Britain is a nation of gardeners, but when it comes to renovating outdoor spaces, it often pays in time, money and stress to go with either a professional gardener or a professional landscaper. While these terms are often used interchangeably, gardeners and landscapers offer distinctly different services that cater to various aspects of outdoor design and maintenance.

Budget considerations vary between these services. Gardening services typically involve smaller, regular expenses spread throughout the year. Landscaping projects usually require larger upfront investments, but may not need to be repeated for many years.

Gardeners in the UK tend to charge £20 per hour on average, with prices ranging between £17 and £30 per hour depending on location and task. Find out more in our gardeners’ price guide.

Landscapers charge, on average, £20 per hour in the UK, but prices can vary widely depending on the task, ranging from as little as £20 per hour to £75 per hour for tasks that require specialised tools or skills. Find out more in our landscapers’ price guide.

So, whether you're looking to maintain your existing garden or completely redesign your outdoor living space, knowing which professional to call is crucial for achieving your aims and staying within budget. 

Is there a difference between a gardener and a landscaper?

Gardeners and landscapers have distinct professional roles, but the boundaries between them often blur in practice. Gardeners specialise in plant care and horticultural health, while landscapers, by contrast, concentrate on designing and constructing the broader outdoor environment, including hardscape elements such as retaining walls, patios, walkways, and the overall layout of outdoor spaces.

However, many professionals do cross over between these disciplines, with some professional gardeners offering services to include basic landscape installation, while many landscapers also provide ongoing garden maintenance.

The timing of when to call each professional also differs significantly. You'll contact a gardener for regular, scheduled maintenance or when you notice ongoing issues with plant health or lawn quality. You'll call a landscaper when you want to make major changes or completely redesign your outdoor space.

What is a gardener?

A gardener is a professional who specialises in the ongoing care and maintenance of established gardens and outdoor spaces. Their expertise lies in nurturing plants, maintaining healthy lawns, and ensuring a garden thrives throughout the seasons.

A gardener is also best placed to advise you on which types of plants will thrive in your area and the best place to source them. Your gardener will also know what needs pruning and when, while promptly identifying and treating any diseases or pests in your garden.

Although a gardener may offer some basic landscaping services such as fence repairs, creating borders, and applying decorative gravel, they are generally unable to undertake larger landscaping projects such as building walls or laying patios.

Lawn care services

Gardeners provide comprehensive lawn care services that keep grass healthy and attractive year-round. Such services include regular mowing, edging, and trimming to maintain a neat appearance. They also handle seasonal tasks like aerating the soil to improve water and nutrient absorption, overseeding to fill in bare patches, and applying appropriate fertilisers based on a lawn's specific needs.

Additionally, gardeners can identify and treat common lawn problems such as weeds, pests, and diseases before they become major issues.

Plant care services

Expert plant care lies at the heart of professional gardening services. They possess extensive knowledge about plant varieties, growing conditions, and seasonal care requirements. Gardeners can prune shrubs and trees to promote healthy growth, deadhead flowers to encourage continued blooming, and divide perennials when they become overcrowded.

They also provide specialised services such as pest and disease management, soil testing and amendment to ensure optimal growing conditions.

Garden maintenance

Regular garden maintenance is often the main reason to hire a professional gardener in the UK. Routine tasks include maintaining lawns, weeding flower beds and borders, and mulching soil to retain moisture and suppress weeds.

Gardeners also carry out seasonal maintenance tasks such as winterising plants, spring and autumn cleanup and preparation, and generally managing the health of the garden.

What questions should I ask a gardener before hiring them?

Finding the right professional gardener for your ongoing maintenance needs requires asking the right questions. Use this checklist to ensure you hire a gardener who has the skills to meet your specific gardening needs: 

1. What are your gardening qualifications? 

Professional qualifications are not strictly necessary to be a gardener. However, qualifications such as those from The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) or the National Certificate in Horticulture (NCH) help gardeners stand out in terms of skills and expertise.

2. Can you provide references from clients with similar gardens?

Ask your potential gardener if they can put you in touch with a few previous clients who have similar gardens or have the same kind of maintenance needs. Having a quick conversation with someone who's actually worked with the gardener will give a real feel for whether they show up when they say they will and do quality work. 

3. What gardening services are included in regular maintenance visits?

Clarify exactly what you'll receive with each visit. Will they handle weeding, pruning, deadheading, and lawn care? Do they provide their own tools and equipment? Understanding what's included helps you compare services accurately and ensures there are no surprises about additional charges.

