“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

Marcel Proust, Author

Pros and Cons of Having a Gardener

advantages and disadvantages of hiring a gardener

You have a garden at home and don’t want to do all the garden work yourself?

Then you may be probably thinking about hiring a gardener.

While having a gardener at home implies many upsides, there are still some issues related to it.

Hence, make sure to stick with me since I will show you all the pros and cons of hiring a gardener in the following article.

Advantages of Having a Gardener

  1. You can outsource unpleasant work to your gardener
  2. You don’t have to do any physical work around your garden
  3. Gardeners may be able to help you out with other issues
  4. You will have more time to spend on other things
  5. Hiring a gardener makes sense if you make lots of money in your job
  6. Your home will look nicer
  7. You can learn many things from your gardener
  8. Gardeners can help you with the planning of complex projects
  9. You may spend more time in your garden
  10. Good gardeners know how to keep away pests
  11. A nice garden will increase property value
  12. Your friends will envy you for your tidy lawn
  13. Having a gardener can increase crop yields
  14. You have someone to talk to
  15. Gardeners may keep away burglars while you are away

You can outsource unpleasant work to your gardener

One advantage of hiring a gardener is that you can outsource all the unpleasant tasks around your garden to a third party who will take care of those things.

This means that you will be able to enjoy a nice and tidy garden without having to pull up weeds and so on.

In turn, you can enjoy the nice things about gardening while handing over the rather annoying work to other people who are qualified to do their best in this regard.

Consequently, if you don’t have enough time or if you simply don’t want to do all the things that come along with taking care of a big garden, chances are that you should hire someone with the expertise and the motivation to do so for you.

You don’t have to do any physical work around your garden

Gardeners will not only take away all the annoying tasks related to gardening away from you, but they will also be able to carry out all the heavy physical work for you.

This can be quite convenient, especially if you are already older and don’t want to lift all the heavy things in your garden yourself.

For instance, gardeners will shovel large amounts of soil from A to B while you can supervise them instead of heaving to do this exhausting physical work yourself.

In turn, your risk of suffering from physical health issues may be lower since you will be able to spare your back.

Gardeners may be able to help you out with other issues

Qualified gardeners will not only be helpful when it comes to gardening issues, but they are often also quite knowledgeable when it comes to home improvement projects in general.

In fact, many gardeners are pretty good at repairing things.

Consequently, if you are able to hire a good gardener, chances are that he or she will be able to help you out with several tasks around your home and you will be able to save lots of money in the long run since gardeners are often willing to work at a much cheaper rate compared to qualified craftsmen.

It can also be quite convenient to always have someone who can take care of things in case of emergency since you will often have to wait for a few days or even weeks for someone to come over to your home otherwise.

You will have more time to spend on other things

Another benefit of having a gardener at home is that you will also have plenty of time to spend on other things you like more than gardening.

Since your gardener will do all the work related to your garden and your yard, you will have more time to spend with your family or to hang out with good friends.

You will also have more time to follow your hobbies or to go on short vacation trips.

Hence, hiring a gardener can also make quite a lot of sense if you work long hours in a demanding job every day and just value your time.

Instead of spending your own precious time on garden work, you can use it for things that are more enjoyable for you.

Hiring a gardener makes sense if you make lots of money in your job

In general, hiring somebody who can help you out with several tasks around your home will make sense in case you make significantly more money from your job than a gardener will cost you.

This is quite logical since one hour at your work will make you more money than you have to give away for gardening services.

Thus, you could work some extra hours in your job and pay your gardener with this extra money while you will still have some additional money left to spend on other things.

Consequently, employing a gardener can make quite a lot of sense in case you work in a leading position in the corporate world and make much more money than gardeners could ever earn.

By hiring a gardener, you can optimize your time-use as best as possible and can therefore monetize your time in the best possible manner.

Your home will look nicer

If you hire a qualified gardener, you will also be able to make your home look much nicer.

In fact, your garden will be quite important when it comes to the overall appearance of your home.

Hence, you should not underestimate the positive effect a tidy lawn and well-positioned plants can have on the overall look of your property.

Nobody likes to live in a run-down home and by hiring a gardener, you can make sure that your place will look as nice as possible.

You can learn many things from your gardener

Another upside to hiring a gardener is that you will also be able to learn many things from him or her.

If you are smart, you will look your gardener over the shoulder to get some information on how to fix things and about how to grow plants in general.

By doing so, you will be able to fix many issues yourself in the future and may eventually no longer need a gardener at all.

You may also be able to get some expert tips from your gardener and those tips can greatly improve your overall knowledge related to gardening which you can share with your friends who will often be quite impressed.

