What does regular garden maintenance actually include?

“Garden maintenance” sounds fairly obvious until you're trying to work out what you're actually paying someone to do. Does it include the hedge? What about weeds? Will they take the waste? What if a tree needs cutting?

So let's make it simple. Regular garden maintenance is about keeping an already manageable garden under control.

It's the ongoing stuff.

Not rebuilding the garden. Not major landscaping. Not turning up every fortnight to discover an entirely new project.

What would normally be covered?

Depending on what we've agreed for your garden, regular maintenance can include things like these.

1. 1

   Grass cutting and edging

   Keeping lawns at a sensible height and tidying the edges rather than waiting until the grass has swallowed your shoes.

2. 2

   Weeding

   Keeping beds, borders and other agreed areas on top of normal weed growth.

3. 3

   Border tidying

   Removing dead growth, keeping plants from taking over paths and generally keeping beds looking cared for.

4. 4

   Light pruning

   Tidying appropriate shrubs and plants at suitable times of year.

5. 5

   Hedge maintenance

   Light routine trimming where agreed and appropriate. Different hedges need cutting at different times and frequencies. The RHS says informal hedges often need cutting once a year, while some formal hedges may need trimming two or three times through the growing season.

6. 6

   Leaves and general tidying

   Keeping paths, lawns and working areas reasonably clear as part of the visit. These are also broadly the jobs customers searching for garden maintenance in Wirral are commonly looking for: mowing, edging, weeding, pruning, hedge trimming, leaf clearance and general garden tidying.

What isn't normal maintenance?

This is where expectations can get messy, so we'd rather be clear. Things that may need pricing separately include major hedge reductions, tree surgery, removing established shrubs, full garden clearance, landscaping, fencing, large planting projects, turfing, patios and other substantial one-off work.

It doesn't mean we can't help. It just means an extra three hours of work doesn't magically become part of a normal maintenance visit because we happened to already be in the garden. If you want something additional doing, tell us and we'll sort the price before getting stuck in.

What happens to the waste?

We'll agree this when we price your garden. Some properties have enough brown-bin capacity for normal maintenance waste. Others don't.

Does every visit include exactly the same jobs?

Not necessarily. Gardens don't work like office cleaning. In April, the lawn might be the priority. Later in the year it might be leaves. A particular shrub might need pruning at one time of year and leaving completely alone at another.

So regular maintenance is better thought of as keeping the agreed parts of your garden under control throughout the year. Not blindly completing the exact same checklist every Tuesday.

What about hedge cutting during nesting season?

Wild birds, their active nests and eggs are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The RSPB advises avoiding hedge cutting during the main nesting period, broadly March to September, and checking carefully for active nests even outside that period. Legally, vegetation can be cut during the year provided active nests aren't damaged or destroyed.

So if there's an active nest in your hedge, it'll have to wait. The birds win that one.