With a wide range of experience and skills, The Lady Gardener Team offers a host of chemical-free garden maintenance services for large private gardens and grounds, including stately homes and manors.
See details on our range of services below.
Click the tiles below to explore details of our full range of services, as well as FAQs below:
Yes that’s fine with us, we like big jobs. We can come in a team ranging from 2 to 8 gardeners depending on how much needs to be done.
For gardens local to Brighton our minimum job size is 6 labour hours, but that increases as we go further out.
We work on an hourly rate (from £29/gardener + VAT) or day rate (from £225/ gardener + VAT), or quote individually for installation projects. Once the job’s done, we email you an invoice and take payment by bank transfer. For quoted jobs, a pre-payment to cover materials will secure you a spot in the work diary. The amount and payment details will be specified on the quote. For jobs outside of the local Brighton area we charge a travel fee which will be advised when you enquire.
Urgent queries relating to bookings that day or following must go via the phone number in working hours. Emails aren't monitored during all working hours, however the phones are. So if it's urgent, please call 01273658087 during working hours and make it clear to the receptionist that it's an urgent query and you need an immediate answer. If you're waiting for the gardeners to arrive on the morning of the agreed date, just remember that if your session is less than 16 labour hours, it could be a morning, middle of the day, or afternoon slot.
Unfortunately we have to charge to remove garden waste, as it’s trade waste: £5/compost bag or £50/builders bulk bag, + VAT.The other options are:-a) to fill your brown council garden waste bin,b) to bag it up and leave it for you to dispose of,c) to chop it up and add it to your compost pile (this option is more time intensive, so eats into the time allocated for gardening).
Sorry to say this isn’t an option. We always come in a team of two or more, as there’s simply too much work to fit into a day.
Send us photos of the way it looks now. Make a collection of images of your dream garden or gardens that you find beautiful, using Pinterest where possible. Make sure you have some clarity around what you’re after and have a rough budget in mind (minimum design budget £1000) before contacting us. If you want a permaculture design, request a client questionnaire to fill in before booking in a consultation.
There are all services which we don’t offer. For projects like these, we recommend using James on 07791918395.
We offer an organic chemical-free service only, because the health of nature and pollinators is important to us. We do not spray weed killer, we weed by hand instead. We do not use tree stump killer, please hire professionals with a stump grinder for old tree stumps.
If you’re keen to just have women tend to your garden, please mention this when booking a session. We are mainly a female team, but we do have people of various genders helping us with jobs from time to time.
I'm afraid we don't have the capacity to send all clients appointment reminders. Please make a note in your diary for the date you have a session scheduled, and we will stick to what was arranged. If we need to change it for any reason, we'll be in touch. But know that even if you booked a session for quite far in the future, and you don't hear from us again, we're still planning on coming to do your garden at the arranged date. Any last minute cancellations will be charged the cancellation fee.
We do our best to understand the garden from photos and videos, and fitting in garden visits without doing any gardening is hard for us to fit into a busy schedule. If you have a sizeable garden or grounds of many acres and it can’t be captured with photos/videos, then we’ll endeavour to find a time to come and meet you and see the garden in person.
Thanks for your patience, we can get very busy and it takes a while to respond to queries and interest. If it’s been over a week, please do try getting in touch again and we will get back to you shortly.
No, you don’t need to be in. If you leave us clear instructions describing access and the jobs you’d like doing, we’re happy to get on with it in your absence. If it’s for a regular job, it would be good to meet you and get a garden tour during the first tidy up session, and then after that there’s no need for you to be in.
Yes the whole team is fully insured.
We can prune smaller trees and shrubs, and tidy up smaller hedges. If it involves using a chainsaw or lots of time up a ladder with a hedge trimmer, we recommend using Ollie and Jack of New Leaf Tree Surgery.
At The Lady Gardener Team, we are always open to hearing from you if you’re interested to join the team. Please only contact us if you have a minimum of 3 years of experience and really know your plants well.
Yes we are, however some members of the team love dogs more than others, so please just mention there will be dogs when you book. We do request that you pick up all the dog mess before we arrive please.
Although we don’t expect you to provide this, it’s definitely an added bonus!
Yes of course, this is a service we offer within quoted jobs. Or if you know exactly what you want, we can offer this service charged at the hourly rate.
Yes! Sprucing up someone’s garden is a lovely and thoughtful gift. Just mention this when you get in touch, and make sure beforehand that your loved one is open to having other people work in their garden.
