Private estate maintenance
Looking after a place properly is a different job to visiting it.
We currently maintain one private estate and are building another. Grounds work at that scale is not garden maintenance with more hours on it — the ground behaves differently, the machinery is different, and the timing is set by the land and the law rather than by a rota.
That is the part we came up through. Plant on site and operators who hold the tickets for it, drainage understood as the cause of most problems rather than a separate trade, and a working year that starts from what the ground needs in February, not from what looks busy in June.
We work across Berkshire and the south of England, for private estates, commercial grounds and the kind of domestic gardens where the brief runs to years rather than a weekend.
- One programme, one price
- The year written down in advance — what happens, when, and what it costs. Visit frequency changes with the season rather than the invoice. Arisings go with us.
- The same team, every visit
- Six of us full time, plus specialists brought in where a job genuinely calls for one. Nobody has to explain the place twice, and nobody unfamiliar turns up at the gate.
- Discretion as standard
- The estates we look after are under NDA, which is why there are no photographs of them on this page and no names anywhere on this site. That is the arrangement we would offer you too.
The year
Ground doesn’t keep to a rota. It keeps to a calendar.
Most of what separates a place that looks after itself from one that lurches between catch-ups is timing. This is roughly how a year runs, and it is what a maintenance programme with us is built around.
Spring
March – MayThe year opens. Grass comes back into cut, planting goes in while the ground is still holding moisture, and everything gets set up for the growing season.
- Grass cutting season begins
- Planting, feeding and mulching
- Borders cut back and edged
- Hard landscaping before the ground dries out
Bird nesting season runs March to August. Hedges and dense vegetation are checked before any cutting — it is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to disturb an active nest.
Summer
June – AugustPeak presentation. Cutting frequency goes up, growth is kept in check, and the work is timed around the property being used rather than through it.
- Grass cut to presentation standard
- Edging, weeding and border upkeep
- Watering and establishment care for new planting
- Structural work scheduled around the household
Autumn
September – NovemberThe busiest stretch on a treed property. Leaves come down faster than most schedules allow for, and hedge work opens up again once nesting has finished.
- Leaf clearance, repeated rather than once
- Hedge cutting resumes
- Autumn planting — the best window for most stock
- Drainage checked before winter rain finds it first
Hedges are best left until November where berries are still feeding birds, unless access or sightlines make it urgent.
Winter
December – FebruaryWhen the ground is bare and the growing has stopped, the heavy work gets done. This is the window for anything that would tear a garden up in summer.
- Drainage, ditching and groundworks
- Construction and hard landscaping
- Structural pruning while trees are dormant
- Repairs, edging and preparation for spring
Credentials
Checkable, rather than claimed.
Anyone can call themselves a landscaper. If you are handing over keys, a gate code or a set of grounds, you are entitled to see what sits behind the name — so here it is, and we will send the paperwork for any of it without being chased.
- Insurance
Public liability and employers' liability
Certificates available on request.
- Plant operation
NPORS registered operators
Covers excavator and dumper operation.
- Pesticide application
City & Guilds NPTC Level 2 (PA1)
Principles of safe handling and application of pesticides.
- Construction sites
CSCS-carded operatives
For commercial and construction-site work.
- Health and safety
LANTRA Level 1, construction environment
- Company
GEARD LTD, registered in England and Wales
Company number 16203775.
Get in touch
The next step is usually someone standing on the ground.
Quoting landscaping off a photograph is guesswork. Call or message and we will arrange a time to come and look — at which point you get a straight answer about what the job actually involves, and whether we are the right people for it.
Covering Berkshire and the south of England.