FAQ - Grab a Gardener

General FAQ’s

Grabagardener.com is an online marketplace which allows customers to find and book a local gardener online. We have simplified the process so you can now book a gardener in seconds and pay securely through our site. You can manage your bookings all online and you’ll have peace of mind that the job is in hand.

When you make your first booking, you can choose to create an account on the final booking page so that you can manage your booking easily online. You can also click on the login tab at the top of the homepage or click here to register and create an account now.

Grab a Gardener operates Monday-Saturday 8am to 6pm, including bank holidays. During summer months some gardeners will work until 8pm, and also on Sundays. If you require an evening booking or a Sunday, please contact us with an inquiry here.

Yes of course! When booking, just tick the ‘would like to be contacted about weekly/monthly services’ and we will contact you about setting up regular maintenance. For any more advanced requests please just contact us via LiveChat or info@grabagardener.com.

Grab a Gardener HQ is located in Reading, but our services cover most of the South East and South West of England, we also operate in the North East of England.

Yes. We are a fully insured service provide covering £5,000,000 public liability (PL). In addition all of our gardeners also provide their own PL insurance.

All of our gardeners are fully trained, vetted and experienced professionals. They have all been through an extensive application process including telephone interviews, face to face interviews, reference checks and background checks via a 3rd party.

Absolutely! Customer satisfaction is our main objective and therefore if you’re not happy, we’re not happy. We aim for our service to surpass every standard, and if you’re in any way dissatisfied, we’re going to make it right. If your booking didn’t live up to our high standards, we’ll send another professional to set everything straight. Please note that a claim for a refund needs to be made within 48 hours of the booking in question via bookings@grabagardener.com

Absolutely yes! We request feedback and a rating from the client after every job. Our gardeners have to maintain top customer reviews and uphold our main objective of customer satisfaction to continue providing their services through the Grab a Gardener platform.

Roadside parking is fine as long as it’s close to your home and the gardener can easily unload their tools. If a permit is required please ensure you have an additional permit to give to the gardener. The gardener will not park in a private or permit zone without a valid permit. In the event the gardener cannot park on the day, they will have to leave the job and this will be non-refundable.

About Gardening Services

Grab a Gardener was developed to offer an easy solution for people looking for a gardener to carry out basic maintenance tasks, these include:

Lawn mowing
Strimming
Hedge trimming (Below 6ft)
Leaf blowing
Pruning / Hard pruning
Planting shrub beds

We can also provide Landscaping & Garden Design services which include:

Turfing
Decking and Fencing
Patios & Block Paving
Raised Beds & Garden Design
Irrigation Systems
Pond repair and installation
Greenwaste Disposal Services
Soft landscaping

Landscaping, disposal services and severely overgrown gardens must be quoted for seperately and will not fall under the hourly rates. Please contact us at bookings@grabagardener.com and we will get right back to you.

If your hedges are above 6ft in height, we can certainly take care of these but we will have to quote for them. Because hedges above 6 feet generally require ladders and a team of two people with appropriate insurances, these cannot fall under our basic maintenance rates. The price for a quote is £20, you can book this in by using the drop down for “Number of hours required” and select “Landscaping quote” and we will send out a gardener to price the job for you. Alternatively if you are unsure of your hedge size, please send pictures to bookings@grabagardener.com . If you wish to just book in some time for other maintenance tasks, our gardeners can come and carry out other work and quote for the hedges when on-site.

If your grass is over 1ft in height, and too high for a lawn mower to go over. If your garden hasn’t been maintained in over 6 months, or if you have a large number of weeds in the garden that need to be removed – these would all be classed as overgrown gardens. For overgrown gardens we request a minimum 4 hour booking priced at £80. Even if the garden is quite small and the work is completed in less than the 4 hours, the fee is still £80 for dealing with overgrown gardens. If you are unsure if your garden qualifies as overgrown, please send pictures to bookings@grabagardener.com .

Weather is not a factor for us, we can carry out weeding and pruning even if it is raining, however lawn mowing and strimming can be a little difficult if the grass is wet. We check the forecast on a daily basis and will inform you if we need to rearrange the booking. If the weather conditions are poor, we will contact you to ensure the scheduled job is moved to a time and date that best suits you.

We want to keep things as simple as possible so we offer a flat rate for all maintenance tasks as described under “Pricing and Billing”. We hope that you can estimate how long is required for a job, but in the event that you need help with estimating the required time, please email us at bookings@grabagardener.com and we will respond right away. Alternately you can use our live chat or call 0333 305 7633

As long as there is access to your garden, the gardener can carry out the work requested. Please include all details in the “Additional Notes” box when booking. If you prefer to meet the gardener in person and let them know your preferences for the job in hand, our gardeners will always knock to let you know they have arrived. In rare instances where the gardener is running late or has to reschedule, we will inform you as soon as possible and if necessary re-arrange the appointment to a time that suits you.

We can supply additional materials but these would need to be quoted for individually. If you require materials, please contact us either by emailing info@grabagardener.com or through our online chat and we will do our best to accommodate your requests!

