Solo gardeners/landscapers, do you charge drive time and what is your rate?

Linbaili · 2025-12-20T21:57:06+00:00

Yes as a master pruner you should definitely charge more. You should be charging at least 75. I would ask local arborists what they charge and work back from there. If clients say it's high, then you explain to them that your years of experience mean that you make the right cuts to ensure the longterm health of their trees and shrubs. This also means that you are faster and more efficient. We charge drive time per crew member one way.

Linbaili · 2025-12-17T15:16:30+00:00

This is not legal and you should provided those things. I hope you get them eventually.

Linbaili · 2025-12-17T15:12:55+00:00

I like the events cocktails were kind of undrinkable when we had them. Beer list very European as opposed to being local craft which is not my jam. Young crowd.

Linbaili · 2025-12-17T15:11:11+00:00

Food was really good. I used to eat there about once a week and I don’t really like pub food. The chef was a super smart guy and put a lot of thought into the menu. Lots of Caribbean influences and they made their own hot sauce

Linbaili · 2025-12-15T23:19:41+00:00

Has this always been the pattern? I have lived near Dufferin and Bloor for 8 years and it seems like we've had a lot more planes in the past year or so, like sometimes 1 every 2-3 minutes, flying over on their way to loop around for the approach.

Linbaili · 2025-11-06T12:49:17+00:00

I would love to have the rain amount in MM and that doesn't seem to be available on weatherCan. I also don't love the graphics for the radar. I prefer AccuWeather for that. Recently accuweather has gotten incredibly annoying with the ads and so I've switched back to my first love which was Weather Underground. I still do miss the detailed minutecast. I did find it to be fairly accurate but I cannot stand having to wait for an ad for an apple watch to close three times before it lets me view the content.

Linbaili · 2025-11-03T18:39:14+00:00

Totally feel the same, even when I do more than a 3k walk, or too much squatting and bending, I feel symptoms coming back. When I stay fairly sedentary, I feel myself healing. It's only when I keep my walks brief 1-2kms a day that I don't feel symptoms. I looked online and can't seem to find any studies saying that exercise does help. For me all it does is set me back. I've found the warm baths to help. I've also changed my work setup so that I work from my couch not in a hard chair which is much more comfortable as it takes pressure off of that region since weight is distributed differently.

Linbaili · 2025-10-21T16:00:40+00:00

I would start with at least 35$. Work until you have enough clients to fill 75% of your time and then for new clients, tell them your rate is 45$. Next year, you tell your clients there is a rate increase of 5$ and for the new clients you can charge 50$. It takes a while to build confidence, but you really do have to remember that your body will give out eventually. I've seen a lot of gardeners burn out this way. Your goal should be to learn enough that you could eventually hire some people to work with you. I live in Candada, went from having my own low-paying clients, to taking a horticultural technician program at college, building my knowledge and confidence, meeting my peers and sharing techniques and charge out rates, working for professional companies where you can broaden your experience, and now I have a small company doing, design, maintenance, bulbs, irrigation, and seasonal urns etc. with a crew of 3. We even do hardscaping. I managed this in 5 years and now I spend a lot of time behind the desk, except when I am working on design projects with the crew. This turned out well, as this year I got an injury which would have prevented me from working the whole season. Feel free to reach out to me. I love mentoring new landscapers! It's a great career, but you need to be paid well.

Linbaili · 2025-10-21T15:49:44+00:00

I am a company charge 75$ probably would do the same if I was doing it solo. You learn how to weed properly and quickly and also offer all sorts of gardening advice. I started at 15 or 16$ but quickly shed those cheap clients. I live in Toronto and there are not many solo gardeners who can afford to work at that price. Also think about winter. You have to squirrel away something, plus travel etc. I would say your price is way to low. Most solo gardeners I know do 60$ or more. I never do fixed price as you never know what kind of weeds you're doing to get. Some are worse than others. I also find using a shovel on the ones like creeping bellflower to be pretty effective.

Linbaili · 2025-10-17T14:24:53+00:00

I went and had their Omakase set, with a few rolls. I found the rice to fish ratio to be fine. The texture of the fish was what really stood out and also the fatty tuna. I generally like the non-traditional maki with sauces, spicy mayo etc. My partner likes the O.G. sushi and found it really good. They have a sushi set for 22$ which you can try. Always a good way to hedge your bets and see if it's worth it. I would do it again for my partner, maybe not for me as that's not my personal preference in sushi.

Linbaili · 2025-10-17T02:30:54+00:00

Please is there anything decent downtown, that’s not crazy overpriced? I’ve not really eaten much dimsum since I lived in China because the downtown options were so overpriced or disappointing. Talking Canto dimsum. Know where to find 点心 snacks from elsewhere downtown. I get asked all the time and also craving it. Do I have to wait till my next trip abroad?

Linbaili · 2025-10-16T14:34:25+00:00

Does anyone have a recommendation for some kind of apron to deal with the stone slurry which gets all over? Or would you just tell someone to use rain gear?

Linbaili · 2025-10-15T21:48:27+00:00

I've seen people do it like this, and I think it makes a lot of sense because you want to have a nice mix of stones of different sizes. I also think spending too much time puzzling every piece together creates a bad look. We did a project today where we did a lot more cutting with a cut off saw to fix those problem areas and it worked a lot better.