Although we can take our shoes off, if we have to go through your house to access the garden, it's likely that a small amount of garden debris will end up on your floors, no matter how hard we try to avoid it! Carrying heavy tools through, with garden debris on our clothes, and especially if we have to take garden waste through your house - it's inevitable that it won't be as spotlessly clean as before we arrived. Sorry about that, we do our best but we're afraid it comes with the territory! If you have old dust sheets or some material you can put down to protect your floors, that would be very helpful for us. And if there's any furniture you can move to allow space for tools and garden waste to get through narrow corridors, we'd be very grateful if you could move it in preparation for our visit. Thank you.
As human beings with human needs, it's likely that the team will need to use the loo throughout the working day. We hope this isn't too inconvenient for you, and of course we'll take our shoes off in order to enter the house.
We cover from Shoreham to Peacehaven and up to Haywards Heath.
Wondering if we cover your area? Just get in touch. The bigger the job, the further we’re able to travel.
(There may be a travel charge for jobs outside of Brighton)
Strong local repuation
Fully insured
Registered waste carriers:
CBDL531291
Company registered no: 13893970
VAT registered no: 403553133
Every garden needs TLC to keep it maintained. From weeding to raking leaves, and planting annuals to dividing perennials there is plenty to do to keep your outdoor space happy all year round.
Choose from regular year round care or one off sessions every so often to maintain your garden.
Or maybe you just need a big clear up to get your garden looking its best again.
“No garden too messy”… If your garden has turned into an overgrown jungle, we’ll get it looking neat and tidy in no time.
You can count on us to make the transformation!
Gardens allow us to connect to and understand nature in a very unique way – one that is wholly personal and intentional. Your garden is your very own pocket of opportunity for making an impact on the environment around you. The plants you introduce will determine the type of creatures who visit, or call your garden their home. Your choice of materials and how you use them will influence the way in which you engage and interact with the space. While the structures and features you introduce will create a variety of micro-climates for wildlife, they equally provide you with a safe haven full of beauty and function.
Having studied garden design at Plumpton College for two years, with a background in graphic design, our garden designer Elise joined The Lady Gardener Team knowing she wanted to utilise these skills and one day combine them with an understanding of plants and garden maintenance. While working with Julia and the team over the years, Elise has learnt so much more about how a design must be practical and sustainable, not just beautiful, and how we must think beyond our own needs and consider those of the wildlife and environment too, even in the smallest of gardens.
Before
During
After
The service we provide begins with a consultation with Elise, during which you discuss in detail
During this visit Elise will measure the appropriate areas of the garden and conduct a site survey. This takes into account the existing plants and features you would like to carry through into the new design, aspects such as soil type and PH, drainage, sun and wind exposure and other such elements which define your garden’s unique environment, as well as noting the location of crucial services such as underground pipework or electric wiring.
After this, you will be sent a document detailing all that you discussed during the consultation- this is your design brief and will inform all new plans for your garden redesign.
Your garden design will be presented in two stages; ‘1. Garden Design and Plant List’, once this has been signed off, we will then begin work on ‘2. Planting Plans and Cost’.
An example of what you will receive is shown below (click to see enlarged):
The Lady Gardener Team deal only with soft-scaping (installation of plants, pots, gravel and basic border edging), any hard-landscaping requirements (decking, pergolas, patios, paths, medium-larger ponds) will be dealt with by a recommended out-sourced contractor and costed separately.
On completion of stage 2, we then book in an installation date (or installation dates for larger projects) during which the design and installation team work together to transform your space.
For larger gardens, we recommend you factor in at least one maintenance slot prior to your garden design installation. More if large areas of turf or existing materials need to be removed prior to the installation.
Time frame: This service is not a quick fix. Due to high demand for both our design and maintenance team, a garden design project can take onwards of 2-5 months to complete.
Top tip: We become extremely busy with design projects from spring – late summer. To manage this, we recommend you contact us in the autumn/winter, when we will be able to see to your project much sooner.
–Winter is also a good time to take up or lay turf, plant larger trees or hedgerows and improve your soils.
Before
After
Things to consider prior to a design consultation:
We cannot take on design projects with a budget of less than £1000.
A budget of this size would be the minimum for a small garden.
Our fee for all design work including consultations is £35 + VAT per hour.
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Permaculture is an ecological design approach that is based on principles that centre on the patterns of nature. It aims to fulfil our human needs while simultaneously improving and maintaining our ecosystem.
Julia has been co-teaching Permaculture Programs to students from Portland State University for over 5 years and can help you design a garden that takes nature, your needs, and your surroundings into account to create a more harmonious and efficient outdoor space.
