Gardening in Gatineau

A gardener maintains what exists: mowing, weeding, pruning, planting, seasonal care. A landscaper builds or rebuilds: patios, walls, turf laying, planting schemes, irrigation. Gardeners charge by the hour or visit; landscapers quote by project. Hiring a landscaper for weeding wastes money; hiring a gardener to build a retaining wall risks a bad wall.

One-off jobs carry a premium: travel, quoting, and disposal aren't spread across repeat visits, and there's usually a minimum charge of 1-2 hours. Regular slots get the best hourly rate. If you only need occasional help, batching tasks into a single half-day visit twice a season beats calling someone out for each small job.

Clearing a badly overgrown garden is a project, not a visit: expect a team-day or several solo days, plus significant disposal fees — waste volume is the big driver. Get a fixed quote after a site visit rather than an hourly estimate, and check whether the quote includes stump treatment, brambles dug out versus cut down, and haul-away.

Many do, for a fee that reflects local disposal costs — green waste is charged by volume at commercial facilities. Alternatives: your green-waste bin (slow for big jobs), composting on site (free, needs space), or a one-off waste collection. In several countries the person hauling your waste must be a licensed/registered waste carrier, so ask.

General garden labor runs CAD $45-$85 per hour per person in 2026, with recurring maintenance visits for an average yard at $80-$200. Spring and fall cleanups — the anchor products of the Canadian market — typically run $200-$600 for a standard suburban lot including hauling.

The freeze-thaw winter dumps branches, matted leaves, and gravel from snow clearing onto lawns and beds, and everything must be cleared in a short window before the growing season. Demand spikes April-May; booking in March gets better pricing and scheduling than calling when everyone else does.