Six services, each with its published scope
A price with no scope beside it is not information. Each service below states what it covers, what it does not, and who it suits, so the choice can be made before the first conversation rather than during it.
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Site assessment visit
$95
Up to ninety minutes on the property. Soil texture and drainage checked by hand auger in three places, every bed and hedge measured, tree and shrub condition noted, and the mowing and watering pattern walked. Ends with the measurements written down and the options set out. Planting, materials and ongoing maintenance are quoted separately.
Suits A garden that has outgrown its plan, and anyone who has been quoted for planting without being told what the soil under it will do.
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Seasonal bed maintenance
$165
Weeding to the root, edges re-cut to the drawn line, perennials cut back or divided as the season calls for, mulch topped up to two inches and spent growth taken off site. Covers up to four hundred square feet of bed; further beds on the same visit are priced separately.
Suits Beds that are planted well and have simply run ahead, and any property where the edge between bed and lawn has stopped being a line.
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Hedge and shrub pruning
$185
Formal hedges cut to a line and a level set with a string, shrubs thinned by hand rather than sheared flat, dead and crossing wood taken out at the collar, and every arising cleared away. Includes up to sixty linear feet of hedge or eight shrubs. Work above twelve feet is quoted separately.
Suits A hedge that has widened faster than it has grown tall, shrubs sheared for years until they went hollow, and a boundary that has stopped letting light past.
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Stone path and edging repair
from $460
Lifting the settled section of a path, correcting the sub-base and the falls so water leaves the surface, re-laying the original stone where it is sound, and repointing or re-bedding the edge restraint. The figure starts from the simplest single-course repair. Replacement stone is quoted once the lifted material has been counted.
Suits A path that holds water or rocks underfoot, and an edge that has crept a little further into the lawn every year.
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Planting plan and quote
no charge
A survey of the site and the existing planting, a note of aspect, shade and soil rather than a catalogue assumption, and a written comparison of the options with a figure against each. No charge, and no obligation. Maintenance of the existing planting is quoted separately if no new work is chosen.
Suits A bare or failing bed, a garden changing use, and anyone weighing a large replanting against keeping what is already there.
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Drainage and soil consultation
$140
Water movement traced across the site after rain, soil structure and compaction tested at several depths, downpipe and surface run-off paths followed, and a pH and texture reading taken from each growing area. Ends with a written note of what the readings show and what would change them. Earthworks are quoted separately.
Suits A lawn that stays wet into summer, a bed that drowns at one end, and anyone choosing between drainage work and different planting.
What happens in each of the three stages
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01
Measurement
Measurements first: soil texture and depth, the fall of the ground, the line of every bed and hedge, and the condition of the planting already there. The numbers are written down and shown.
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02
Scope and figure
The measurements become a written scope with a figure against it. Any plant or material that has to be ordered is named, and the reason the work is needed is stated in a sentence that does not require a gardener to read.
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03
Work and handover
The agreed scope is carried out and the same measurements are taken again afterwards, so the effect of the work is a measurement rather than an assurance. Anything found on the way is quoted, never assumed.
When replanting is the honest answer
Datum Garden Works declines work that costs more than the plant or the surface it is spent on can return, and says so at the visit rather than after the invoice. A hedge hollowed out to bare wood, a lawn laid over builders rubble and a bed that drowns every winter are all replanting conversations, not maintenance conversations.
Start with a site assessment visit
Measurements first, written down and shown, with the options set out before anything is planted or lifted.