Landscapers near you

It helps to describe the job in the same terms a landscaper prices it. Soft landscaping is the planting: turf or seed, beds, shrubs, hedging and topsoil. Hard landscaping is the built work: patios, paths, block paving, resin or tarmac drives, steps, retaining edges, fencing and decking. Drainage and levels sit underneath both, and they are what separates a garden that still works after five winters from one that puddles every time it rains.

Japanese knotweed is the defining problem plant in British gardens, and it is a legal matter as much as a horticultural one. Government guidance is blunt about the two duties: you do not have to remove knotweed from your own land unless it is causing a nuisance, but you must stop it spreading off your property, and you can be prosecuted for causing it to spread into the wild.

Once it is cut or dug, it becomes a waste problem. Soil and plant material contaminated with knotweed can be classified as controlled waste. Guidance says it must not be disposed of with other surplus soil or sold on as topsoil; taking it off site means a registered waste carrier and a permitted landfill or incineration site, with the load covered in transit and vehicles cleaned afterwards. Burying it on site requires notifying the Environment Agency in advance, and treating plants near water needs the Environment Agency's agreement on the herbicide. This is why knotweed removal is quoted by specialist firms rather than added to a general landscaping price: government guidance points to contractors on the BASIS Professional Register or members of bodies such as the Invasive Non-Native Specialists Association or the Property Care Association.

It also follows the house. The official guide to selling a home says your legal representative will ask you to complete a Property Information Form, known as a TA6, and lists Japanese knotweed management plans among the paperwork a seller may need; it also warns sellers not to mislead buyers by covering up defects. Lenders take the same view. The government's equity mortgage lenders' handbook for conveyancers, for example, deals with knotweed identified on a property or within 7 metres of any boundary, and looks for a management plan completed by an appropriately qualified person or company, a completion certificate and a minimum 10 year insurance-backed guarantee. Treating knotweed quietly and keeping no paperwork is the expensive option.

A tree in your own garden is not automatically yours to fell. A Tree Preservation Order prohibits cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilful damage and wilful destruction without the local planning authority's written consent. Trees in a conservation area that are not already covered by an Order have their own rule: you give the council six weeks' notice before work, which gives it time to decide whether to make an Order. There are exemptions, with their own notice requirements, for dead trees and for trees presenting an immediate risk of serious harm, where written notice must be given as soon as practicable. A landscaper or arborist who shrugs at this question is the wrong one to hire.

Boundary hedges have a separate regime. In England, the high hedges provisions apply to a line of two or more mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs over 2 metres tall that spoils a neighbour's reasonable enjoyment of their property. You must try to settle the dispute informally first, and the council may charge a fee to consider a complaint. Scotland has its own statute, the High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013, under which a neighbour applies to the local authority for a high hedge notice after meeting pre-application requirements. In both cases the complaint is about the hedge's height and effect, not about whether you like it.

Two seasonal rules catch homeowners out, and both sit outside anything a landscaper can price away. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird, to take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while that nest is in use or being built, or to take or destroy an egg. That applies to the hedge along your boundary and to the ivy on the garage as much as to woodland, which is why competent contractors check a hedge before the machine goes into it and will postpone the cut if a nest is active.

The second is water. Under section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991, a water company may prohibit specified uses if it thinks it is experiencing, or may experience, a serious shortage of water for distribution. The prohibited uses named in the legislation include watering a garden using a hosepipe, cleaning a private motor vehicle using a hosepipe and filling a domestic pool or pond. A ban has to specify the date it starts and the area it covers, so the company's own notice is the thing to read before you plan new turf or new planting, since both need reliable watering in their first weeks.

A good landscaping job spends its first day on levels, not on plants. The contractor should measure the site, note where water currently goes, identify trees that may be protected, check for knotweed and other invasive plants and agree where spoil and deliveries will go. Access decides a surprising amount: a garden reachable only through the house is a different job from one with side access wide enough for a mini digger.

Then comes the sequence: clearance and waste removal, excavation and sub-base, drainage and services, hard landscaping, topsoil and planting, turf last so it is not walked on. Ask for the specification in writing, including sub-base depths, whether the spoil is being taken away, who is responsible for reinstating a damaged kerb or verge crossing, and what aftercare the planting and turf need in the first season.

LokalMatch is where that conversation starts. You describe the garden job once, including access, the surfaces involved and anything you already know about trees or knotweed, and matched landscapers in your postcode area get in touch with you directly. The professionals pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not carry out the work, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend any company, so the references, insurance and written specification are still yours to check.