Gardeners can help you with the planning of complex projects

Gardeners are not only helpful when it comes to caring for plants, but they can also greatly help you with complex gardening projects.

For instance, you may want to install a natural backyard pond on your property but don’t know exactly what materials you want to use, how much space it would cost and so on.

Good gardeners will be able to help you out in this regard or may know people who could do all the planning for you at a fair price.

You may spend more time in your garden

Since your garden will look nice and tidy if you hire a good gardener, chances are that you will also spend much more time outdoors in your garden instead of just hanging out in front of your TV or your computer all day long.

This means that you will be better able to reconnect with nature and spending time in your garden can also be healthier for you since you will get more fresh air compared to a state where you just stay indoors 24/7.

Also your kids will likely spend more time outdoors and you can spend more time in your garden as a family in general.

Good gardeners know how to keep away pests

Hiring a gardener can also make quite a lot of sense in case your plants suffer from pests and don’t grow in a proper manner.

Good gardeners will find out the reason for that and will take appropriate measures to mitigate those issues.

For instance, you can grow good companion plants to keep away pests and to improve the growth behavior of your plants in general.

You could also use organic pesticides to deter pests.

While you could do all of this yourself, a good gardener will exactly know what to do while you might have to do some experiments and it may take you much longer to solve those issues due to your lack of knowledge in this regard.

A nice garden will increase property value

You should also not underestimate the effect nice and tidy yards can have on your property value.

Many people want to live in houses with pretty gardens and don’t buy homes where the garden looks like a mess.

Hence, if you don’t want to care for your garden plants yourself, you should definitely hire someone who takes care of those things in case you want to sell your home in the near future since you will just be able to sell it at a much higher price on average.

Your friends will envy you for your tidy lawn

Not only will you benefit from hiring a gardener, but you will also be able to impress your friends quite a lot if they see your tidy lawn and your nice garden while they struggle themselves at the same time to keep their garden in shape.

Quite often, they will also ask you for secret tips on how to get such a nice garden as well.

Having a gardener can increase crop yields

Not only will a gardener be able to improve the visual appearance of your home quite a lot, but he will also be able to greatly increase your crop yields.

In fact, your crop yield significantly depends on the conditions you provide for your plants and if you do something wrong in this regard, your plants will just not do as well as in a state where they get an optimal supply of nutrients.

Hence, if you really want to get decent crop yields, you may need someone who takes care of your growing projects, at least in the very beginning when you may not have sufficient knowledge yourself.

In such a case, you may also want to check out my grower’s guides to learn more about gardening in general.

You have someone to talk to

Having a gardener at home can also be quite nice in case you are alone quite often and don’t have any company.

For instance, you may have moved to a different city not a long time ago and just haven’t made any social contacts yet.

You may also just be old and many of your friends may already have passed away.

In such a case, hiring a gardener can make sense to have someone to talk to since you may just no longer feel that lonely.

Gardeners may keep away burglars while you are away

Since gardeners will often be on your property while you are away, they can also be great to deter burglars.

By hiring a gardener, you may no longer have to install fake security cameras or other devices to keep away burglars and you can also save some money in this regard.

As you can see, hiring good gardeners can make quite a lot of sense.

Yet, there are still some problems with hiring a gardener which I want to show in the following chapter.

Disadvantages of Hiring a Gardener

  1. Hiring a gardener can be costly
  2. Not all gardeners are genuine
  3. Hard to see if they are actually working
  4. Some gardeners may even steal your stuff
  5. You will not learn how to take care of your garden yourself
  6. Gardening can be quite a lot of fun
  7. You can get all the necessary information for free
  8. Doesn’t make sense if you make less than your gardener
  9. Gardeners will come and go
  10. You will have to find new staff quite frequently
  11. Quality of gardeners greatly varies
  12. Machines may make gardeners obsolete in the future
  13. You support poor working conditions for gardeners

Hiring a gardener can be costly

One disadvantage of hiring a gardener is that you have to spend significant amounts of money in the long run, especially if you hire a gardener for many hours a day.

In such a case, you will have to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month on gardening work and this will just not be affordable for the majority of the general public.

Hence, make sure that you are able to afford a gardener so that you don’t get into any financial trouble due to that.

Not all gardeners are genuine

While many gardeners are legit and do their best to improve the visual appearance of your home and to improve the growth behavior of your plants, there are also some gardeners who don’t do their job and rather want to relax in your garden instead of doing the heavy physical work that is waiting for them.

Hard to see if they are actually working

In fact, if you hire a bad gardener, he will just not do good work and will also charge you more hours than he had actually worked.

