Commercial and residential gardeners: how the work really differs

The short answer

A residential gardener works for the person who lives there and looks after a space that is lived in every day. A commercial gardener works for a business, a landlord, a managing agent or an organisation, and looks after ground that the public, staff or tenants walk past and judge the place by. The tasks overlap heavily, grass, hedges, beds, leaves, but the priorities, the paperwork and the rhythm of visits are rarely the same.

We do both, so the useful question is not which kind of firm to hire. It is which way of working your site needs.

What a private garden needs

At home, the garden is personal. One household wants crisp stripes and hard edges, another wants the lawn left longer for wildlife under the fruit trees. There may be a dog that digs, a trampoline to mow around, a vegetable patch that is off limits or a favourite shrub that must never be touched. A good residential gardener learns those preferences on the first couple of visits and then simply gets on with it.

Timing is flexible. Many owners are at work when we call, so a side gate left unlocked and a note about anything new is often all that is needed. Visits tend to follow the growing season, busier from spring into early autumn, lighter through winter.

• Work shaped around the owner's taste and how the family uses the space
• Awareness of pets, play areas and plants that matter to the household
• Visit frequency that follows growth rather than a fixed contract

What a business site needs

On a commercial site the grounds are part of the first impression. Customers see the entrance, tenants see the shared areas, and a ragged hedge or a car park full of wet leaves reflects on whoever manages the building. The standard is consistency: the site should look the same in week thirty as in week one.

Practical constraints matter more too. Mowing next to an office window during a meeting, blowing leaves across a customer entrance at opening time or leaving a trailer across a delivery bay all cause friction. Work is planned around the site's own timetable, and the client usually wants a single point of contact rather than a different face every visit.

• Predictable visit days agreed in advance
• Work timed around opening hours, deliveries and parking
• A consistent finish across every visit, not just the first
• Green waste taken away rather than bagged on site

Records, insurance and waste

Businesses and letting agents often need to show that their contractor is insured and that waste leaves the site legally. Foundation is fully insured and a registered waste carrier, which covers both points. For a homeowner this matters as well, because green waste dumped by an unregistered operator can come back to the person who paid for the work, but it is rarely something a householder thinks to ask.

Commercial clients also tend to want a written note of what each visit will include, so that if the person who booked the work moves on, the next manager can see what has been agreed.

Landlords and rented homes sit in between

A rented house is a home for the tenant but an asset for the owner. Landlords usually want the garden kept at a steady, low maintenance standard during a tenancy and brought back into shape between tenants, often with a hedge reduced, beds cleared and green waste removed before new people move in. That end of tenancy tidy is one of the most common one off jobs we are asked for, and it can lead into a light regular plan so the garden never gets out of hand again.

What to tell us when you ask for a price

For a home, say roughly what the garden includes, how often you would like visits and anything that should be left alone. For a business, tell us the site address, who the contact will be, which areas are included, any times when work cannot happen and whether you want a set visit day. Photos help in both cases. Craig will then suggest a sensible frequency rather than simply agreeing to the most visits possible.