Gardeners in Southampton

What to put in your job description

• One visit, or regular visits, and how often.
• Roughly how big the garden is, and how a gardener gets to it (side gate, through the house).
• What you want done: mowing, hedges, borders, weeding, a full clear-out.
• Whether there is green waste to take away, and how much.
• Any trees to cut back or take down, and how tall they are.

Don't put your name, phone number or address in the description: every trade who covers your area reads it. Your name, phone, email and address go only to the trades who take the job (3 at most).

Questions to ask before you hire

• Do you take the waste away, and are you a registered waste carrier?
• Is the price per visit or per hour, and what is included?
• Will you look for nesting birds before cutting a hedge? (Damaging an active nest is against the law.)
• For tree work: are you a tree surgeon, and have you asked the council about protected trees?
• Do you have public liability insurance?

Registers and schemes to check

There is no register for gardeners. Before cutting back or felling a tree, ask your council whether it has a Tree Preservation Order or is in a conservation area. Anyone who takes your waste away must be a registered waste carrier: look them up on the Environment Agency's public register on GOV.UK. For tree surgery, the Arboricultural Association lists approved contractors. We don't check this for you yet.

Your council in Southampton

Your local council keeps the list of trees with a Tree Preservation Order and the conservation areas. For most of Southampton that is Southampton City Council; a postcode at the edge may be in a neighbouring council's area. Ask them before cutting back or felling a tree.

We take jobs from SO14, SO15, SO16, SO17, SO18, SO19, SO30, SO31, SO32, SO40, SO45, SO52, SO97 for Southampton. Trades choose the districts they cover.

More on hiring: Gardeners: what to ask and what to check.

Gardeners in other towns and cities

England

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland