A well-kept garden and tasteful landscape increases the value or your home and provides a relaxing space to interact with friends and family. A well-maintained landscape around office buildings and commercial establishments provides a favourable impression to your customers and the community. 

With increasing frequency, homeowners and business managers are hiring professional lawn and landscape experts to save time, take away the guesswork, and enhance their investment. 

How to Hire a Professional

Here are some helpful tips you can use to select a quality landscape or lawn care company:

Seek companies that are accredited by a National Association such as Which? Trusted Traders, or other industry association. These companies have access to the most up-to-date information on best practices, trends, and technical know how. In addition, affiliation indicates that a company is interested in excellence, safety, and best practices. Ask the firm for a list of references and professional affiliations or check its website.

Ask friends and neighbours to recommend companies they have used successfully.  

Ask how long the company has been in business and the experience level of its staff. Professional landscape companies should have employees with either a secondary education in the field or several years of experience.

Consider a landscape company that is licensed, accredited, or certified. If required by law, the company should be licensed. This license will assure you that the contractor is accountable, and that the company is operating legally. Ask them if they have staff who are Landscape Industry Certified. A certified individual has proven experience, skills, and knowledge. Continuing education is necessary to maintain their certification.

You want to hire a company that does good work, and reflects professionalism and integrity. Examine the quality of the job, and see if the crew’s appearance and job presence are acceptable.

Ask the company to provide a written quote. Prior to making any agreement, have the landscape contractor prepare the details in writing. this will include labour, plant, and materials to be used, all costs, a time table, and the terms of payment. Plus their trading terms should be visible on their website.

And last of all, don't always go for the cheapest quote. Cheap usually means "cheap" and they probably don't know what they are doing and they won't be around for very long.

Some gardeners are cheap because they :-

don't know how to price a quote,

don't have professional equipment,

don't sharpen the mower blades every day,

don't have a spraying certificate (PA1/6),

don't pay NI and taxes,

don't have insurance

and don't know a plant from a weed. You get what you pay for!