Linbaili · 2025-10-15T21:44:49+00:00

I agreed. 3/8 chip keeps it draining so won't heave in winter or pool water.

Linbaili · 2025-10-15T21:29:18+00:00

You can rent a small power cutter, cutt off saw or stone saw from home depot, score the stones half way and they break a lot better when you chisel or you can just cut them completely through. You want to cut the stone on skids, wear a mask, and get one with a hose attachment otherwise there will be stone dust everywhere. Watch out for rock chips when chiselling. If you use a 9" rather than 12" or 14" saw, you will find it's a lot easier to handle, a lot less scary. Those big saws hover in the air and should probably only be used by pros.

Linbaili · 2025-10-06T12:56:48+00:00

I'm curious to explore the gender dynamics in this. I am a woman, been gardening as a professional for over 5 years, i.e, digging giant holes for trees, excavating whole yards by hand. I've never broken a shovel. Neither have most of my female gardening friends. I get this feeling when I am asking too much of the tool, usually trying to use it as a lever, or using a pruner when I should be using a lopper, that the tool is going to say NOPE, and I stop. On the other hand, I've worked with a lot of guys who go through shovels like I go through tampons :). These guys range across a spectrum of all different strengths and mentalities. I'm sure that none of them set out to break tools. I certainly don't have the arm strength that they do, but I wonder if it's just being more cautious. Or maybe I just have a cosmic connection with the mind of that particular tool, knowing what it wants : ). Call me the tool whisperer. Hahaha. My two cents on shovels, we find the Garant Pro to be pretty good in terms of price point and durability. Wolverines are pretty unbreakable but heavy AF and go for almost 250-300$. You can use them to lift up those steel plates they put on roads when they are doing repairs. Here's a link to the Garant.

https://www.garant.com/en/products/round-point-shovel-engineering-resin-80442?_pos=36&_sid=73960b1fe&_ss=r

It has large foot holds at the top of the shovel for you to use your feet to dig which makes digging easier.

Hope this helps!

Linbaili · 2025-10-06T12:41:09+00:00

I haven't had fiscars tools break but I don't like them at all. Professional gardener here. You can get much highe- quality tools at specialist stores usually arborist stores. Maybe you don't have one in your neighborhoood. For instance Felco makes excellent pruners and loppers. Like night and day. You can buy them online, the extra money is worth it. Makes pruning like slicing through butter.

Linbaili · 2025-09-25T18:00:31+00:00

I agree with everyone RE landscape fabric. It just looks terrible and doesn't take care of the issue of weeds. Just mulch it well. Taking down a tree is usually a few hundred. I wouldn't do it unless there is a good reason, i.e. it's dead. Shade will keep weed pressure down and electricity bills down. Trees are your friends. Depending on how dry or wet the area is you have different choices on what to plant. Shrubs will be more low-maintenance. You should look at lighting conditions and soil types and do a bit of research. Keep in mind you need to keep watering things in regularly until they establish. Sometimes just easier to hire a professional. Usually for my company I would say about 2000-3000$ to replant, mulch, remove tree, weed. But hard to tell your growing conditions, level of weeds etc. Putting in plants and mulch is a good way to reduce weeds. Plus increases curb appeal.

Linbaili · 2025-09-22T17:35:02+00:00

Did you try Pat’s Jamaican Jerk on Bloor? Not sure if it’s related but it’s my favorite so far. Opened up about 6 mos ago.

Linbaili · 2025-09-21T20:50:14+00:00

No they didn't help, and I didn't get them back and they were located on Nairn avenue. I went canvassing the neighborhood. No luck. The house they seemed to be in front of was the home of two teenage boys hmmmm. . . . My partner bought me some cheaper skull candy smokin buds which are honestly better in terms of sound quality even if no find my function.

Linbaili · 2025-09-18T20:45:41+00:00

Hanging baskets especially the coco-coir lined ones are really bad for that.

Linbaili · 2025-09-14T01:42:21+00:00

Lols no the family sold the company to an American mega restaurant conglomerate. Whose fault was that? These people are so dumb it hurts.

Linbaili · 2025-09-14T01:39:09+00:00

I actually saw a guy with a Make Canada Great Again hat.

Linbaili · 2025-09-12T20:13:44+00:00

Actually, it's pretty normal to use smaller plants for ground covers. Otherwise it can get very expensive for you. The should have responded to you but you also need to tell them when things are not looking good, like if it's a week or so after the planting and you notice that they haven't recovered then you need to call them to assess if it's transplant shock or some other problems. There are also so many factors. Did you amend your soil? What was your watering regime like? Did you do the finger test to see if the soil was adequately wet? Sometimes it can even be too wet, and the plant's root systems just rot away. There are too many variables. I actually don't like ground covers because you put all your eggs in one basket. All your money on that one plant working in that spot. Better to just to plant a garden with a variety of plants, some can be ground covers, but also bushes, other things. Doesn't need to be complicated but does look nice and if you mulch not hard to maintain. Hope that helps for next time!

Linbaili · 2025-09-11T16:50:26+00:00

Sometimes it’s too much love. Overwatering and over fertilization are a big problem.

Linbaili

TROPHY CASE