Some aspects that are considered include the direction of the wind, the slope of the land, which plants are happiest grown together, where the sun moves across your garden. Get in touch to discuss how we can make your garden work best for you.
You can turn even a small area of your space into an organic pharmacy! Home-grow the herbs and medicines that you need with personalised medicinal herb garden design.
Julia has trained in Clinical Herbalism across the globe and is passionate about empowering people to naturally improve their health. Find out more by contacting us today.
Tips and tricks
Fancy a herb garden right outside the kitchen for ease of access? Or perhaps you’ve got an old veg patch that needs some TLC and fresh planting?
If you’ve got an idea to convert an area of your garden into a space that provides you and your family with fresh home-grown herbs and vegetables, we can help.
With focus on organic care, soil regeneration, and nature-inspired (permaculture) design, we can plan, implement or simply maintain vegetable and herb gardens specifically suited to you and your family’s needs.
We are witnessing a globally unprecedented
loss of biodiversity and overexploitation of the natural environment. We can see the devastating effects on our natural habitat in the huge loss of insects and other wildlife that we come across (or not) in the gardens we work in. This knowledge is at the core of why we work the way we do, without chemicals and encouraging nature to take hold so our clients can share their spaces with all manner of flora and fauna, as nature intended.
The way we look after our gardens makes a difference. As a team we pay attention to the wildlife in your garden and we can tailor the work we do to make your space a protective habitat for our pollinators and other wildlife whose existence is at threat. We can help you plan and plant a garden that’s wildlife friendly. to discuss some of your ideas or to get advice from our expert team.
Partnership with Chalkhill Rewilding Project
As well as gently nurturing your garden to be more wildlife friendly with our maintenance sessions and in house design, we’ve also teamed up with Helen from Chalkhill Rewilding to offer the following services:
Both of these offers include:
Give us a call on 01273 658 087, email us at info@theladygardener.co.uk, or use our to get in touch and begin the process of co-creating your dream space with nature now.
About Helen:
Helen Sida has a background in Ecology, researching native
wildflowers in Sussex and the pollinating insects which rely
on them. She’s involved in several initiatives to increase
biodiversity and support nature recovery in the local area,
as well as running workshops on creating habitats for
minibeasts. Chalkhill Rewilding provides bespoke advice
and information to gardeners on how to make their
gardens as wildlife friendly as possible. Helen has been
rewilding her own garden for several years, it now has a
wildflower meadow, a vibrant pond, and many micro-
habitats supporting a wide range of wildlife.
Plants need seasonal pruning. From roses to fruit trees, shrubs to vines, each time we prune, we tailor the technique to the species. Pruning supports healthier and more vigorous growth, leading to more flowers and more fruit.
Did you know fruit trees need a regular prune every winter during their dormant period? This helps to produce good fruit and to keep the tree healthy and free of disease.
All members of The Lady Gardener Team take part in an annual fruit tree pruning training day to keep our skills up to date. If your fruit tree has been neglected we can revive it with a formative prune to give it good shape again and to inspire better fruit production.
Tips and tricks
If you’d like to do your own pruning, here are some helpful hints:
Given that we are chemical-free and fans of more holistic organic systems, we’ve chosen to not be lawn experts. Some people want pristine lawns with only one grass species, but we love natural mossy lawns or old established lawns that are naturally becoming biodiverse with many other species and even turning into wildflower meadows, because biodiversity is beautiful! If you want a pristine lawn, we recommend calling in a lawn expert company to do the treatments etc as that’s not something we get involved in. We are happy to mow, edge, strimmer and keep your lawn looking lovely with natural maintenance techniques. We can also help you develop your lawn from simply grass to a flourishing wildflower meadow with plant plugs.
We love to take on those jobs that might seem too big or overwhelming to take on yourself. This includes lots of soft landscaping. Aside from turfing we can lay woodchip or weed membrane, add pebble or gravel areas, plant up borders and beds and even add some edgings for beds (eg. everedge), as well as create our favourite wildflower meadows.
If you’ve got work to do in your garden that you keep not getting round to, now and we will help you fulfil your garden dreams.
The secret to happy gardens and plants all lies in the soil. Regenerative techniques to re-build the soil are key to every growing success, from small gardens to large scale agriculture.
We like to gradually improve the soil of the gardens that we maintain. We recommend mulching your beds at least annually, with whatever mulch is available locally to you. That could include your own compost pile, which may need some TLC before it’s ready to be distributed around your garden. Mulching makes for heavy work, so let us do it for you! Your garden, soil, and flora and fauna will be much happier for it.
If you would like some help with your compost pile, mulching, or would like to get to know your soil better get in touch.
