Gardening in Lafayette

DIY-friendly: watering, light weeding, deadheading, mowing a small lawn. Worth hiring: tall hedge cutting (falls from ladders are the classic garden injury), tree pruning, clearing heavy overgrowth, and anything generating bulk waste you can't dispose of. The rule of thumb — if it needs a ladder, a chainsaw, or a trailer, hire it out.

Choose low-maintenance planting (shrubs and perennials over annual beds), mulch beds to suppress weeds, keep hedges at a height reachable without platforms, and book a regular slot instead of crisis call-outs. Letting a garden slide is the expensive option — recovery visits cost multiples of maintenance visits.

Gardeners price general maintenance — weeding, pruning, hedge trimming, bed care — by the hour or half-day, with rates driven by local wages and whether they bring a van and equipment. Expect the low end for basic weeding and tidying, and the top end for skilled pruning or a gardener who hauls green waste away. Always ask whether the rate includes disposal.

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.

General yard maintenance labor runs $50-$100 per hour per worker in 2026, often quoted as a crew rate. Recurring maintenance visits for an average yard commonly land at $100-$250 per visit depending on scope. One-time cleanups are usually quoted flat: a few hundred dollars for light work, $500-$1,500+ for heavy seasonal cleanups with hauling.

The seasonal cleanup is a US market staple: leaf removal, cutting back perennials, bed edging, and debris hauling in one visit. Typical suburban yards run $200-$600 per cleanup, more with mature trees. Booking the same company for both cleanups plus summer maintenance usually earns a package discount.