FAQ - Grab a Gardener

General FAQ’s

Grabagardener.com is the UK’s leading and top rated online marketplace which allows customers to find and book a local gardener online. We have taken the hassle out of finding a trusted, local gardener 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 and our support team is ready for any questions along the way.

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. We usually have gardeners available within 2 days, but in some areas the lead time is slightly increased (particularly in peak season!) If you require an evening booking or a Sunday, always best to contact us direct to see what we can fit in 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. We offer reduced rates (12.5%) for subscription services if you book every week or fortnightly. For any more advanced requests please just contact us via LiveChat or bookings@grabagardener.com.

Grab a Gardener HQ is located in Reading, Berkshire – but our network of professional self-employed gardeners spans right accross the South East and South West of England.

Yes. We are a fully insured service provider. As part of our rigorous gardener vetting program we make sure all our gardeners have their own public liability insurance. So when you book through us, you have peace of mind that your gardener will be fully covered

All of our local self-employed gardeners are fully trained, vetted and experienced professionals with at least 5 years of gardening under their belt. 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. We have such a comprehensive vetting process that we only sign up less than 10% of the gardeners that apply. Our No.1 priority is always customer care and customer service and quality of the gardeners work. That’s why we’re rated No.1 in the UK on Trustpilot for gardening services.

Absolutely yes! We request feedback and a rating from our customers after every job. Our gardeners have to maintain top customer reviews and uphold a 5 star rating to continue providing their services through the Grab a Gardener platform. One of the main advantages of having a subscription through us is that you can be sure that quality will be maintained for the full 12 months of the year, and for the the life of the subscription. Anything extra you require, we’re always on hand to help out or pass a message onto the gardener

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.

When you select a start time for a job that is the time it will go into our gardener’s schedule. Our system will automatically ensure that there’s sufficient time for the gardener(s) to travel from one job site to the next so 99% of the time they should arrive at the scheduled time. In the rare event that there has been a change of shift, for example, if the gardeners finish a previous job early they may arrive ahead of schedule. Similarly, if the gardeners are delayed by traffic they may also arrive later than scheduled. Generally, this change in start time should be no more than 1 hour either side so please allow this before contacting us. Most of the time we will contact you before the job has started if there is likely to be a change in start time. Please note, as per our terms and conditions if there is any deviation in the start time of the job this does not mean that the job is refundable if we are able to still provide you with a gardener on the same day.

About Gardening Services

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

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

We can also provide Landscaping & Garden Design services (on request / on quotation) which include:

Turfing
Decking and Fencing
Patios & Block Paving
Raised Beds & Garden Design
Irrigation Systems
Pond repair and installation
Greenwaste Disposal Services
Leaf blowing & leaf removal
Soft landscaping
Bespoke garden design plans

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 or call on 0333 305 7633 if you think you may require some quotation work and we will help to book this in for you.

If your hedges are above 6ft in height, or over 6 meters in length 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 . Another option is that you could just book in some time for any other maintenance tasks around the garden you might have, then once on site our gardeners can carry out the maintenance work and then do the quote for the hedges once on-site.

If your grass is over 1ft in height (and therefore too high for a lawn mower to go over without first strimming)
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. In the event the job is completed in less time, any full hours not utilised can be refunded or carried over. 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 the maintenance even if the weather is bad. In the event of extreme weather conditions, we will contact you to ensure the scheduled job is moved to a time and date that best suits you. In some cases the gardener may visit on the day and if it is mutually agreed that it’s best to reschedule then please contact the office right away and we will book you in at the next available date.

We want to keep things as simple as possible so we offer a flat hourly rate for all maintenance tasks as described under “Pricing and Billing”. There’s no need to get a quote for maintenance work. All of our gardeners are highly experienced so they will be able to tackle any maintenance tasks you might have. After you enter your postcode the website will guide you on how long to book, but in the event that you need help with estimating the required time, please email us at bookings@grabagardener.com or call 0333 305 7633.

What we usually recommend is booking in a block of time; the gardeners are very efficient and will do as much as they can for the duration of the booking. If more time is required you can call the office and make another booking for another day. If the gardeners have time on the day, we can even take the additional payment over the phone or via the webiste and we can keep them on site. In the event that too much time is booked, that’s fine too! Your money is held securely and we always follow up after the job to see how it went. Any full hours that were not used can be refunded or even carried over to the next visit. Easy!

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. As your payment is held securely, we will ensure you’re always kept up-to-date and know exactly when your visit is scheduled.

We can supply additional materials but these would need to be quoted for individually. If you require materials, please contact us either by emailing bookings@grabagardener.com or call. As with any other quotes, the gardeners can do these whilst on site if you already have a maintenance visit, otherwise a quote for any soft or hard landscaping would be required which is priced at £20 to cover the time taken to price up and prepare the quote. If you go ahead with the quote this fee is deducted from the overall price of the job.

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

Yes we can, our aim is to match you with a gardener who you’ll absolutely love! 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. We can set up automatic payments so you won’t have to worry about finding cash each week. You’ll know exactly when they’re visiting through our scheduling software. We also have our customer support team available Monday to Saturday to help out with any questions you have, or any other requirements you might have like rescheduling or passing a message on to the gardener

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, our software will usually match you with the gardener who visited you previously by default. If you’re happy for any gardener to visit or have a preferred gardener feel free to make a comment in the additional notes box.

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 a 1 meter cubed bag. Any additional waste will be an additional cost. If you have garden waste bins these can be used, or if you have compost heaps the gardeners will use these. If neither of those are available the gardeners will bag up the 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, we do not operate with any cash at all as it is not secure. 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! Our gardeners are all fully equipped with all petrol tools, mowers, hedge trimmers, strimmers etc. 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. If you wish for the gardener to use your own tools then that is between you and the gardener, however they should be fully equipped for all maintenance tasks. Please note Grab a Gardener is not responsible for any damage to customer tools in the event you request the gardener to use your own tools.

If there is a lot of pet mess (or any other rubbish material) 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, PLEASE NOTE: 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. When you book online you are paying a fixed rate per man hour. For example, if you book 6 hours you are paying for 6 man hours, therefore if we send two gardeners the time on site will be 3 hours. Each gardener will work 3 hours so the job would total 6 man 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 the office 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. In most cases we will recommend an absolute minimum of 4 hours, if you book less time than this without contacting the office first then once the gardener is on site, they will have to quote for the job and we will 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 or via the site. 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 booking 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 subscription 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 or £35. 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.

No, we operate a fully secure cashless service. Our terms and conditions require all payments to be made electronically and securely so that they are fully traceable and accountable. By agreeing to our terms of service you agree that all future bookings with any gardener from our platform are made securely online and via the grabagardener.com platform. All payments are held securely by us until 24 hours after the work is completed, to give you the opportunity to let us know if you have any issues. It is only at this stage that monies are released to the gardener. The gardeners will not accept any cash payments and offering to pay cash is a breach of our terms and conditions. This will mean we cannot help to resolve any issues that may arise as you will be transacting off the platform and no longer covered by our terms of service and guarantee. If a gardener requests cash please contact the office right away and we will take the payment securely online or over the phone so that you can have a proper receipt for the work.

Payment will be automatically debited at the point the booking is made and you will receive email confirmation (please check your spam folder). Payment is held securely until after the job is completed so your booking is safe and secure. We pay the gardeners 24 hours after the job is completed, so please note you have 24 hours to raise any queries after which point the payment is non-refundable.

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.