Tips For Choosing a Landscape Gardener
If you’re thinking of making changes to your garden and you don’t think you want to try and tackle it yourself, then you may have decided to use a landscape gardener. This is probably a good idea, because no matter how hard you try, you’re not going to have the expertise of a professional landscape gardener. They’ll have all the skills that are required to turn your garden into an oasis of flowers and lush green, they’ll know when it’s okay to cut and shape, and what to do with tricky areas. That’s why we hand this job over to a professional, much like any job, when it’s done by someone who’s trained and qualified, the results are a vast improvement on our own.
How do you know how to find the best landscape gardener?
The question is however, how you find someone to implement your ideas, how do you find someone you can trust? In our post this week, we’re going to be talking about how to avoid the pitfalls in choosing a landscape gardener, so you get exactly the type of garden you want.
Word of mouth and recommendations
It’s a good idea if you know of someone in your area who’s used a trustworthy organisation of landscape gardeners and can offer a recommendation. Word of mouth recommendations are always the best, because you can see the results for yourself if it’s somebody local. Ask to see their handy work and you can tell whether it’s good or not, and more importantly, if you think it’s quality work. Ask the person recommending them what they were like to work with, how responsive were they, how good were they at communicating?
Websites and trade associations
At the same time, however, don’t just rely on recommendations, checkout websites and whether they’re members of trade associations. Be wary of too many compliments and testimonials on their site unless they can back it up with a link to the customer’s site or email address, so you can confirm they’re for real. Being a member of an association is a good sign they are who they say they are and that they’re trustworthy. An accreditation from a trade association means they’ve had to go to a lot of trouble proving their worth as a landscape gardener before they’re allowed to join.
Three quotes and always ask for a reference
Ideally, go for three quotes from reputable landscape gardening firms you like the sound of. Ask for references and speak to them directly. You will also get a strong idea of who’s got the best understanding of what you want. You’ll need to have prepared a brief of exactly what it is you need doing so all three have the same information before they give you a quote.
Cheap doesn’t always mean better
Don’t try and bring their prices down too much, a good landscape gardener should be able to justify their quote by giving you a breakdown of what they’re going to do, including cost of materials, time and craftsmanship. Trying to haggle them down to a lower price won’t necessarily mean you’ll get value for money, cheap doesn’t always mean better.
Landscapers in West Lothian
We hope we’ve helped with our tips on choosing the right landscape gardener in West Lothian, if you have any questions about what we’ve discussed today, get in touch, we’ll be happy to help.