Gardening in Carletonville

Ask: Do you have public liability insurance? Is green waste removal included? What's your cancellation and weather policy? Can you name plants — or will prized perennials get weeded out? Do you bring your own tools? For regular slots, ask what happens to the schedule when they take holidays.

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.

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.

Professional gardeners bring their own hand tools, mower, and hedge trimmer — that's built into their rate. If a 'gardener' expects your tools, you're hiring casual labour, which is fine at a lower rate but means you supply and maintain equipment. Clarify before the first visit, especially for petrol machinery.

Per-visit team services run R400-R600 for medium gardens and R800-R900 for large ones (Procompare 2025-26 data), with monthly weekly-visit contracts at R1,200-R2,500. A directly-employed gardener working one day a week costs less in cash terms but adds employer obligations — contract, minimum wage, UIF.

Both models are common. The service brings a supervised team with equipment for a fixed visit price. The traditional model — a gardener who comes weekly using your tools — is cheaper per day but you're the employer: minimum wage (reviewed annually), UIF registration, and a written contract are legally required, and enforcement has tightened.