Landscapers: how to price a garden maintenance contract in 2026

1. Survey the garden using separate measurements

A small garden can require more work than a much larger open lawn. Sketch lawns, beds, hedges, paths, slopes and obstacles. Measure each task separately. For a hedge, record length, height, width and accessible faces. A 35-metre hedge does not tell you whether the customer expects one face, both faces or the top to be cut.

Allow for unloading, opening gates, moving equipment, clearing up and loading cuttings. Check whether your mower fits through the gate and where the vehicle can stand. Record useful site photographs with permission, avoiding private information that is irrelevant to the work. A quote based on a street view or a single overall area can miss the expensive part of the visit.

2. Separate the first clearance from routine maintenance

An overgrown garden’s first visit is not a reliable model for ordinary maintenance. Quote the initial restoration separately, then describe the recurring programme. State whether the work includes mowing and edging, hand-weeding named beds, trimming identified hedges, collecting leaves or simply placing cuttings in an agreed area. A promise to keep everything immaculate leaves too many questions open.

List exclusions such as new planting, replacement plants, irrigation repairs, tree work or specialist treatments. They do not become included merely because your team is on site. Where a task requires particular competence, permission or equipment, check the local requirements and price the suitable service separately. A maintenance contract should not quietly turn into an unlimited landscaping service.

3. Build the visit programme before the annual price

Mowing frequency varies with growth and weather; hedge work varies with plants. Use the horticultural references below to check those factors. They do not make a British seasonal calendar suitable for every country. Match the programme to the actual garden, local conditions and the customer’s agreed standard.

Make a twelve-month grid showing the planned tasks. Our hypothetical example uses 18 ordinary visits, two hedge visits and two leaf visits. These are costing assumptions, not a recommended schedule for all gardens. Do not count a hedge task again if it is already included in an ordinary visit. Explain how unsuitable weather will lead to an agreed rescheduling or change of work.

Royal Horticultural Society — How to mow a lawn

Royal Horticultural Society — Pruning hedges

4. Count person-hours rather than time on site alone

Two people working for one hour use two person-hours. Adding half a person-hour allocated to this customer for travel and handling makes 2.5 person-hours. That is different from adding half an hour for each worker, which would make three person-hours. Write down the assumption so that a colleague can reproduce the calculation.

Calculate your labour cost from the business’s actual employment costs and productive capacity. Allocate shared route travel consistently. Then identify equipment running costs, consumables, disposal and overheads that are not already included. Avoid charging the same cost twice: if vehicle running costs are part of your internal hourly rate, do not unknowingly add them again as a second identical allowance.

5. Turn cost into price using a defined margin

This teaching example is not a market rate. At an assumed cost of 28 monetary units per person-hour, 2.5 person-hours cost 70. Add 8 for equipment, 7 for disposal and 5 of overhead not counted elsewhere: total cost is 90. A target margin of 25% of the selling price gives 90 ÷ 0.75 = 120, before any applicable tax.

Adding 25% to cost would instead produce 112.50. The difference of 22.50 is only 20% of that selling price. Decide whether your target means margin on sales or markup on cost, and label it. Replace every illustrative figure with your own costs and agreed currency; do not describe this calculation as the average price charged by gardeners in your country.

6. Price cuttings and difficult access explicitly

Ask whether the customer will retain grass and hedge cuttings, where they can be placed and what removal is expected. Taking waste away may involve loading, travel, unloading time and reception charges. Estimate volume, usable vehicle capacity and likely trips. Hedge length alone is not a reliable conversion into a weight of waste.

Write down the access assumptions: usable gate, loading position, pets kept away and an agreed time window. Congested access can change the work required. Set out a contact and decision process if entry is unavailable. Do not invent an automatic missed-visit charge; the arrangement must be agreed and meet local contractual requirements. The practical goal is to resolve an obstacle before it disrupts the whole route.

7. Connect the annual total to visits and payments

In the hypothetical programme, 18 visits at 120 total 2,160; two hedge visits at 180 total 360; two leaf visits at 90 total 180. The annual amount is 2,700 monetary units before applicable taxes. Hedge and leaf prices are separate assumptions already costed for those tasks, not productivity figures inferred from mowing.

If both parties choose twelve equal payments, each is 225 before tax treatment. That does not mean twelve identical visits: this programme contains 22 interventions. Specify the covered period, visit content, invoices, review arrangements and what happens if the service ends. Have applicable contract terms checked locally rather than copying a foreign template’s rules on cancellation or payment.

8. Check the estimate against the first visits

After each visit, record time per worker, allocated travel, equipment, cuttings and unusual conditions. Compare three genuinely comparable visits with the estimate. An extra half person-hour on each visit, at the illustrative cost of 28, adds 42 to the cost across three visits. Investigate access, scope, productivity and the initial estimate before deciding what needs to change.

An enlarged lawn or an extra hedge is a scope change. Describe it and obtain agreement on its effect before doing it. An internal estimating error does not itself permit a retrospective increase to an accepted fixed price. Use the findings to improve the next quotation and the route plan, as well as to discuss prospective changes properly with the existing customer.

9. Send a proposal the customer can compare

Use a line for each service family, with area, quantity, frequency, inclusions, price and separate options. Attach the programme and significant assumptions. When a customer compares quotations, help them compare visit counts, hedge faces and disposal arrangements. A lower total may cover a different job; show the difference concretely without criticising a competitor you have not assessed.

In Vocalys, dictate one area at a time, then its measurements, visits and exclusions. Review quantities, taxes, payment dates and totals before sending the draft quote. Keep the accepted version with the survey record. Later instructions should remain linked to that contract, so a change does not disappear among separate messages and voice notes.

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Reusable job sheet

• Sketch and measurements by task
• Hedge height, length and faces
• Initial clearance separately priced
• Visit programme and quantities stated
• Person-hours and travel counted once
• Waste, equipment and included overhead identified
• Margin definition recorded
• Local taxes and contract terms checked
• Version, options and agreement retained

Garden / area: […]
Measurement and constraints: […]
Task / expected result: […]
Visits and service period: […]
Person-hours per visit: […]
Cuttings and access: […]
Cost / margin / price: […]
Included / excluded / optional: […]
Payment programme and approval: […]

Want to spend less time preparing paperwork after a site visit? Discover Vocalys to turn dictated notes into draft quotes and invoices, then check every line before sharing the document.