Faq

As a professional landscape maintenance company, we have had a lot of experience dealing with all sorts of pets. We have a lot of pet lovers on staff as well. For the safety and well being of your pet, we have our own pet policy for their protection. Our equipment and staff could easily scare your pet  if your pet is loose in the back yard. For this reason we won’t go in. We ask that you keep your pet inside on your day of service.  Also, we ask that you pick up after your pet unless you use our Pet Waste Removal service, (not available in all territories). Even though our fertilizer is naturally based, we do suggest you keep your pet inside until it is watered into you lawn to avoid any possible effects.

Weeds are simply an indicator that the plant you desire, turf grass, is struggling or has died.  This creates space and opportunity for other plants such as dandelions, clover and plantain to get established.  Simply trying to kill the weeds without doing anything to re-establish a thick healthy lawn will mean a constant battle with your lawn.  An effective approach is to ensure your lawn is receiving a full season of properly timed applications and treatments including fertilizer, aeration, over-seeding and proper mowing.  A thick healthy lawn will have fewer problems with weeds!

Grubs can devastate a lawn by eating the roots of the grass.  Further damage is then caused by skunks, raccoons and birds digging at your lawn as they hunt for the grubs.  Insects such as June Beetles and Japanese Beetles lay eggs in your lawn late summer which then hatch into small larvae.  It’s these small, rapidly growing “grubs” that do the damage.  The best time and method to treat for them is to apply beneficial nematodes in late summer or early fall.  Spring treatments are ineffective, so you should simply repair the damage and make plans to have the treatment done at the appropriate time later in the season.

To ensure your lawn remains thick and lush all season it’s best to apply a professional, turf grass fertilizer four times each season.  The best times to apply the fertilizer is early May, late June, early September and mid-October.  You’ll often see other companies applying fertilizer earlier in the spring, but this product provides little benefit as the ground is still too cold and the grass is not yet actively growing. 

Once a year is recommended, this will help ensure a thick healthy lawn when combined with proper fertilizer, watering and maintenance. Please remember to mark your inground sprinkler heads and other hidden obstacles to avoid prior to our crews aerating.      

We strongly recommend early Fall as the most beneficial time to aerate your lawn. We are aware that a lot of our competitors perform aerations in the Spring (sometimes when there is still snow on it) but that isn’t in your lawn’s best interests. Typically those companies are doing it at that time to get a quick Spring cash influx. We want your lawn to benefit as much as possible from the service so we try to do our aerations later in the season. Think of your lawn as the armor against all the weed seeds being released in the Spring, why would you want to poke thousands of holes in that armor? By waiting til the Fall we avoid this. This said if you absolutely want a Spring aeration we will try to accommodate your request.

At The Gardener our goal is to make sure all driveways and parking lots are accessible 24 hours a day throughout the winter. That being said, we cannot guarantee anything as Mother Nature can be uncooperative at times. Our goals are this, during night snowfalls we strive to complete all properties by 6:30 a.m. and for all daytime snowfalls our goal is to complete all plowing by 4:30 p.m. We have over 25 years of experience and during the winter months ice management and/or snow plowing are our only duties 24 hours per day seven days a week.

Typically fall clean ups are done using a multiple visit method. This ensures that leaves are removed in a timely fashion and that lots more leaves do not accumulate after the clean up is done. Depending on when you sign up for this service you will receive two or more visits with some of the duties performed each visit such as removal of annual plants, trimming and tying of shrubs, raking leaves and a final lawn cutting. This service is critical as leaves allowed to remain on the lawn throughout the winter could be detrimental to your lawns health. We try to get all clean ups completed in November or early December, however we are at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Spring clean ups are completed in one visit throughout April and early May weather permitting. The date that the service was confirmed will dictate when your clean up will be completed with priority given to early bookings. Book this service early to ensure your lawn is the envy of the neighbourhood!

Please click on the locations tab or enter your postal code on our home page for a complete list of our locations across Canada.

Early drought symptoms include your grass colour changing to a dark silvery tinge, foot prints become clearly visible and the grass does not bounce back when you walk on it. Drought conditions occur when your lawn does not receive the proper amount of water such as when it is hot and sunny for long periods of time without rainfall. If your lawn shows these signs water it immediately and continue to water at regular intervals but don’t over water. If your lawn continues past the early signs and turns a straw colour please don’t panic! When the weather changes and rainfall occurs or cloudy cooler weather arrives your lawn will slowly come back to its natural green colour. Dormancy is a natural defence mechanism.  

Water is the single most important thing you can feed your lawn. To encourage strong healthy roots your lawn will require a minimum of 2.5 to 4 cm of water weekly. Of course this does vary depending on your soil type and how much direct sunlight your lawn receives. Generally though watering for 20 minutes once or twice a week will be sufficient especially when combined with rainfall. While not watering enough will cause your lawn to dry out and possibly go dormant, over watering can also cause a lot of issues such as fungus and other turf disease. As for the best time to water? Early morning is best, mid day can burn your grass and evening creates a better chance of fungus growth.

