The weather has been unseasonably mild today. Not T-shirt weather, but then again not even a sniff of frost and the sun shone all day.

Went to see a new customer. They've got a large leylandii hedge (7m high, 2 m wide, 19m long) which needs trimming and waste removing. They've given me the price the previous company used to charge (£200). I've said I can do it cheaper than this to try and seal the work, as they are keen for me to do this in January - a skinny month.

They also want two of their front borders tidying up. So once again I've suggested the low maintenance border option - clear weeds, then lay fabric and bark mulch. They've said they'll go for this if the price is right.
The border is established, so new plants aren't needed, but there will be extra cutting and fiddling around with the fabric to lay it around the shrubs. So I think between £20 and £25 a square meter is still accurate and fair.

I would like to do a step by step guide for this quote as there is a shortage of this type of help on the Internet. One of the things they should teach at college is how to do a quote. It is however one of them things you learn the hard way - sink or swim!

After this visit I went to another one of my already booked in conifer hedge jobs. The front hedge has been done, I'm now working on the back one and it is one stubborn awkward troll of a hedge, it is deep thick and intertwined so topping it, even with the Stihl long reach pole saw is no simple task.

All the waste is coming back for processing as this will make a good bulk of firewood and decorative mulch.

Little madam was running around in her walker when I got in, showing off her new syllables dadad babab gagaa whilst chewing her cuddly tweeting chicken (called Barry!).