How to find a good gardener

Write down the job before ringing anyone

Vague briefs produce vague quotes. Pacing the garden and noting what actually needs doing, with rough measurements, turns a conversation about tidying up into a priced list: 18 metres of hedge at two metres tall, 40 square metres of lawn, six shrubs to be lifted, one border replanted.

Frequency belongs in the brief too. A fortnightly maintenance round, a one off clearance and a landscaping project attract different trades at different rates, and a single contractor rarely does all three well. Deciding which one the garden needs before making the first call saves two wasted visits.

Checks that cost nothing

The Environment Agency register at environment.data.gov.uk is free, public and takes under a minute. Searching a business name or registration number confirms whether the person taking waste away is registered to do it, and shows the tier. Natural Resources Wales lists gardeners, landscapers and tree surgeons carrying green waste as lower tier, so a free CBDL registration is normal rather than suspicious.

Insurance is the second free check. Public liability cover is voluntary in law but carried by most established gardeners, and the certificate names the insured business, the limit and the expiry date. Employers' liability is compulsory for anyone with staff, at a minimum of £5 million. Companies House confirms whether a limited company exists and how long it has traded.

Certificates matter where the work is regulated. Spraying a lawn needs pesticide certification, and chainsaw work needs a City and Guilds or Lantra certificate of competence. Lantra runs a public certificate checker where the holder's name, date of birth and postcode confirm a card is genuine.

References and finished work

Two client references a year old beat ten fresh ones. A garden looks tidy the day after any visit; what matters is whether hedges held their shape through a season, whether a lawn recovered after scarifying, and whether the gardener turned up in February as well as June.

Photographs of completed projects are worth asking about specifically: which part did this contractor build, and was the planting theirs or a designer's? Trade accreditation schemes run by the Arboricultural Association, the British Association of Landscape Industries and the Association of Professional Landscapers all publish searchable member lists, and all three involve someone inspecting finished work. Plenty of capable sole traders never join, so absence from a register proves nothing on its own.

Comparing quotes properly

Three written quotes from three site visits is the standard advice from Citizens Advice, and the reason is that a quote is a binding promise while an estimate is only an informed guess. Under section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a trader says or writes about the service becomes a term of the contract once the customer relies on it.

Compare scope before price. One quote that includes waste removal, sand for the joints and two follow up visits is not dearer than one that excludes all three, and green waste disposal is charged separately by most gardeners at £20 to £50. Smaller sole traders trading under the £90,000 VAT threshold charge no VAT, so a VAT registered firm's quote needs the tax stripped out before the two are comparable.

Signs worth walking away from

Cash only, no written quote, no fixed address and pressure to decide today are the markers Citizens Advice and Which? both list. A large deposit is another: 25 per cent is the ceiling Citizens Advice suggests, and it should relate to materials being bought rather than to the contractor's cash flow.

Door to door approaches deserve extra care because a contract agreed in the customer's home carries a 14 day cancellation right, and a trader who starts work immediately without giving that notice in writing has broken the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Offers to take away rubble, old fence panels or soil on a free lower tier registration are a mismatch too: that waste needs upper tier.