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DESPERATELY NEED TRUE JARDINERO


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I am in  Desperate need of a true jardinero....one who doesn't just water and sweep.  But knows which plants go where and will weed and feed and prune and spray.  Things I "assume" a jardinero would  be skilled in.  

Mi jardín will be his palette.  I am so hungry for a lovely jardín.....willing to absolutely let him take the lead.  Three times a week in riberas.  Excellent pay for excellent work .

(Edited by mod to correct word "jardinero")

 

gracias,

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Is it possible that you have two things going on?   First is to design your garden, second to find a gardener.   Someone the other day was telling me Chapala Tree Service did landscaping.   I have used Cuca at the nursery in Riberas around the satellite office, carretera, lake side.  Her daughter speaks english.   You might ask either of them to recommend a gardener for you to keep up their creation.

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Several have said that the nursery behind Super Lake will design and plant your garden. After which all you need is someone to water, fertilize, and weed.

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The better gardeners will never weed. The poorer gardeners have no skills. I've never found anyone in between. Had two of the better gardeners; their rates were ridiculous, but they find lots of work, usually in long-term situations with people who require much more work than I can offer. I would like someone who knows his stuff, and doesn't spend four hours just pruning and watering. My area is quite tiny.

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Pretty sure I know the answer to this q.  

But, are there any landscaping companies (mowing, trimming, etc) vis a vis Spring Clean .... meaning, a company that sends their employees, rather than the homeowner having to hire a personal gardener and becoming his employer?  

It strikes me odd that if you hire a pool guy to come x times a month, every month, you do not become his employer compared to a gardener or house cleaner (which is why I like Spring Clean). 

 

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I'm beginning to feel the same way as the original poster, desperate!  I employ a gardener 5 days a week for 6 hours a day.  He spends approx 10 hours a week watering the garden after a 4 stage sprinkler system was thoroughly soaked everything.  I've tried to discipline him but a few days later it's back to a steady stream water flowing down the driveway and off down the street.  The most of the rest of the time he likes to prune certain shrubs and roses over and over again.  58 Pesos/hour; maybe I'm not paying enough?

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5 hours ago, Bisbee Gal said:

Pretty sure I know the answer to this q.  

But, are there any landscaping companies (mowing, trimming, etc) vis a vis Spring Clean .... meaning, a company that sends their employees, rather than the homeowner having to hire a personal gardener and becoming his employer?  

It strikes me odd that if you hire a pool guy to come x times a month, every month, you do not become his employer compared to a gardener or house cleaner (which is why I like Spring Clean). 

 

There are a number of individuals that do this but I don't know of a company. They come with all their equipment and cut and prune, water and fertilizer. You may have to do some watering between their visits. You don't have to worry about getting gas or having your lawnmower fixed. I've found that very few (almost none) of the gardeners know much about plants, insects or pruning. A company who would do all of this could make a good business of it.

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I do almost all my own gardening, mostly because it brings me joy and contentment. I occasionally hire someone if I need tall bananas or palms pruned, but as other posters have noted, I don't consider standing and holding a hose for hours to be a job description I am willing to pay for. Once I hired a guy to do some pruning- I had to go attend to something else for 15 minutes, and when I came back, he was proudly and happily raking out all the mulch I put around my plants to conserve moisture and keep down weeds.

I do wish you luck finding someone professional.

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4 hours ago, Cincy's Wife said:

I'm beginning to feel the same way as the original poster, desperate!  I employ a gardener 5 days a week for 6 hours a day.  He spends approx 10 hours a week watering the garden after a 4 stage sprinkler system was thoroughly soaked everything.  I've tried to discipline him but a few days later it's back to a steady stream water flowing down the driveway and off down the street.  The most of the rest of the time he likes to prune certain shrubs and roses over and over again.  58 Pesos/hour; maybe I'm not paying enough?

I can top that (maybe). Looked out during a torrential cloud burst during the rainy season, gardener was sheltered under the terraza roof, watering the flooded concrete in the yard. I'll give you the same advice a friend gave me, " Your gardener is sending you a message you are not hearing".

The amount of pay is not the problem. For you, it's letting him decide what to do. If he is repeatedly off on his own horsing around, he needs supervision. A list every day. You must have acres of plants for that amount of time. Control what he's doing and you might look at cutting back the hours. If a list every day is onerous, once a week and review what he's doing off it every day. If there are plants that need hand watering, list them. Otherwise, no watering. None. Once you set the rules, you need to enforce them. You can do it without confrontation, but he's really taking advantage.

Good luck. And fyi, I went through the nose bleed of properly firing She Waters Concrete in the Rain.