All lawns are different, some grow a lot while others not as much. Each season the weather is also different. Usually in the early Spring and Fall your lawn will need to be bagged to avoid too much mess being left behind. At other times of the season we will mulch lawn when possible. With that said The Gardener does offer a Lawn Clipping Removal service at a reasonable additional charge. It works like this, during the times of the year when we bag your lawn clippings we will take the bags away with us. They get disposed of at a composting facility. We will not bag your lawn every week if you pay for clipping removal, we will still mulch when possible. If you do not confirm clipping removal the bags (if any) will be left at the side of your house.

If you keep a locked gate, we generally recommend that you switch to a combination lock and give us the code so we can lock it back up to you when we’re through. Otherwise you’re responsible for locking/unlocking on your mowing day or you could decide to leave a key for us at your discretion. The Gardener cannot be help liable if someone were to find that key though. If we unload all of our equipment and find you forgot to unlock your gate, we’ll mow everything we can and move on. If it’s on a fertilizing or spring clean-up day, we’ll phone you and reschedule service.

Yes, your property maintenance estimate is always provided free of charge. We are pleased to get your estimate to you quickly and provide prices for as many relevant services as possible so you can make an informed purchase. If you provide an email address it will allow us to email your estimate which is usually the quickest way to get it to you.

The Gardener typically runs credit cards and debits the accounts of clients that sign up for Pre-authorized Payment (PAP) on the first of each month of service. Commercial invoices are due upon receipt (unless other arrangements have been made). All charges with The Gardener will be itemized on your Season Invoice or Service Contract for transparency. Other services such as Landscape Construction, planting services, sod installations and other one time charges may be broken into a deposit and balance but again it would be detailed prior to the work being confirmed or commenced. 

If you have a special event coming up and need us to adjust your schedule, please keep us informed! Just notify our office a minimum of two business days before so we have time to react. It’s difficult for us to move our schedule around, especially on late notice, but if we have a crew in the area on a later day, we’ll do our best. We find the more notice the better works out in everyone’s favor.

If you get your lawn fertilized by someone other than us (gasp!), we strongly recommend you let your service provider know your cutting day once it has been established. That way they aren’t showing up just before we mow. If The Gardener is providing your fertilization, then don’t worry about scheduling; that’s on us!

Usually this question is followed up with others like “Do you guys do a good job?”, “Are you going to show up every week?”, “Where’s the catch?”. The answer is ‘YES, we do a good job.’ We do cut weekly. There is no catch. The way we stay so competitive is simple: we have reviewed our business from top to bottom and while we might not be the absolute cheapest company, we are confident if you compare apples to apples we will be the best option. Our business plan has always been to “offer all clients reliable and professional services at a fair rate”. It’s been that way since we cut our first lawns in the mid 1980’s and it works out best for everyone. Reliable yard service should be affordable for everyone.

If only drizzle or light showers occurs it doesn’t affect us too much. We will be extra careful and our walk-behind mowers are light and won’t cause damage to your lawn. If there is a thunderstorm, or it is raining heavily, we will sit it out for a while if it looks like it will pass and continue when its safe to do so. If the rain persists we will reschedule your service to the following business day.

Our crews start off each morning around 8am and finish around 6pm Monday thru Friday. Occasionally we might have to work a Saturday if we fall behind due to inclement weather. Your property is scheduled in the most logical geographical order with our existing customers. We strive to cut your lawn the same day and approximate time each week  the same time each week, barring weather. A special mow day can be requested, but we reserve the right to charge additionally for this luxury if it is too far off our current route.

To properly ensure the health and appearance of our clients lawns weekly service is generally essential. Given that we can never cut more than 1/3 of the grass blade off in a single mowing cutting frequently with well maintained equipment with sharp blades is what most professionals recommend. In Ontario (aside from Thunder Bay) and Nova Scotia all lawns are mowed 25 times from the first week of May thru the third week of October. In Thunder Bay lawns are cut 18 times from mid May thru mid October and in Alberta lawn are cut from early May to mid October (weather permitting).

Our mowers are set at 2.5” in the spring and raised to 3” during the hot summer months. These are the heights recommended for most of the common types of grasses. 

At The Gardener we understand that you are concerned with who steps foot on your property. For this reason we do the work ourselves. For all landscape maintenance services, only the local franchise owner and their staff will be at your site. While we strive to provide all services this way, occasionally with other types of services such as winter services, construction or tree work a properly vetted sub-contractor may be required, we can notify you if you request it.  

Absolutely! The Gardener carries extensive Commercial Liability insurance should any need arise. Also to keep you at ease please know that all staff are covered by workplace safety insurance and receive extensive and on-going safety training to mitigate risk.

You will receive a confirmation package either by email or mail with information on the services you have confirmed, other services available in your area and payment options. Please return one signed copy of the confirmation form and your chosen payment method in a timely fashion. You will also be on the list to have the services performed at the correct time of year in a professional manner by a fully trained, uniformed and insured crew.

Call our local office or fill in the online form to send your request electronically. The next step is for the local Gardener franchise owner to review your property details so they can provide your free no obligation estimate. Service can be confirmed on the spot, by email or over the phone later on.