Posted on Sat, Apr. 26, 2008

I've been receiving phone calls from people wanting to hire garden help ever since I wrote about personal gardener Peggy Griffith two years ago.

The demand for people to plant, weed and prune -- basically maintain -- our gardens only increases by the year.

"I could work day and night if I wanted, because people just don't like to go out and pull weeds," Kathleen Roberts, another personal gardener, told me this week.

Not only do people not like it, they don't have time. Laurie Myer returned to work once her sons got older and then found that the care of her beloved garden in Lakepoint no longer fit in her schedule. She hired Peggy, and the result has been ideal.

"I'm really picky about my garden, but she's artistic about it and she seems to care the way I do," Laurie said.

"It's a huge source of satisfaction for me. She's fantastic."

But the gardeners for hire that I talked to this week said they were so busy they couldn't take on new clients, even though some of them add helpers when needed.

"We've worked every single day since the garden show, nonstop," Peggy told me during a quick break in the action this week.

"It's a serious problem, because there's not enough time to do it. I get calls every single day I have to turn away. I don't have a minute left in the day, and there's nobody to give them to. I feel sorry for them."

It's no wonder personal gardeners are in demand. Most offer more services than the lawnmowing neighbor boy, and smaller jobs than a big landscaping company.

"I just had a lady say she wanted her yard mulched and she can't lift the bag and she wondered if I could

help her," said Mike Hopple, who

started his SpringPeepers garden

business this year.

"I do pavers, stone walls, ponds, trim a tree. If you're paying me, I'll serve you a cup of coffee. I take care of yards, weed-eating. I have a lady who says, 'Will you back out my two Mercedes and sweep the garage?' "

Mike will. He even serves chocolates to customers who meet him at the garden center to pick out plants.

"It's just a little treat," he said.

More typically, personal gardeners plant plants and then visit a garden once a week during the summer to deadhead, weed, prune, fertilize and keep an eye out for pests. They'll replace plants as needed. Weekly visits mean that nothing gets out of hand, and the garden always looks its best, extension agent Bob Neier said.

The gardeners for hire, who charge from $25 to $50 an hour, say they get their customers mainly through word of mouth. Some have contacts at garden centers, who may refer customers to them. Mike says other referrals come from equipment-rental, sod and stone companies, as well as Botanica and garden clubs to which he belongs.

The personal gardeners hire extra help as needed. Kathleen Roberts, for example, is able to stretch her services with the addition of two neighbors.

"They're both married and they don't work outside the home and they like outdoors, and those have been my two big helpers," she said. She makes the whole thing sound like a party.

"I pick up the ladies and they're just fun and we all get along."

Kathleen and Peggy are master gardeners, and there are a few other master gardeners who do personal gardening. Their knowledge makes them particularly prized. You don't want to hire someone who mistakes your emerging flowers for weeds.

Mike invites people who are considering hiring him to view his work by looking at his yard or yards he's worked on. He is a self-taught gardener who recently served as president of the Kansas Pond Society. He and his wife, Kathy, have a beautiful garden in northeast Wichita that was on one of the garden tours last summer. He is also a plumber who still does plumbing but decided to parlay his love for the outdoors, ponds and gardens into this new business.

A person who wants to get into personal gardening doesn't necessarily have to have master-gardener training, Kathleen said.

"I think you do need some knowledge about it, but you can read about it and go on the Internet," she said.

Said Mike: "I always recommend if you want to learn about gardening, go join a club, because that's where you're going to be around the people who love to garden." (You can find a list of Wichita-area garden clubs and contact information in our online garden reference at www.kansas.com/homegarden.)

As for equipment, the outlay needn't be large. Pruners are his most-used tool, Mike says.

"I just load up my car," Kathleen says. "I use all of my own tools, electric trimmer, gas blower, rakes, pruners, broom, clippers, lopper."

While Mike hasn't totally given up his plumbing gig, he thinks a gardening business could be a full-time job, "if you're out there hitting it hard and you're not crazy with your money.... We always take 10 percent out, and that'll help get you through the slow times."

Let's hope more gardeners realize they'd enjoy helping other gardeners.

"I'm just amazed by it right now," Mike said.

Reach Annie Calovich at 316-268-6596 or acalovich@wichitaeagle.com.