Garden maintenance: regular visits or a one-off tidy

A regular arrangement usually covers mowing and edging, weeding beds, light pruning, and keeping paths and patios clear. The gardener gets to know the plot, and small problems are dealt with before they grow. It suits people who cannot manage the garden themselves, landlords with a garden between tenancies, and owners who are away a lot.

One-off work covers the jobs that need more hands or equipment: cutting back a garden that has been left for a year, a spring or autumn tidy, leaf clearance, or a hedge that has outgrown the path. These are often priced as a job rather than by the hour, after the gardener has seen the site or photos.

Gardeners price mainly by time on site, so the size of the garden, how often they come and how much there is to take away count most. Green waste is the hidden cost: a gardener who removes cuttings has to pay to dispose of them, while leaving them in your garden waste bin or on a compost heap keeps the price down. Access matters too. A back garden reached through the house, steep slopes or narrow side passages slow everything down.

Some gardeners bring all their own tools and fuel; others expect to use your mower. Say which applies, and whether there is an outside tap and somewhere to put waste.

• size of lawn, beds and hedges, with rough measurements or photos
• how often you want visits and in which months
• whether green waste is taken away or left on site
• access to the back garden and parking for a van
• anything to avoid: wildlife areas, plants you want kept, chemicals

Hedge cutting is where maintenance runs into the law. It is an offence to damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is being built or in use, so a good gardener checks a hedge before cutting in spring and summer and will leave a section alone if there is an active nest. Heavy cutting is usually better left until the nesting season is over.

A boundary hedge belongs to whoever owns the land it grows on. You can generally trim branches that overhang your side, but not damage the hedge as a whole or go onto the neighbour's land without agreement. Where a row of evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs grows over 2 metres tall and blocks light, the neighbour affected must first try to settle it informally and can then complain to the council under the high hedges rules in England and Wales.

Routine pruning of shrubs and small ornamental trees is part of many gardeners' work. Felling, crown reduction or any work that needs climbing or a chainsaw belongs to a tree surgeon with the training and insurance for it. Before any tree work, check whether the tree is covered by a Tree Preservation Order or stands in a conservation area, as both need the council's involvement.

A gardener who removes waste from your property is carrying it as a business and needs to be registered as a waste carrier. Ask where the waste goes; cuttings dumped in a lane can be traced back. Weedkillers and pesticides used by professionals must be applied by people trained and certified for them. If you prefer no chemicals, or you have pets, a pond or children playing on the lawn, say so at the start.

Tell us about the garden and the work. After you confirm your phone and email, the request is offered, without your name or contact details, to gardeners who work in your area. Only one of them can buy it; once bought, it comes off our shop and nobody else can take it. We email you that gardener's name, address and phone number before your details go across.

Offrano is free for you and does not guarantee that a gardener buys the request. Unsold requests are withdrawn after 21 days. We check that the buyer is a registered business; we do not rate its work, so ask to see other gardens it looks after and agree the visit pattern in writing.