Struggling to keep up with your garden? Consider hiring a pro

THE WASHINGTON POST

Fifteen years ago, Cathy Haynes started R-A-G Thyme Gardening in New Boston, N.H., on the premise that others hated weeding as much as her mother did. Now, she and her husband – along with a crew of 15 – maintain, design and install gardens for about 180 customers with yards ranging from a quarter acre to several acres, and they have a wait list. “There’s work out there for us to have twice as many employees,” she says. “But it’s just too many people to handle.”

Some 18 million Americans took up gardening during the pandemic, according to a 2021 survey by the National Gardening Association. Amateur gardeners planted flower, vegetable and pollinator gardens; new homeowners tackled overgrown yards; and longtime homeowners replaced lawns with planting beds. Now that life has returned to something resembling normal, though, many people no longer have the time to maintain those gardens.

Enter professional gardeners, who fill a niche between businesses that plant and service gardens in expensive Zip codes, and landscapers who offer garden maintenance along with a host of other services.

“Fine gardening companies only take care of the gardens they planted,” said Bill Haynes, president of R-A-G (Rent-AGardener) Thyme Gardening. “Landscapers want to get in and out as fast as possible.” Profes- sional gardening services, on the other hand, design and install new gardens, restore old ones and offer maintenance services such as watering, deadheading, dividing perennials and manual weeding.

“Planting a garden is one thing, maintaining it is quite another,” says Tina Yi, owner of Blue Cabin Gardens, Ringwood, N.J. “Even a small garden requires a lot of work.”

If you find yourself over- or underwhelmed by your gardens, it might be time to call in a service. Read on for tips on how to find – and get the most out of –a professional gardener.

Know what’s included

Most gardeners weed by hand (rather than using chemicals), deadhead spent flowers, water and feed plants, treat and prevent infestations, edge, mulch, plant annuals and prune beyond shaping a shrub into a ball or cone.

Gardeners typically offer weekly, biweekly, monthly and seasonal arrangements. R-A-G Thyme Gardening accounts include spring and fall cleanups plus a one-time summer visit; twice-monthly maintenance for small gardens; and weekly plans for large yards with several gardens. It depends on a customer’s budget and penchant for tidiness, says Cathy Haynes. “To us, it’s about the look. We’ll go in there and make it look neat, clean and pristine.”

Gardeners also offer design services and installation. “People are getting away from the same foundational plants used over and over with no gardens,” says Yi. “We’re at a point where homeowners are willing to try new things.” Like most professional gardeners, she also does containers and window boxes.

Find a gardener

Despite the booming market, gardeners can be hard to come by. “There aren’t a lot of people who do this,” says Yi, who holds a horticultural certificate from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. “If I’m working in front of someone’s home, people will come by and talk.”

Most R-A-G Thyme customers come via word of mouth, or when See Gardner, Page 8

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