If this garden is as described it is the person who is responsable for it who has to accept their actions. People continuously complain about gardeners and their work yet they have little respect for what they do and then complain when it's not to their liking.
A good gardener always has more work than they can cope with they have clients that are supportive and say the word thankyou.
We are human beings and I have been talked down to in the past by a prospective client. I told them I would get back to them rang the next day and declined the job.
I will stand up for everyone who works in the profession. Employ a bad one then maybe you have yourself to blame. That is if you can find one at all. I wonder why that might be?
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
We have good gardeners in OH's Norfolk garden and my French garden @GardenerSuze, but they can make mistakes eg my French gardener, CB, a lovely chap, hard working and good humoured, didn't know that you don't mow daffodil leaves before they die down. He mowed all my daffodils when the flowers died, despite my telling him. He forgot. He strimmered around my young silver birch, damaged the bark and it died, but if I had weeded it before going to England it wouldn't have happened. He cuts the hedge brilliantly and he's a nice man so I don't want to lose him. The Norfolk gardener is very good. Both do the gardening when we aren't there but I walk around the gardens with them before we leave. They sometimes send photos of what they've done.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and l'm pretty sure the OP regrets going out and leaving him to it. A lesson has been learnt and now things need to be put right (or at least as good as they can be).
I'd go along with @Astro 's advice. Grass is remarkably resilient unless he's somehow managed to pull it up by the roots. Try not to stand on it too much and you should see it begin to recover in a few weeks, but it will stop growing as the weather cools down.
Personally I would leave the fuschia alone until the Spring when hopefully new shoots will appear and you can come here to get advice on pruning it. Others might say differently though.
As Dove says we could do with photos of the hedge to help
If the hedge is privet it'll grow back, but most conifers won't and
I'd expect someone who calls themselves a gardener to know that.
I agree about the grass - it'll recover. As has already been said, if there's a lot of bare soil showing, you could go over it with a rake to rough up the soil and overseed with some new grass seed (ideal time of year just now).
It's disappointing that they didn't do what you'd asked on the second visit, but it's probably not worth risking a falling out with your friend over it.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
@GardenerSuze 🤔 you may not be aware that @WonkyWomble, who is a professional gardener is also my daughter. When tackling a garden that has got out of hand she goes to great lengths to explain to her customers what she believes is needed and what it’s going to look like in the short term after she’s done it, otherwise it can cause panic.
I’m not slagging off the gardener who I’m sure thought he was doing what the garden needed … however I cannot see there’s anything to be gained by blaming the OP either … … assessing what has heen done and it’s likely longer term effects will be much more helpful.
Hopefully we’ll get a photo of the hedge then we’ll be able to give helpful advice.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Looking at the photo provided I would agree that the garden has been cut back hard. For someone who rents has no interest in a garden' scalping' it might be exactly what is required. No more gardening bills for a while. To invite a gardener back for a second time seems a strange thing to do for someone who is unhappy with the first visit.
'You need to know how they garden before you can tend their garden to their satisfaction' has already been mentioned in this thread. Good communication needs to come from both sides. Mowing daffs maybe he had done so before, who knows the background to that seen as wrong by some but given a time frame and faced with a list of other jobs perhaps this was the reasoning who knows? Most gardeners work at their leisure, if you are being paid you have to get on with at times ,it can be time consuming work that is not always appreciated by a client. You don't just potter.
Yes I agree there is good and bad in all professions, gardening always gets a bad press . Even for those who have an understanding of the subject and employ a gardener there is a need for compromise and understand that what you were able to do over a period of time at your leisure cannot be achieved by employing a gardener for a few hours a week.
This Forum is a good example of the vast differences that there are amoungst gardeners what they grow and how they grow it. If you have a good gardener treat them properly would be my advice.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
I had a similar experience earlier this year when I was too ill to do anything in the garden (I'm the gardener not my husband!). I asked him to give the winter heathers a light trim to take off the dead flowers, I went to answer the phone and when I returned all that was left was a row of black dead twigs. My heathers were ruined and so was much of the rest of the area.
Like others I had seen good reviews on his work, but obviously he was not working at his best that day.
I think the moral of all these sad stories is if you employ a new gardener, stick around and work with them (or at least potter in the general area), discuss your style of gardening and your expectations, and make sure you're confident in their skills and plant knowledge before you let them loose on their own. I'm sure any good reputable gardener would be happy with that.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Mum's garden had got a bit out of hand since she was down with me (slack niece!!!) and today my SIL was at the house, on the phone with me, when she spotted a gardener at a neighbour's house. Off she went, ambushed him and talked him into cutting the grass and doing the hedges. It'll probably cost an arm and a leg but mum is going home at the weekend so it had better be tidy or she'll haunt us all! As it turns out I know him and was happy to let him loose but with any tradesman I always keep a close eye. Nosey Parker I am!
Posts
A good gardener always has more work than they can cope with they have clients that are supportive and say the word thankyou.
We are human beings and I have been talked down to in the past by a prospective client. I told them I would get back to them rang the next day and declined the job.
I will stand up for everyone who works in the profession. Employ a bad one then maybe you have yourself to blame. That is if you can find one at all. I wonder why that might be?
A lesson has been learnt and now things need to be put right (or at least as good as they can be).
I'd go along with @Astro 's advice. Grass is remarkably resilient unless he's somehow managed to pull it up by the roots. Try not to stand on it too much and you should see it begin to recover in a few weeks, but it will stop growing as the weather cools down.
Personally I would leave the fuschia alone until the Spring when hopefully new shoots will appear and you can come here to get advice on pruning it.
Others might say differently though.
As Dove says we could do with photos of the hedge to help
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
For someone who rents has no interest in a garden' scalping' it might be exactly what is required. No more gardening bills for a while.
To invite a gardener back for a second time seems a strange thing to do for someone who is unhappy with the first visit.
'You need to know how they garden before you can tend their garden to their satisfaction' has already been mentioned in this thread. Good communication needs to come from both sides.
Mowing daffs maybe he had done so before, who knows the background to that seen as wrong by some but given a time frame and faced with a list of other jobs perhaps this was the reasoning who knows?
Most gardeners work at their leisure, if you are being paid you have to get on with at times ,it can be time consuming work that is not always appreciated by a client. You don't just potter.
Yes I agree there is good and bad in all professions, gardening always gets a bad press .
Even for those who have an understanding of the subject and employ a gardener there is a need for compromise and understand that what you were able to do over a period of time at your leisure cannot be achieved by employing a gardener for a few hours a week.
This Forum is a good example of the vast differences that there are amoungst gardeners what they grow and how they grow it. If you have a good gardener treat them properly would be my advice.
Like others I had seen good reviews on his work, but obviously he was not working at his best that day.
As it turns out I know him and was happy to let him loose but with any tradesman I always keep a close eye. Nosey Parker I am!