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Gardeners strange lawn seeding policy...

IronSquirrelIronSquirrel Posts: 68
in Problem solving
Hi,

So the gardener at my mum and dads house has a reasonable reputation and score on trust pilot.
Mum asked him to reseed a large area (about 35 square meters) and his offer, ok the reseeding itself is a fair price.

He charges by the hour, the cost of the topsoil and seed etc... 

but he said he'd charge for a net, saying with the local pigeon and few birds that come into the garden it's the only way he'd trust in it taking root before they get eaten.

He apparently charges £17.50 per square 40m

and in defence, i've seen the pigeon and he's a right ****

Is this normal, would you find someone else?
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin”
Trolius & Cressida

Posts

  • gondorgondor Posts: 135
    If they can buy a net themselves for cheaper then they should. Are they too old/infirm to lay a net themselves?
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    A net should be set up properly and pegged taut so that small birds and mammals eg hedgehogs don’t get entangled. Its not just the cost of a net. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • IronSquirrelIronSquirrel Posts: 68
    They're not infirm yet, dads at the phase where when you ask him how he's been he states his bowel / back / pulled muscle issue in a 'can't complain' kind of tone.

    But neither of them have really reseeded a garden before. 
    “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin”
    Trolius & Cressida
  • delskidelski Posts: 274
    Fogies round the corner from me are lawn obsessives - re-seed every single year, put a net down, and then hang up CDs on string. I would go and ask them what they do, but I don't want to. Hopefully someone on the forum will have experience of this kind of thing and how much it's supposed to cost. Already there has been a piece of advice about pulling the netting tight to avoid issues with wildlife, so they would be better prepared if they are going to do it themselves.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2021
    I'm sorry but I don't see what the problem is.  You've said the price is fair and he has a good reputation.  Do they want the old lawn taken up and a new lawn prepared and seeded, or a renovation job?  

    Presumably your parents don't want to do it themselves ... do they have the equipment to do it or would they have to hire/buy it?  Speaking as someone who is probably in your parents' age group, most of the time I can still do what I used to, but I can't do it for as long ... I get tired and then I take short cuts and it's then that I hurt myself, pull a muscle or my knee gives way.  I don't feel old, but my body reminds me that it's getting that way.  
    , 
    Unless I'm mistaken the problem is a quibble over the cost of netting it against the birds, but it seems a perfectly legitimate additional expense and cost to me ... unless of course you're willing to sit out there with a 12 bore shotgun from sun up to sun down every day?  ;)





    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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