From Hobby to Full Time. How I Standardized My Gardening Method for Results

A simple method of standardizing recurring garden maintenance services for lasting results

Lush Garden

If you’re anything like me, your garden is your happy place. A place you can go to relax, experiment, enjoy nature, and to grow beautiful flowers, herbs, and sometimes even a few vegetables.

So what happens when you’re unable to physically maintain your garden?

As a professional gardener, I see this all too often. People who have loved their gardens for decades and then one day something suddenly changes. A broken foot, a diabetes diagnosis, age, sometimes lack of time, and even sometimes death.

There’s so many different reasons why someone is no longer able to maintain their little piece of heaven on earth—but that doesn’t mean they don’t want their garden to be re-wilded. 

Cue the professional gardener. We’re not just the transactional “mow and blow” crew that comes twice a month and rushes to get your lawn cut and walkways blown. Our mission is to maintain your garden like you would have—with love, care, and holistic practices. 

But the most important difference between gardening in your own garden and maintaining someone else’s, is time and money. Someone else is paying me to maintain their garden, so I have to do my job efficiently and still maintain a high-quality product (a tidied garden).

Weed bucket with hand tools

Standard operating procedure (SOP) for recurring garden maintenance (i.e. maintaining someone else's garden)

So how do professional fine gardeners effectively and efficiently maintain other people’s gardens? It’s actually a pretty easy process once you know the standard operating procedure (SOP) and have maintained the same garden 2-3 times. Simple.

Ok, so let’s start with the nitty gritty and go over my standard operating procedure for how to maintain a customer’s garden. My whole process is more like five SOPs, but I’m going to skip to the meat and just go over what to do from the moment you arrive at a client’s to the time you leave.

Here's how I standardized my gardening method to produce the same results so clients know what to expect every visit.

Step 1: Arrive at your client's house

Once you arrive at your client’s house, make contact, and ask if there’s anything specific they would like done. 

Anything the client needs done that day is the most important task to do. Make sure to either do those tasks first or fit them into your working schedule so that they get completed.

Step 2: Tackle each garden zone from start to finish

Then tackle each garden zone individually. Most single-family unit parcels have 4-5 zones (depending on how you like to organize). Here’s how I organize parcels:

Zone 1: garden beds in front of house (most important zone is anywhere you walk past to get to the main entry into the house)

Zone 2: Garden beds in back yard

Zone 3: Right side of house

Zone 4: Left side of house

Zone 5: Pathways, decks, patios, and driveway

Five Garden Zones

Once you’ve broken up the parcel into manageable zones, then you can move through the motions of tidying each zone from start to finish. Here’s my general method:

• Blow or rake any leaves out of garden beds

• Rough weed all large weeds (taller than 1 ft)

• Fine weed (meticulously weed all the smaller weeds)

• Deadhead

• Prune

• Rake the compost/soil so that the surface is even (make sure to remove any lingering weeds or debris from deadheading and pruning)

• Remember: all weeds and debris are put into buckets or on top of tarps while weeding, pruning, and deadheading. Then green waste is moved to the compost bin or pile

• Lightly blow the edges

• Move to the next zone until all zones are complete

• Blow off all walkways, patios, and edges. Ensure your client's garden looks 1000 times better than when you arrived.

Garden Checklist

Step 3: Pack up, quick garden update, and head out

When you've completed all maintenance tasks, make sure to account for all your tools and efficiently pack them back into your car or truck. Blow off any walkways that might have gotten debris scattered during your cleanup.

Right before leaving, touch base with your client again. Catch them up with a brief garden update and let them know that you'll be sending them an invoice in the next couple of days. Your clients will likely know to look out for an invoice from you, but reminders are always helpful.

Summary

This is the simple method I use daily to organize my mind and to also keep me organized while working through a client’s garden.

The first time you work in someone else’s garden, it feels like an awkward first date. You’re unsure how the plants will react to your pruning (even though you’re experienced and know what you’re doing), you haven’t figured out if the soil has adequate nutrients, and you don’t know if your client waters enough throughout the summer. 

But the more you work in a garden, the more familiar you’ll become. The initial courting will turn into a friendship where you learn how to anticipate seasonal changes and understand needs, and your delicate touch will be enough encouragement to make the garden look tidy and inviting.

If you haven’t picked up on my subtleties yet, I see each garden as a friendship. The longer you get to know a particular garden, the more comfortable you become in and around it.

If you’re a professional fine gardener, how do you move about clients’ properties to perform all the necessary tasks? I’d love to know everyone’s methods and maybe I can incorporate some tips and tricks into mine.