 

 

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Actually, I don't think any gardener should be holding a hose on any plants ever, it's not at all necessary. If the hose has one of those brass or plastic screw open/closed nozzles on it (as opposed to one that you squeeze the trigger on), it can just be set to a small trickle, and left at the base of a plant or tree for 5 minutes while the gardener prunes or rakes something. Then just go move the hose to another area and continue working. But that would be an efficient use of time, a concept not widely understood here :-)

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When I bought my fairly large property I wondered why there were so few plants growing there-quite barren. I thought this is semi tropical so it should be quite lush and interesting. The first season I let the gardener that came with the property do the watering and gardening. Then I understood. Virtually all he did was water (in a pecular manner) and since my soil has a lot of clay the plant roots drown/rotted in the soggy soil. The gardener knew very little about plants even though he had worked next door for years where his father had been the gardener for over 30 years. Likewise that property is pretty barren. The only thing that does well there is the grass which he waters to such excess that it drains onto my property. My gardener has since been restricted to digging big holes when needed, using the lawnmower (but not the grass trimmer as he cuts the bark on trees I have planted), raking and sweeping the decks and cutting down high palm palapas.

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Most of them here are just that.  Yard handymen. They will do what you ask but most won't take initiative on their own.  Our gardener has been with us for 6 years now and is good.  We have taught him the difference between a weed and a plant, have taken time to show him how to propertly prune, trim, fertilize (schedule posted in bodega), etc.  When we first bought our home he was the gardener here for over 12 years - doing a terrible job.  But, with patience, work and time he has become a cherished employee and someone we trust completely.  He loves it when guests comment on what a beautiful yard we have - we chuckle and remember back.  Win, Win.   

 

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On ‎1‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 3:13 PM, cedros said:

There are a number of individuals that do this but I don't know of a company. They come with all their equipment and cut and prune, water and fertilizer. You may have to do some watering between their visits. You don't have to worry about getting gas or having your lawnmower fixed. I've found that very few (almost none) of the gardeners know much about plants, insects or pruning. A company who would do all of this could make a good business of it.

Hello

Thanks for your information.

Can you provide contact information for the individuals who provide 'mobile services'

meaning...they have transportation and their own tools

and will provide gardening services(trimming and plants and trees/fertilizing/spraying for weeds and insects etc)

as needed...

once or twice a month

My garden space is small and I do not need a neighborhood 'full time/part time gardener'.

Thanks.

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Chapala Tree Service can do that? I mean, the complete gardening? :)

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On 1/24/2017 at 8:27 PM, Sea said:

I can top that (maybe). Looked out during a torrential cloud burst during the rainy season, gardener was sheltered under the terraza roof, watering the flooded concrete in the yard. I'll give you the same advice a friend gave me, " Your gardener is sending you a message you are not hearing".

The amount of pay is not the problem. For you, it's letting him decide what to do. If he is repeatedly off on his own horsing around, he needs supervision. A list every day. You must have acres of plants for that amount of time. Control what he's doing and you might look at cutting back the hours. If a list every day is onerous, once a week and review what he's doing off it every day. If there are plants that need hand watering, list them. Otherwise, no watering. None. Once you set the rules, you need to enforce them. You can do it without confrontation, but he's really taking advantage.

Good luck. And fyi, I went through the nose bleed of properly firing She Waters Concrete in the Rain.

 

 

You're right, when we assign him specific projects, he's not the fastest worker but he does a good job and seems to enjoy focusing on a project.  Hopefully we can figure out how to better manage him as we'd hate to fire him and end up having the same problem with somebody else.

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3 hours ago, Apachewoman said:

Hello

Thanks for your information.

Can you provide contact information for the individuals who provide 'mobile services'

meaning...they have transportation and their own tools

and will provide gardening services(trimming and plants and trees/fertilizing/spraying for weeds and insects etc)

as needed...

once or twice a month

My garden space is small and I do not need a neighborhood 'full time/part time gardener'.

Thanks.

Several years ago I tried to find individuals who would come with their own equipment and do maintenance and some gardening. I kept my eye out for guys driving into my fraccionamiento doing this and would ask  them if they wanted more work. I never was sucessful but it should work. You see very few advertised. I will ask a couple of guys I know that do this and if they are interested I will send you their info by a PM. What area do you live in?  

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On 1/24/2017 at 4:13 PM, cedros said:

There are a number of individuals that do this but I don't know of a company. They come with all their equipment and cut and prune, water and fertilizer. You may have to do some watering between their visits. You don't have to worry about getting gas or having your lawnmower fixed. I've found that very few (almost none) of the gardeners know much about plants, insects or pruning. A company who would do all of this could make a good business of it.

I had a gardener once who had no idea that the caterpillars eating my passion flower vine would turn into butterflies.  He could not understand why I didn't want him to spray to get rid of the "plaga."  He had already worked here several years so this was not the first time we had gone through the caterpillar-pupea-butterfly.  But he had what I refer to as "Mexican gardener blindness"--didnt see weeds, didn't observe the evolution of the caterpillars.  He did manage to kill all the vines originally planted at my house when I bought it new. I tried to explain that I could replace the plants but I could never replace the butterflies.  My first Social Security check went to paying him finiquito when I fired him.  What a relief!

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