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In the garden 2022

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Pigeons throw themselves at my window , no casualalities yet thank goodness.

A mystery I thought others could solve for me.
A few weeks ago I was tidying up a large terracotta pot with a shrub in it but the soil had been moved.I found a large beefhide dog chew buried in it, my husband put the camera out and we were visited by a very large Fox who had come looking for it.
Today I was moving a tiny pot of crocus that had finished flowering, everything was intact no disturbance until I saw a spot of brown and uncovered a hens egg. I broke it and it was addled it must have been there before the crocus began to grow as they were covering it.
I am wondering , as the egg wasn't even cracked, if a Fox would be capable of carrying an egg over a 6ft fence, burying it and not break it.
My other thought was a Rat but it would be far too big for one to carry.
The camera will go out again tonight.
 
Alberta said:
Pigeons throw themselves at my window , no casualalities yet thank goodness.

A mystery I thought others could solve for me.
A few weeks ago I was tidying up a large terracotta pot with a shrub in it but the soil had been moved.I found a large beefhide dog chew buried in it, my husband put the camera out and we were visited by a very large Fox who had come looking for it.
Today I was moving a tiny pot of crocus that had finished flowering, everything was intact no disturbance until I saw a spot of brown and uncovered a hens egg. I broke it and it was addled it must have been there before the crocus began to grow as they were covering it.
I am wondering , as the egg wasn't even cracked, if a Fox would be capable of carrying an egg over a 6ft fence, burying it and not break it.
My other thought was a Rat but it would be far too big for one to carry.
The camera will go out again tonight.
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I keep finding bits of lamb shank bones and cake and bun wrappers licked clean, a buried dead squirrel with the tail sticking out. Polystyrene trays licked clean I saw a fox carrying one once. We have many fast food outlets close by,
I found a pound of cheese in a wooly hat once and various cans and bottles of half drunk alcohol. A smart denim jacket, the same cat's collar three times, (Stanley) a pair of frilly knickers, hubcaps, a briefcase full of papers, little cylinders that make you high and unmentionables .All in the privet hedge.
 
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latoyabongaarts said:
This year I set up my own business (sole trader) offering garden maintenance - weeding, mowing, clearing borders, seasonal pruning - the usual. I have a small van and some starter pieces of kit (petrol tools but lower end as finances dictated).

In the summer I was busy - I priced "big jobs" as £125 per day (worked approx 6 hours and removed waste for customers). Didn't give hourly rate, just priced each job by how many days work it would be. Seemed fair and customers were happy. Felt like I was making ok money especially as a new business.

here's my problem - most of these customers wanted regular fortnightly or monthly maintenance. I offered £35 for two hours work (fortnightly or monthly) but made it clear if they went monthly and had a larger garden I wasn't going to get around all the jobs. So far all customers see happy. But I do 1 or 2 jobs a day for £70 max whereas before I was earning £125. I rarely work more than 2 in a day as the hassle and time of travelling between seems to affect things (all my jobs are within 3 mile radius so far). It also seems more tiring weirdly doing 2 maintenance in one day vs one big tidy up but that could be psychological. And what's more between all the regular customers I don't have time to leaflet drop etc for the big one off jobs, nor do I seem to have much diary space (I work 4 days or want to be working 4 days per week going forward).

Any tips on how many hours and rough pricing for regular maintenance would be really appreciated. And do you do a maintenance schedule specifying exactly what you're doing for each client too so they know what to expect?
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If your 125 pound days are steady and repeatable then do that. The off set of the repeat business is that it is always there. based upon what you state above I would increase your 35 pounds (don't have a pound sign on my computer) to 40 and again in the fall to 45. You might have underpriced yourself and just have to get to where you are comfortable without upsetting too many people.

I hope that helps..........
 
I too agree that your £125 a day rate was a good rate. Also, that fact that you manage the customer expectations by being crystal clear of what you do, and what you don’t do is good and you should build on this.

One of the problems with gardening and other building work is pricing for small jobs is not very cost effective for you. Its why a lot of company’s now have a minimum call out charge. Going out to pick up a one-hour work, can prevent you working a full day elsewhere, so you do need to think about a minimum charge and to also schedule your work too.

There are formula for working out and hourly rate. You can PM me if you need help with this.

Do bear in mind taxation later down the road. Look at hanging onto 40% of what you earn so your not caught with your pants down (metaphorically speaking).
 
