Where I live £10 per hour seems to be the usual rate.

It would depend very much where in Cambridgeshire.

I'm a professional gardener and my advice to you would be "don't quote an hourly rate" .

Quote by the job particularly on lawn only work

People don't bat an eyelid at being charged £5 to cut a small lawn front and back when it takes say 15 - 20 minutes but if I told them £15 per hour most would say no and clearly it's the same rate if you have little or no travel time between jobs.

I won't work for less than £10 per hour (but I am a very fast worker and ultra reliable) but have a few lawn only jobs with 3 or 4 together where I earn £15 -18 per hour.. My average excluding travel time is say £12 ph .

I'm in a very rural area and if you're near Cambridge itself I guess you will be able to charge quite a bit more, but perhaps not until you establish a good reputation.

Your lawn mower will be your major cost. Mine costs about £750 and is ready for the scrap heap after 12-18 months . I've tried most makes and imo Honda are by far the most robust and will offer a one year guarantee for professional use ( 5 years for non professional.)

If like me you end up doing 30-40 customers gardens a week your lawn mower is doing 30-40 years normal work a year so it will need to be a very good one.

I found ,once I had lots of customers, that I needed a back up mower because if one is broken you'll lose too much money waiting to get it fixed.

It's obvious advice but my main advice to you would be " be very reliable" I have lost count of the number of my customers who had previous gardeners to me and sacked them because they didn't turn up at the arranged times.

I ring any customer if the weather is so bad I can't visit at my usual time and make enormous efforts to see them later that day or the next day. This year, where the weather's been dreadful I've only failed to do 2 customers gardens in any given week and that happened in only two weeks. . Normally I arrive within 5-10 minutes of the time I'm expected

Roughly where in Cambridgeshire are you?

Great advice from Anchorman...just wanted to add that my gardener also charges me £10 per hour in rural Somerset.

i agree totally with Anchorman, If you have a small job just cutting a small lawn that will take up to half hour, charge about £5. But do let them know that If they require more work then you have hourly rates. I used to get caught out occasionally with whilst you're here, Could you....... ? and an hour later you get away. I was very lucky, I either had places to take debris and since moving had my own place to bring others gardening debris too. If you have to take to tip, you may well get charged. so you will have to add that also.
Like AM. I always informed customers if I was going to be late.
Some customers preferred to pay on the day, some wanted monthly bills, But you have to give them an invoice with the hours and work undertaken.
I too had a great mower, that would cut in the rain. A hayter harrier, that I used every day from March thru to Nov, I have had it for about 12 years and it's still cutting my lawn well. Although like me it's retired and we work together once a week.
Good luck, you'll love it and very soon you'll be either turning folk down and you can pick and choose the jobs.

We have someone who goes only to older people. It is his customers who can't be relied on to be at home, as they often have disapeared to hospital! We pay him a flat £10 and he cuts 2 small lawns and a bit of strimming and usually any additional small jobs that may not even be gardening ones. We feel very lucky to have him come to us, on time and good company too.

Yes ,most of my customers are 80+ and I often do little jobs for them ( putting in light bulbs /batteries in smoke detectors etc) I don't charge extra for that sort of thing

The debris issue is important. I bring home between 3 and 5 dustbin loads a day and it soon mounts up. If you had to go to the tip it will take you much longer and you may well be charged.

Thankyou all for your advice i live in Peterborough and my work is in the surrounding villages i need to buy another petrol mower and a petrol edger/strimmer can anyone recommend a good place to buy in this area, at the moment i do a small garden and have quoted £10 for a hours work that included mowing with her mower edging and weeding borders with my tools does that sound right, how much do you charge for hedge trimming on medium size or small garden i appreciate any advice given, i have found the older generation in some areas can only afford to pay £10 for doing a small lawn and weeding every 10 days or so.

I cannot stress this enough. Do not quote an hourly rate . some work is far harder than others so you'll break your back for £10 an hour on one job and earn the same for much less hard work on another

I've managed with an electric strimmer for 10 years. Just plug in at the customer's. They're much cheaper and lighter and start first time every time .

Hedge trimming is normally more money per hour. More like £20 per hour for bigger hedges. If you're doing small hedges in gardens you're already looking after you will struggle to get that. When you take on a garden tell them that hedges are extra and a bit more money because of the wear and tear on trimmers. This is true. they get blunt very quickly and are expensive to maintain.

I've stopped doing big hedging work and only do the small hedges in existing customers gardens using an electric hedge trimmer .

There is much more money in lawns/hedging than in other gardening work but as explained beforew mowers are expensive and so are quality hedge trimmers which require regular sharpening.

I'd say in the Peterborough area ( I did one job there some years ago) about £10 per hour is about right for general small gardening work but £15 to £20 per hour for lawns /hedging( Do not quote an hourly rate)

Just say I charge by the job

eg I'll cut your lawn for £5 per week . I'll cut that hedge for £20 etc. I'll cut your grass, weed and keep the garden tidy for x per week.

Almost all my customer's are 80+ . The majority just want their garden keeping reasonablt neat and tidy for a fixed figure each week. Mosdt of my customers pay me £10 to £12 per wee3k to do this and it takes me about an hour.

If i do lawns only then an average garden would be £5 per week for cutting + £ 2 every week or fortnightly for doing the edges. Time taken will be 20-30 mins.

When i lived in north beds, I used to go to Ibbetts in Great paxton. Don't know if the prices are still good.