Would like to find a gardener/horticulturist to maintain shrubs, flowers.
 

We moved into a house in DeLuna with some overgrown shrubs. I could butcher them myself, but would like to find someone who knows what they're doing for periodic maintenance. Anyone have any recommendations?

I would like to find someone who will just trim my shrubs, but I cannot find anyone for a reasonable price.

Many people will limit their business to a particular area of the villages. I would ask your neighbors for recommendation. That is how we found our gardeners

What's reasonable? I see that a lot on here but never clarification what that means. Since Lawn Care and plant and shrub maintenace has employed many companies in TV their customers must consider them reasonable for the work they provide. So why can't you find anyone....is there something you need that you can't find?

Most landscapers around here just hack the shrubs into geometric shapes with power hedge clippers. They need to be pruned into shape instead, but I doubt if you will find anyone here willing to do this. More time consuming and expensive, but looks natural and keeps the plants healthy.

Since the job takes less than an hour, I think that it should cost less than $100. The last quote I got was $477. The problem is that the shrubs only need to be trimmed every 4 months or so, but most landscapers want to charge by the month.

We received a quote yesterday for weeding from Matthew Perez, who is highly recommended by multiple people on NextDoor. He charges $50/hr and he thought that our job would take him less than an hour, so he said that it would probably be less than $50. His business card says he does weeding & shrub trimming, paver sealing, power washing, window washing, and dryer vent cleaning. He also said that he can do some light landscaping (we need to add a small amount of shrubbery in our backyard for privacy) and he can replace our pine straw with more pine straw, cedar chips, or rock. He explained how when laying rocks in a shrub bed he makes sure that the weed barrier completely covers the area and is tightly secured so that it doesn't move when the rocks are installed. He seems very conscientious and will do things right. He does not do landscaping boarder walls. We did not ask him if he gets the ARC approval because we will not be ready to do the landscaping for months. He was a very professional and courteous young man and honest about what he is capable of doing. His father helps him with the big jobs. They live in The Villages (near Sawgrass). He is not charging us until after our weeding is complete and he requested that our payment be in cash or check. We scheduled a time for him to do our weeding (we want to be home while he is working at our house). I can't provide a recommendation until after the work is complete, but the quote went extremely well and I expect that the work will be the same. If you are interested in getting a quote, his phone number is 954-213-9640.

You may find that they need trimmed more than every 4 months, if I let mine go that long it would be a jungle around here. That might be the reason for the monthly maintenance.

If they came every month, there would be nothing to trim. I'm not going to pay someone $100 to do nothing. Even after 4 months, one guy can do the job in less than an hour. I think a lot of people have the same problem.

No way a gardener can keep his equipment clean and sharp, drive to your home, do the work, clean up properly, load the material, haul it to the dump, and return to his shop in an hour. And, charging $50 an hour? What's the cheapest reliable truck? $20,000? What's the cheapest piece of property where you can run a business out of? This is why I don't return emails and phone calls from homeowners.

You clearly don't do your own bushes

I couldn’t find anyone reasonable. That’s why I (woman) invested in a battery operated hedge clipper with a 24” blade. You turn it on and shape the bush to look how you want it to look. It’s not rocket science here. I have 4 large bougainvillea on trellises. They grow a foot a month during the summer months. I get my step stool and stand on it to reach the top and run the hedge trimmer across at the level I want it. Easy peasy. I pick up the clippings and put them in a black plastic lawn bag and it goes to the curb on garbage day. Less than an hour work. If you want it done timely you do it yourself.

Our landscaping co does grass and bushes.

We have them do the bushes every 3 months or so and pay separately for that.

I use Logan‘s Landscaping been very happy with them

I have Massey for everything. But a few months ago, they stopped trimming the shrubs. No explanation. They just said that they won't do it anymore.

I don't know how big your shrubs are but it's really pretty easy especially with battery powered equipment today. You could buy a battery hedge trimmer and some long handled clippers and it'll take you just a few minutes.

Thanks....although less than $100.00 would concern me considering insurances, equipment cost and maintenance, liabilities etc. Less than an hour might also mean the company may have a minimum charge to start their engines. The resonable charge may be somewhere in the middle....of course it depends on the risk you want to assume and the quality of the service provider.

Really? In 9 years, I have never paid more than $80 for a guy to trim my shrubs. It's a 45 minute job with a hand held trimmer. Massey mows my lawn and edges every week for $55 per month. Are you saying that I should pay $300 for a 45 minute trim job?

Three of the homes on our cul-de-sac use Kelly's Premium Kare and are happy with its service. The owner, Will Kelley can be reached at 352-875-8116.

Good Luck

A “reasonable price” is not the best way to choose a professional to do your tree and shrub pruning. I have a large, heavily planted lot and I chose to have a certified, professional arborist come and trim my large shrubs and palm trees and he did an outstanding job. He sterilized his tools between trees and he pruned the shrubs back to a bud and maintained the natural shape of these very large shrubs. (Ligustrums) I paid $400 per hour (that is what it was approximately, he charged by the job not by the hour) and he had 3 workers, a chipper and two bucket loaders. It won’t need to be done every year. Many low cost trimmers are not insured, don’t sterilize their tools, (can transmit diseases to your palm trees) and have undocumented workers who climb ladders and do dangerous stuff when trimming. (think Morgan and Morgan) They also just hack away and turn everything into a large ball of broken and ragged branches.

Trimming and pruning are quite different things. As I said in my post, I don't want to butcher them.

Give Michael a call
 

Give Michael a call.
He is the owner. I forgot his company name.
He does a great job at a reasonable price.

(352) 875-8389

So true. You can easily tell which shrubs have been chopped with a hedge trimmer, and which ones have been carefully pruned by hand.The chopped ones look terrible and start dying early. The pruned ones look natural and robust. Unfortunately, unless you do it yourself, you will be paying more for quality pruning (if you can find someone to do it).

Happydaz: An arborist sounds like just what I am looking for. Would you mind sharing who you use?? Thx!!!