licence number you can check on the public register [2].
Asks for months of maintenance fees upfront, in cash, with no written round agreement.
Has no insurance details to show and changes the subject when you ask for the cover limit.
Cannot name two recent local jobs or show dated photos of their own work.
Prices tree surgery without showing the certificates behind the climbing and cutting work.
Will not put the visit tasks, price and start date in writing before lifting a tool.
Quotes a patio, turfing job or other makeover from photos alone without visiting the plot.
Wants the full project fee paid before materials arrive or work begins.