[Terre]

Ok, another question.

I'm getting requests from people I've done gardens for, to do ongoing maintenance.

I'm not finding a lot of info on maintenance of anything but lawn care. So, I've pretty much developed my own. I'm offering these services:

1. Weed removal. (weekly)
2. Weed control. (as needed)
3. Deadheading, Trimming and Pruning (weekly)
4. Inspect for insect infestations, make recommendations. (weekly)
5. Monitor mulch effectiveness of bed, add mulch as needed. (as needed)
6. Monitor irrigation effectiveness, and make changes to drip system as needed.
7. Add soil amendments/fertilization. (as needed)
8. Clean-up site thoroughly and remove debris. (weekly)
9. Limited replacement warranty on all flowers/plants installed.

I'm not trimming trees, or spraying insecticides, since I'm not licensed for those. Anything someone sees that I'm missing?

I figure I can do this on most places in 45 minutes to an hour a week. I'm going to have a lot of travel time, since one place that wants the service is easily 45 minutes away. Gotta work out the logistics of that.

Thoughts or suggestions? Do I just use my normal hourly rate?

[TrickyDick]

Spring and Fall cleanup.

What about pruning ornamental shrubs that are part of the gardens.

You will also want to get a little more specific with some people since expectations will vary. For example we have one large garden we care for where every plant that so much as thinks about slouching has to be staked. I mean every snapdragon, every one of the hundreds of lillies. Obviously if we charged everyone for doing something that stupid they would be pissed. You will get to know what different clients expect over time but anything you can get settled before hand is helpful.

[Terre]

Spring and fall cleanup are services I offer, but hadn't included them in the maintenance area. I can do that. I have included ornamental shrub pruning, it is in my lengthier description of my list.

Geez, never thought about staking. You have good point.

[GLAN]

May want to do every other week, rather than weekly........considering the travel time and so on

[oreunited]

So what would you charge then? I have been doinf this for a few houses and we charge 75 visit but thats 3-4 man hours. hals the time we are not even breaking a sweat, so interested in what you think?

[Terre]

I'm charging $25 per man hour. I was a little shortsided when I compiled my list above, since I was assuming I would be maintaining things I had installed.

I'm definitely glad I listened to TrickyDick, one of the clients I recently picked up is just that type, every stem staked, every single bloom deadheaded, doesn't want a dead or yellowed leaf on the ivy growing up the side of the house. It's going to be a gravy job, IF AND ONLY IF I can be anal enough to please him.

I don't think I would do it as a flat bid per visit though.

[oreunited]

It is hourly it just our usual time to be there, about 3-4 man hours, closer to three. Hourly rate is the smae really. Have fun. by the way how do you market recieve these clients, like to do more myself.

[Terre]

My high tech marketing/advertising plan is word of mouth and Craigslist. I am as busy as I can handle without hiring more help, and it isn't costing me a dime. Can't whine about that.

I get about 4 or 5 calls a week off of Craigslist, and of those, I average 2 that become jobs. Usually the others are just hunting cheap manual labor. But Craigslist in my area is very busy. Other areas it doesn't get nearly the traffic.

[oreunited]

Are you just doing general ads about co. or are you stating personal maintenance for 25 hour? thanks for the info.

[Terre]

Actually, my ads are for garden design and renovations. I don't advertise price, but I do try to phrase my ads in such a manner as to appeal to the upper end. For the most part, it seems to be working, although I have done a couple of smaller suburbia type projects, most of what I'm working on is upscale, inner city, older homes.

Maybe an ad focused on maintenance isn't a bad idea, since so many people are both working.

[Ax Man]

As far as charging, my "maintenance rate" is the same as my installation or mowing rate per hour.
Add your drive time to estimated work time if you are doing flat rate work.
I Assume you are running very low overhead if you are doing light gardening...
Nice tag line BTW

[Mark Oomkes]

I know rates are variable by region, but $25\hour seems really low to me, especially on high end stuff.

My rates are the same for gardening\maintenance or mowing, but higher for installation work because WC is higher for installation than mowing or light maintenance work.

[Terre]

I have almost no overhead. No office, no major equipment, if I need something I rent it, and it goes on the bid.
I am very small time, and am just working on building a clientele and reputation while I gain knowledge and experience. I also charge for designs, and thanks to peoples suggestions from here, I don't itemize time and materials, so I am paid for the time I spend researching or shopping for materials and plants.

So far, 90% of what I do has been small projects, along the line of garden redesign or reclamation. My one big job, we have broken down into doing in small chunks at the customers request.

I'm still pinching myself over the fact that people will actually pay me to shop for plants with their money at a nursery It feels like I'm doing something illegal! Apparently they don't realize I'd do it for free!

And Ax, the tag line came about after a comment about 10 step programs for addiction from my husband over my hundreds of hostas.

[Mark Oomkes]

Terre, I understand the low to no overhead. I don't know your future plans either, but don't sell yourself short.

For example, what if you have your rates figured at $25\hr and then you decide to buy a truck, trailer, and a skidder and rent office space. Suddenly, you have to raise your rates $10\hr. How many clients are going to buy into that much of a raise in rates all at once? I would imagine not many. Maybe a couple, but I think it's safe to say you would lose a fair amount of work as well, and we all know it's cheaper to retain customers than get new ones.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that $25\hr is very, very inexpensive. In fact, if you're good, I'll hire you as a sub to do my work at that rate.

[Terre]

You've definitely given me something to think about Mark. I'm actually looking for a cheap truck at the moment, and I'd love to raise my rates, but every time I start thinking about it, I finish up a job or two, and don't have a lot on the horizon, and I get very very nervous about nothing else coming in.

So far, any job I have bid that was big, (to me, big is $15K) I haven't gotten, and I'm not sure why. I'm pretty sure a landscape company would have bid much higher.

It may very well be my own comfort zone, that I can sell the jobs that are totally gardening, but when it comes to actual landscaping, I am not doing it right. I need to learn more. I'd love to sub for someone, but I've never seen anyone wanting to hire anything other than manual labor at $8 to $10. And other than master gardener, I have no credentials to justify asking more than that. Rectifying that is going to be my winter project.

So, if you have any gardening work in Denver, I'm your gal! :-)