Nevertheless, you will have a hard time proving that your gardener hasn’t worked since you will just not be at home quite often and will have to work instead.

In turn, you will not be able to prove whether the work your gardener did was sufficient or not and you may have to pay him anyway.

Some gardeners may even steal your stuff

While some gardeners are just lazy and do a poor job, others may even steal your stuff.

Consequently, you should be really careful regarding whom you want to employ in this regard since gardeners will have access to your property and especially if you have valuable things at home, you should make sure that you employ a trustworthy gardener instead of a dodgy individual.

You will not learn how to take care of your garden yourself

While your gardener can give you some tips on how to make your gardening projects more efficient, you will also just not learn as much compared to a state where you did all the gardening work yourself.

In fact, it is often learning by doing that allows you to learn about many aspects of gardening and if you don’t do the work, you will just not learn to do the work later on in your life and this means that you will stay dependent for quite a long time in this regard.

Gardening can be quite a lot of fun

Another downside to hiring a gardener is that you will just miss out on quite a lot of fun.

In fact, I personally love gardening and just don’t want to have a gardener on my property.

It is just much more fun for me to do all the work myself since I can continuously learn and progress and this just gives me a good feeling.

I think you will not need a gardener if you are fit enough and are also willing to invest some time.

In such a case, gardening can become a quite nice hobby and I really don’t want to miss it in my daily life.

You can get all the necessary information for free

While gardeners had some expert knowledge that had been hardly accessible just a few decades ago, it is now pretty easy to look up all the necessary information on the internet.

Hence, you don’t necessarily have to hire a gardener.

Instead, you can just take part in mastermind groups or look for answers in forums.

By doing so, you can build up plenty of knowledge in a rather short period of time and you can also follow my gardening blog to learn about how to grow various different plants.

Doesn’t make sense if you make less than your gardener

Hiring a gardener also doesn’t make sense from a monetary perspective if you don’t make significantly more money from your job than your gardener costs you.

In such a case, you would be better off doing garden work yourself since you will have more money to spend on other things due to that.

Gardeners will come and go

Another problem with hiring a gardener is that many gardeners will quit after a rather short period of time.

In fact, turnover rates are quite high in this field since people often quit due to many different circumstances and since they often cannot make a living from what they are doing.

You will have to find new staff quite frequently

Since many gardeners will quit their jobs, you will also have to find new staff quite frequently and this can be really annoying, especially if you live in a region where qualified gardeners are hard to find.

Quality of gardeners greatly varies

You should also not expect all gardeners to be knowledgeable.

In fact, there are many people out there who offer gardening work but are just not qualified at all in this field.

Consequently, they may do more harm than good to your garden.

Machines may make gardeners obsolete in the future

Thanks to our technological progress, you may also no longer have to employ gardeners in the near future.

Instead, robots will be able to do the job sooner or later and chances are that you will be able to save plenty of money on labor costs once this happens.

You support poor working conditions for gardeners

By hiring a gardener, you will also support pretty poor working conditions.

If you hire a gardener from a company, this gardener will often just get a fraction of the money you have to pay for the gardening service and overall working conditions are pretty poor in general in this field.

Top 10 Hiring a Gardener Pros & Cons – Summary List

Hiring a Gardener ProsHiring a Gardener Cons
Gardeners can make your home nicerGardeners can be costly
You can outsource unpleasant workSome gardeners are pretty bad
You can avoid heavy physical garden workGardeners may steal your stuff
Gardeners can give you secret tipsSome gardeners are lazy
You can get some companyGardeners may do more harm than good
Gardeners can help you with other projectsYou can do garden work yourself
Hiring a gardener can raise property valueYou can get gardening information for free
You will spend more time in your gardenYou can replace gardeners with robots
Makes sense if you make good moneyYou support poor working conditions
You will have more leisureGardeners will not stay that long

Should You Employ A Gardener?

Now that you know all the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a gardener, it is on you to decide whether you still want to employ a gardener or if you rather want to do all the gardening work yourself.

If you go for the second route, make sure to also have a look at my grower’s guides to learn more about gardening in general.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardener

https://www.statista.com/statistics/319328/number-of-gardeners-and-landscape-gardeners-in-the-uk/

About the Author

My name is Andreas and I’m really passionate about our environment and also about growing plants. In fact, I have grown several different plants over many years. I love to see my plants grow and also always try new things to improve my overall conditions at home.

In my blog posts, I want to share my experiences with you so that you can become successful in growing various different plants and improving your home as well, even though you might still be a beginner right now.

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