4. What is your scheduling and communication process?

Reliable scheduling is crucial for garden maintenance. Ask how far in advance they schedule visits, how they handle weather-related changes, what happens if they need to skip a visit, and how they communicate with you about work completed and any issues found.

5. How do you handle plant health issues and pest problems?

Plant diseases and pest issues require prompt, knowledgeable treatment. Ask about their approach to identifying and treating common problems, whether they use organic or chemical treatments (and if you have a preference), and how they communicate with you about issues they discover during visits.

What is a landscaper?

A landscaper is a professional who designs, installs, and transforms outdoor spaces through both structural and plant-based elements. Unlike gardeners who focus on maintenance, landscapers are often project-oriented professionals who can completely reimagine and reconstruct your outdoor environment.

Landscapers work on both new installations and major renovations, often handling projects that require permits, heavy equipment, or specialised construction skills. Although a landscaper may also offer some gardening services, they won’t usually offer regular garden maintenance as this is outside their scope.

Hardscaping

Landscapers excel in installing patios, walkways, and driveways using materials like concrete, stone, brick, or pavers, which are all fundamental parts of hardscaping. Beyond these basics, hardscaping can also cover constructing retaining walls to manage slopes and create usable flat areas, to installing everything from simple fountains to elaborate pond systems with waterfalls.

Softscaping

Softscaping involves the living elements of landscape design, where landscapers demonstrate their horticultural expertise alongside their design skills. They can completely redesign and replant garden beds, select and install trees, shrubs, and perennials, and create themed gardens such as native plant gardens, rain gardens, or formal ornamental displays.

Landscapers also install and design irrigation systems to ensure new plantings are established successfully.

What questions should I ask a landscaper before hiring them?

Landscaping projects represent significant investments and long-term changes to your property. Use this checklist to ensure you hire a qualified professional who can deliver on your vision:

1. Are you licensed and insured for landscaping work in my area?

Landscaping projects often involve heavy equipment, structural work, and potential property damage risks. It is not a legal requirement for landscapers in the UK to have insurance. However, public liability insurance is strongly recommended as it protects the landscaper should someone be injured or property damaged as a result of works being carried out.

2. Can you provide a detailed written cost estimate and timeline?

To help you decide which professional to choose, landscapers will provide comprehensive written estimates that break down materials, labour, and timeline expectations. Ask for specific details about which materials will be used, how long each phase will take and what's included as part of the final deliverable, including final cleanup.

3. What is your experience with similar landscaping projects to mine?

Different landscaping projects require different expertise. Whether you're planning hardscaping, water features, or extensive plantings, ask to see examples of similar completed projects, request references from clients with comparable work, and verify they have experience with any specialised features you want. 

4. Will you create a custom landscape design, and do you consider local conditions?

Good landscapers tailor their designs to the specific property, soil type and even region of the country. Rainfall varies across the UK, so sustainable and water-efficient options, such as drought-resistant native plants, permeable paving and rainwater harvesting systems,  are often included as part of the professional planning stage.

5. What warranty or guarantee do you provide on your work?

Quality landscapers stand behind their work with warranties on both materials and installation. Ask about warranty periods for different types of work, what's covered under the warranty, and how they handle any issues that arise after project completion.

How to choose whether you need a gardener or a landscaper

Choosing between landscaping and gardening services depends on your specific goals, timeline, and budget. If your outdoor space generally needs ongoing care and maintenance, a gardener is likely your best choice.

Consider hiring a landscaper when you want to make significant changes to your outdoor space. This includes situations where you're planning to add hardscape features like patios or walkways, completely redesign garden layouts or plant schemes, or address structural issues such as drainage problems.

Some projects may benefit from both professionals working in sequence. For example, you might hire a landscaper to install a new patio and redesign surrounding plant beds, then engage a gardener for ongoing maintenance once the project is complete. This approach ensures both expert installation and long-term care.

Your budget and timeline preferences also play important roles in this decision. If you prefer spreading costs throughout the year with regular maintenance visits, gardening services align well with this approach. If you'd rather invest in major improvements that will last for years with minimal ongoing professional intervention, landscaping projects might be more suitable.

Understanding the distinction between landscaping and gardening helps ensure you get the right professional expertise for your outdoor space needs. Whether you choose ongoing gardening services for maintenance and plant care, or landscaping services for major transformations and installations, the key is matching the professional's expertise to your specific goals and timeline.

By asking the right questions before hiring either type of professional, you can ensure a successful partnership that delivers the beautiful, functional outdoor space you envision.