Garden quote advice

[Melly1]

Hello,
I’m new here and new to gardens. I have had a couple of quotes for a 3x1m stepped planter. One was double the price of the other, the cheaper one being £650 materials, soil and labour (200) included.

Could anyone give me an idea of if this is cheap or not?

 

[Sean Regan]

Hello,
I’m new here and new to gardens. I have had a couple of quotes for a 3x1m stepped planter. One was double the price of the other, the cheaper one being £650 materials, soil and labour (200) included.

Could anyone give me an idea of if this is cheap or not?

Hi and welcome.

An image of what's proposed would be helpful

It depends on how well it is constructed and what sort of wood is used.
Any "one off" is likely to be far more expensive than anything mass produced.

Wood isn't cheap.

But I bought two of these on eBay about a week ago for just over fifty quid each.

They are 36cm x 117cm x 30cm

 

[Melly1]

Hi and welcome.

An image of what's proposed would be helpful

It depends on how well it is constructed and what sort of wood is used.
Any "one off" is likely to be far more expensive than anything mass produced.

Wood isn't cheap.

But I bought two of these on eBay about a week ago for just over fifty quid each.

They are 36cm x 117cm x 30cm


View attachment 78485

Thanks for your reply. They were going to be made from timber and constructed by the landscaper. Perhaps I should consider the ready made ones in that case

 

[Sean Regan]

Thanks for your reply. They were going to be made from timber and constructed by the landscaper. Perhaps I should consider the ready made ones in that case

That's what I would do. In my opinion, anything made by a "landscaper" will cost an arm and a leg.

I'm not fond of wood being in contact with soil in any sort of planter, even with a liner as it will eventually rot.

The ones I bought were "thrown together" with a nail gun. Like most stuff made from wood for the garden. So I reinforced them with a lot of screws, I also made short legs for them to keep them off the patio and painted them with Dulux mahogany woodstain to match the rest of the woodwork in our garden. Each contains three large pots with hebes in them and they sit on saucers to keep the wood as dry as possible. To save space they are half on the bottom step of the patio. I can use my garden vac to blow out any leaves etc., which might collect under them.

 

[Melly1]

That's what I would do. In my opinion, anything made by a "landscaper" will cost an arm and a leg.

I'm not fond of wood being in contact with soil in any sort of planter, even with a liner as it will eventually rot.

The ones I bought were "thrown together" with a nail gun. Like most stuff made from wood for the garden. So I reinforced them with a lot of screws, I also made short legs for them to keep them off the patio and painted them with Dulux mahogany woodstain to match the rest of the woodwork in our garden. Each contains three large pots with hebes in them and they sit on saucers to keep the wood as dry as possible. To save space they are half on the bottom step of the patio. I can use my garden vac to blow out any leaves etc., which might collect under them.

View attachment 78486

They look fantastic. Mine are for underneath my front window so I believe they’ll have to be bottomless. To be honest a large reason reason I want them there is because I have a neighbour (who is a child) who presses his face against the window and stares. If anyone can recommend anything different to put at the front so this is impossible, I’d be grateful. I’m tired of having to close my shutters. A hedge wouldn’t be far forward enough I think.

 

[Don Perry]

First off, welcome. Secondly, I'm in the USA, so prices are in Dollars. I made three raised containers 4

feet wide and 8 feet long by 1 1/2 foot deep. for $250 each. Made from deck wood planks. They will last about 6 or 7 years. Deck wood is treated against moisture and lasts a little longer than most wood materials.

 

[Tetters]

Hello @Melly1 and a big welcome to the forum I think your estimates sound like a huge rip off and far too much money to part with for the job you want to do. I don`t know what part of the country you are in because you haven`t added that information, but in our neck of the woods (Kent) you can hire a decent gardener for between £12 - £16 per hour.

If I wanted a solution for your problem, I would buy some nice prickly anti neighbour shrubs for outside the window. My own front window is surrounded by a lovely thick prickly Pyracantha which has berries on it in the autumn that the birds love. Through the Pyracantha is an equally pricky rambling rose with a gorgeous scent and pink flowers in the summer - those would stop the little perisher snooping

Pyracantha

Rambling rose

You could find these two plants in big pots either in a nursery or on line for under £50, think how much change you would have to pay a gardener !!!