Find a Gardener near you
The average rating for Bark Gardeners is 4.77, based on 1,244,367 reviews
5/5
based on 1,244,367 reviews
Last updated: 23 September 2025
Britain is a nation of gardeners, but when it comes to renovating outdoor spaces, it often pays in time, money, and stress to hire a professional. While the terms ‘gardener’ and ‘landscaper’ are often used interchangeably, they offer distinctly different services.
Understanding this distinction is crucial for achieving your aims and staying within budget. So, whether you're looking to maintain your existing garden or completely redesign your outdoor living space, here’s how to know which professional to call.
| Aspect | Gardener | Landscaper |
| Primary focus | Plant health and garden maintenance. | Design, construction, and installation of outdoor spaces. |
| Key activities | Mowing, weeding, planting, pruning, pest control, fertilising. | Building patios, walls, walkways; installing irrigation; major planting schemes. |
| Project type | Ongoing, regular tasks (e.g., weekly, monthly, seasonally). | One-off projects with a defined start and end date. |
| When to hire | For routine care to keep your garden healthy and tidy. | For major renovations, new builds, or structural changes. |
| Cost structure | Typically a lower hourly rate, paid on a recurring basis. | A larger, upfront project cost covering design, materials, and labour. |
A gardener is a horticultural specialist focused on the ongoing care and maintenance of established gardens. Their expertise lies in nurturing plants, maintaining healthy lawns, and ensuring your garden thrives throughout the seasons.
A gardener is best placed to advise you on which plants will thrive in your specific conditions, what needs pruning and when, and how to identify and treat diseases or pests. While they may handle minor projects like creating borders or repairing a fence panel, they generally do not undertake large-scale construction.
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Lawn care: Regular mowing, edging, trimming, seasonal aeration, overseeding, and applying appropriate fertilisers. Gardeners also identify and treat common lawn problems like weeds and pests.
Plant care: Pruning shrubs and trees to promote healthy growth, deadheading flowers to encourage blooming, and dividing perennials. They provide specialised pest and disease management and can amend soil to ensure optimal growing conditions.
General maintenance: Weeding flower beds, mulching soil to retain moisture, and carrying out seasonal tasks like autumn clean-ups and winterising plants to protect them from frost.
What are your qualifications? While not required, qualifications from The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) or a National Certificate in Horticulture (NCH) indicate a high level of expertise.
Can you provide references? Speaking to previous clients gives you a real feel for their reliability, quality of work, and professionalism.
What services are included in a regular visit? Clarify exactly what they will do each time. Do they bring their own tools? This avoids surprises about additional charges.
What is your scheduling and communication process? Ask how they handle weather-related changes and how they communicate about work completed or any issues they find in the garden.
How do you handle plant health and pest problems? Understand their approach to treatment. Do they use organic or chemical methods, and does their preference align with yours?
A landscaper is a professional who designs and constructs outdoor spaces, transforming them with both structural (hardscaping) and plant-based (softscaping) elements. Unlike gardeners, landscapers are project-oriented professionals who can completely reimagine and reconstruct an outdoor environment.
Landscapers work on new installations and major renovations, often handling projects that require permits, heavy equipment, or specialised construction skills. While some may offer garden maintenance, their primary focus is on the initial build and installation.
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Hardscaping: Installing the non-living elements of a garden. This includes patios, walkways, driveways, retaining walls, decks, pergolas, and water features like ponds or fountains.
Softscaping: Installing the living elements of the landscape design. This involves redesigning garden beds, selecting and planting trees and shrubs, creating themed gardens, laying new turf, and installing irrigation systems to support the new plantings.
Are you licensed and insured? While not a legal requirement in the UK, public liability insurance is essential. It protects you and your property in case of accident or damage.
Can you provide a detailed written estimate and timeline? A professional quote should break down costs for materials and labour, and provide a clear timeline for each phase of the project, including cleanup.
What is your experience with projects like mine? Ask to see a portfolio of similar completed work and request references from clients with comparable projects.
Will you create a custom design that considers local conditions? A good landscaper designs for your specific property, considering soil type, drainage, and local climate to recommend sustainable options like native plants or rainwater harvesting systems.
What warranty or guarantee do you provide? Quality landscapers stand behind their work. Ask about warranties on materials and labour and how they handle any issues that arise after the project is complete.
Your budget plays a key role in your decision. Gardening involves smaller, regular expenses spread throughout the year, while landscaping requires a larger upfront investment for a project that may not be repeated for many years.
Gardener costs: In the UK, gardeners charge on average around £20 per hour, with prices typically ranging from £17 to £30 per hour depending on location and the specific task.
Landscaper costs: Generally landscapers charge by project as costs can vary significantly. However, the latest Bark data suggests landscapers charge, on average, £25 per hour.
Choosing the right professional depends entirely on your goals.
You need regular, ongoing maintenance for your lawn and plants.
Your garden is established but needs expert care to stay healthy and tidy.
You want help with seasonal tasks like planting bulbs, pruning roses, or clearing leaves.
Your primary goal is plant health and neatness.
You are starting with a blank slate or want a complete redesign of your outdoor space.
You want to add structural features like a patio, deck, retaining wall, or path.
You need to solve major issues like poor drainage or an unusable slope.
Your project involves construction, heavy machinery, and significant investment.
In some cases, you may need both. A landscaper can execute the major redesign and construction, and once the project is complete, a gardener can take over the long-term maintenance to ensure your new space matures beautifully.
By understanding the distinct roles of gardeners and landscapers, you can confidently select the right professional for your needs. A gardener nurtures and maintains, while a landscaper designs and builds. By asking the right questions, you can ensure a successful partnership that delivers the beautiful, functional outdoor space you envision.
The average rating for Bark Gardeners is 4.77, based on 1,244,367 reviews
5/5
based on 1,244,367 reviews
Need a gardener but not sure of the cost? Read our handy price guide to find out how much your expert will charge for all your gardening needs, including landscaping services, pressure washing, and more!