Please enter your postcode, choose a time and date, for the number of hours please select ‘landscaping quote’. Please detail within the comments the work you require. We charge £20 to carry out the quote, if you go ahead with the quote we deduct this charge from the overall price. If you would like to discuss your landscaping requirements prior to booking
please call 0333 305 7633

We can arrange regular maintenance as per your preferences and needs. Just tick the ‘would like to be contacted about weekly/monthly services’ box when you book online and we will contact you about regular maintenance.

Our gardeners are extremely careful and will try their utmost to ensure no dirt or damage is caused while going through your property.

Yes of course! we all like consistency and we want to partner you with a gardener that’s right for you! Please just write the preferred gardeners name in the “Additional Notes” box on the booking page and we will make sure to allocate you the same gardener.

Disposal is not included in the our hourly pricing but can be quoted for separately. You can add disposal to your booking for £40 which covers up to 180 Litres (approx. 8 bags) of green waste. Any additional waste will be an additional cost. If you have garden waste bins these will be used. Otherwise the gardener will bag any waste up neatly and leave it for collection.

Our gardeners are extremely efficient and they will try to make sure the job is completed within the allocated time. If they feel that the time booked is insufficient, they will let you know and prioritise the most important areas and request for you to book an additional time slot through the website. All additional payments must be made securely online. If you have any doubts about how long to book for please email us at bookings@grabagardener.com and we will help you to estimate an appropriate amount of time.

Yes! However, if you have any particular tools you would like the gardener to use please specify within the “Additional Notes” box on the booking page. Please note Grab a Gardener is not responsible for any damage to customer tools in the event you specify the gardener to use them.

If there is a lot of pet mess in your garden please be sure to remove it prior to the gardener arriving. The gardener will not be responsible for clearing a path to work and it can be damaging to their equipment. If the gardener is unable to work around the area, they will be forced to leave and this will not be refundable.

In most cases we will send one gardener to carry out the work. In some locations we have gardeners who work in pairs, if we send two gardeners to a job then they will complete the number of hours booked in half the time because there is two of them. For example, if you book 4 hours you are paying for 4 man hours. Each gardener will work 2 hours so the job would take a total of 2 hours.

Don’t panic! In most cases, if the gardener is running late, or for some reason is unable to attend on the day you will have been contacted by us before hand to let you know. If your gardener is more than 15 minutes late, please call or email us and we will try to find out where they are. In the event we cannot send you a gardener on the day, because you have paid securely online your money will be held and we will organise a gardener at your next earliest convenience. In the event a reschedule is not an option, we will refund your money in full.

If the grass is over 12 inches long and the gardener is required to first strim and clear the area because a lawnmower cannot be used, this would qualify as a garden clearance job and not garden maintenance. We have to quote for a garden clearance jobs as they are time consuming and we would want to complete the whole job, not leave it unfinished. Therefore when on site, the gardener will have to quote for the job and let you know the additional amount payable. If you would like the gardener to carry out the work on the day, we will require you to make the additional payment over the phone. If you do not want to go ahead with the work at the quoted price, we will refund you the order amount and deduct £20 to cover the gardeners travel and time. If you would like guidance before booking, please send pictures to bookings@grabagardener.com and we can further advise you.

Pricing and Billing

On the Grab a Gardener homepage enter your postcode and follow the simple online booking process which takes only 1 minute! You can pick the service you require, a time and date that works best for you and then pay safely and securely online. In the rare event of a schedule conflict if we need to adjust your boooking slightly we will contact you right away and let you know.

We charge a flat hourly rate for garden maintenance. The rate of £20/h is applicable on a first visit or for monthly subscriptions. When a garden is particularly overgrown or unkempt, this rate is applied until the garden is manageable and ready for regular maintenance. We also offer a reduced maintenance rate of £17.50/h for customers who book weekly or fortnightly. Please note the rates may vary depending on region. Landscaping and Garden Clearance work must be quoted for separately. For any further inquiries on pricing please contact bookings@grabagardener.com

We know that some gardens require less work than others, however in order for bookings to remain economical we have a minimum call out fee of £40 for new orders. For weekly / fortnightly subscriptions the minimum booking for a regular visit is 2 hours. Even if the gardener is on-site for less than 2 hours, this is still the fee that will be applied.

We’ve removed the headache of cash completely! All payments are made online through our secure payment provider Stripe. We accept all major debit and credit cards including American Express and all transactions are encrypted for your security to PCI DSS Level 1 Standard. We do not store any card numbers.

Payment will be automatically debited at the point the booking is made and you will receive email confirmation (please check your spam folder).

Yes of course, however last minute cancellations impact the gardener’s daily schedule so if you do need to cancel or reschedule your booking, please note that the our cancellation policy insists on at least 72 hours notice in advance of your booking to ensure a full refund or reschedule. Failure to let us know of a cancellation or change in booking with less than 72 hours’ notice will result in the full amount being charged. Please contact bookings@grabagardener.com for cancellation or reschedules.