Experience & Qualifications
How did I become a gardener in Stroud? I have been gardening for myself for about 30 years now. My initial interest was in growing vegtables on an alotment and later I became interested in ornamentals . Due to a change in circumstances I decided on a career change and gained a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture. From here I realised that my passion was more “hands in the earth” and have moved into garden maintenance. To hone my skills and top up my knowledge I studied for my RHS Level 3 Diploma in Horticulture from the Royal Horticultural Society which covered practical horticulture, principals of plant growth and propogation, along with garden planning, construction and planting.
The Gardeners Guild
The Gardeners Guild (TGG) is a national trade network for qualified gardeners. Established in 2006, TGG maintains a register of certified gardeners who offer garden and grounds maintenance as part of their services. TGG provides you with greater assurance when selecting a gardener. TGG members must hold at least one government endorsed horticultural qualification and are required to abide by the terms of membership. As a client of Hands In The Earth you can be confident that you have chosen a TGG member who has been officially trained and formally assessed to meet high horticultural standards.
Fully Insured
Working as a professional I believe that it is essential to be fully insured. There’s not much likelyhood that things will go critically wrong whilst gardening but my insurance protects both myself and my clients in the case that the unexpected should occur.
Power tools
For larger tasks a gardener needs some power tools! I have invested in Stilh professional battery equipment which is much quieter and more environmentally friendly than their petrol equivalents but still has the power to tackle big jobs.
I also have a petrol chipper/mulcher because there is no reliable battery equivalent capable of tackling the quantity and size of materials I process. Due to the running costs of this machine I do charge clients an hourly premium for using it but it’s less than the cost of removing bulky materials from the garden.
Pesticides
I don’t use pesticides because the majority of them have much wider consequences than most gardeners would wish for. As a professional gardener I would require licences to use them for clients and I don’t think it would be cost effective for the rare instances they would be appropriate.
Waste Removal
When gardening I do not usually remove waste from customer gardens due to the cost of disposal. As a householder you can usually obtain a brown bin from Stroud Council which is emptied fortnightly for ยฃ50 a year. As a professional it would cost me about ยฃ30 to responsibly dispose of a single bin full of waste, and that assumes that I have several together to spread fuel and time costs!
Of course the best option for most garden waste is to compost it and create a valuable input for your garden. There are a lot of negative myths about composting which I’m happy to help dispel and I can use my chipper/mulcher to reduce bulky materials like hedge clippings into a compostable format.