Morturn said:
I too agree that your £125 a day rate was a good rate. Also, that fact that you manage the customer expectations by being crystal clear of what you do, and what you don’t do is good and you should build on this.

One of the problems with gardening and other building work is pricing for small jobs is not very cost effective for you. Its why a lot of company’s now have a minimum call out charge. Going out to pick up a one-hour work, can prevent you working a full day elsewhere, so you do need to think about a minimum charge and to also schedule your work too.

There are formula for working out and hourly rate. You can PM me if you need help with this.

Do bear in mind taxation later down the road. Look at hanging onto 40% of what you earn so your not caught with your pants down (metaphorically speaking).
Click to expand...
Great advice, particularly the last paragraph! If your business is strong you should try to only do small jobs for regular customers where you are investing in your relationship to do more.
 
Having got fed up with picking our old seed feeder up from the floor - either pigeons or squirrel seem to be able to get it to unscrew - I bought a new feeder with a detachable seed tray underneath.
It went out yesterday morning and almost immediately a little blue tit appeared. In fact vists were so frequent I think there might have been a pair but I only saw one at a time. The feeder met with approval - in fact I thought the bue tit was going to try to get inside at one point.
The pigeons were less happy and stood on the fence looking down or the ground looking up before flying off. That lasted until last night when my husband informed me there was not one but two pigeons on the feeder. Haven't seen a squirrel try yet.
 

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pjmburns said:
Having got fed up with picking our old seed feeder up from the floor - either pigeons or squirrel seem to be able to get it to unscrew - I bought a new feeder with a detachable seed tray underneath.
It went out yesterday morning and almost immediately a little blue tit appeared. In fact vists were so frequent I think there might have been a pair but I only saw one at a time. The feeder met with approval - in fact I thought the bue tit was going to try to get inside at one point.
The pigeons were less happy and stood on the fence looking down or the ground looking up before flying off. That lasted until last night when my husband informed me there was not one but two pigeons on the feeder. Haven't seen a squirrel try yet.
Click to expand...
Our solution to Wood Pigeons was dried worms. Most other birds seem happy to eat them but they don’t seem to interest the pigeons. Tinpot
 
Because they are so big, they need a lot more food than the smaller birds and can quickly hoover up everything you put out. Their sheer size can also be off-putting for smaller birds at the table, although they are not known for being aggressive towards smaller birds.One good thing about wood pigeons is that they will sit under hanging feeders and clear up fallen seeds. This is a bonus if you want to avoid leaving food hanging around to attract unwanted visitors like rats.:grinning:
i have 2 nesting in a bush at the top of the garden, i think they have happy faces, :grinning:1651388140011.png
 
mw0njm. said:
Because they are so big, they need a lot more food than the smaller birds and can quickly hoover up everything you put out. Their sheer size can also be off-putting for smaller birds at the table, although they are not known for being aggressive towards smaller birds.One good thing about wood pigeons is that they will sit under hanging feeders and clear up fallen seeds. This is a bonus if you want to avoid leaving food hanging around to attract unwanted visitors like rats.:grinning:
i have 2 nesting in a bush at the top of the garden, i think they have happy faces, :grinning:View attachment 169854
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Many years ago i used to buy wood pigeons from my local butcher. They taste very nice but always remember to spit the lead pellets out. :(
 
Here the pigeons, and collared doves don’t come into the garden much, they tend to congregate in farmer’s fields. They do like to make a noise though. In the UK, robins would go for dried worms, and sometimes would take from the outstretched hand. Over here, Julie bought a packet of worms, and the robin looked at her like she was from the planet ZOG, and then flew off. None of the other birds touched them either. Badger probably had them In the end. Maybe our robins prefer dried frogs legs, or dried snails. For clearing under the bird feeders we employ chaffinches, sometimes subcontracted to our local pheasant.
Andrew.
 
My garden is like a snowstorm today, next-door-but-one has a massive goat-willow and it's fluff is blowing everywhere.
My husband saw a bird on our feeder which might be a bullfinch, he said it seemed red with a splash of white, very pretty!
rosie.
 
I could see some of my neighbours pointing across the gardens, there was a small rabbit making his way through the fences until he'd passed through my garden and into one two doors away, he was sitting in the middle of the lawn but quickly went and hid when he saw me.
Spoke to the neighbour this morning and he says it's still tucked away under his border plants.
Wild or escaped pet, nobody seems to be looking or him.
 
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