Our Garden
Can any member give me any idea's as to what is a good and fair price to pay for weekly visits;
mowing, sweeping, strimming, shrub/tree/vine pruning, weeding, digging flower beds, weed killer - usually on graveled/paved areas, fertillising the grass twice a year. and as a separate charge for looking after the pool on a weekly basis

Willow what your are referring to there is a good days work - Afer speaking with people they tell me the top rates are 15lev to 20 lev a day. However, for the first day it would be 20 lev each for two people to come in and clear the grounds then the 15 or 20 lev once a week to keep it that way. Also remember there is nothing to do in the winter so no payments for the winter months. In VT area they pay them less than that per day.

Looking at it logically now: Unfortunately many of us make a rod for our own back by paying workers/friends 150 to 200lev a month because we feel that we should be paying them more, why! (a) because they are now our friends, (b) we think 20lev is silly money and we want to be fair however, the fact is we are paying way over the top. Word gets around so when the Brits need work doing the price is double or more. Then we moan because we find out someone else is paying far less for the same service. Example We paid 80lev to have our grounds cleared. 4 people came in for 2 hours and cleared 2000sq meter of weeds. Then the tractor man came in and rotavated all the land for 30lev. Of course everyone was happy especially us only paying £55 to have the garden sorted. But the next time they came they wanted more, saying the work is very hard etc. We went to the Mayor was not very happy about the charges so now he send us the workers and we pay him what ever the daily rates is.

We have to bear in mind that a Bulgarian school teachers only get 300lev to 350lev a month. Drivers get 250lev to 300lev per month, both working 9 hours a day, so looking at that, why would a gardner/handyman get the same for a few hours a week. So in answer to your question find out the going rate in your area and stick to it.

Oddy

i agree the cost for garden work cutting grass and sweeping pruning etc as listed We have a roma chap that helps me with ours. He doesn't know any thing about gardening but over the years i have pointed him to what i want done be it fell the trees or cut the grass or dig and never paid more then 30lv for the day

Back in the day when my Hero looked after English houses he charged 600levs a year and then struggled to get his money! This included strimming large gardens several times a year and all shipshape when owners arrived and doing basic gardening jobs. Keeping keys. Informing of any damage during the winter by walking around properties whenever there was extreme weather. Contacting and letting in tradesmen if there were problems. Lots of other bits and pieces like re-building fallen walls or taking down small barns. Very little thanks when he was really only employed as a strimmer so needless to say after 7 years he doesn't do it anymore. Gardening is very hard work especially in 40C when strimming means physically hacking back before using a strimmer which costs for petrol by the way and servicing!
If you use a local person they will expect to be paid per job and will not do another job until paid up - at least in our village. You will also probably have to supply the tools.

we pay 10 to 15 lv per day which is the going rate in our village. We are expected to supply all equipment, food and drinks. Charges are higher if the person doing the work supplies their own equipment. But the tractor is only charging 25lv so if the people dont work for less then the tractor driver gets most of the work. When I was in England I was paying 60lv per month for someone to cut the grass on my house here. I would recommend asking people in your own area or going to the mayor to find out what your standard charges are.

25 lv a day seems to be a fare price and that's all I pay .

I take it your wee gardener pal is costing you a fortune.

oddball wrote:

Willow what your are referring to there is a good days work - Afer speaking with people they tell me the top rates are 15lev to 20 lev a day. However, for the first day it would be 20 lev each for two people to come in and clear the grounds then the 15 or 20 lev once a week to keep it that way. Also remember there is nothing to do in the winter so no payments for the winter months. In VT area they pay them less than that per day.

Looking at it logically now: Unfortunately many of us make a rod for our own back by paying workers/friends 150 to 200lev a month because we feel that we should be paying them more, why! (a) because they are now our friends, (b) we think 20lev is silly money and we want to be fair however, the fact is we are paying way over the top. Word gets around so when the Brits need work doing the price is double or more. Then we moan because we find out someone else is paying far less for the same service. Example We paid 80lev to have our grounds cleared. 4 people came in for 2 hours and cleared 2000sq meter of weeds. Then the tractor man came in and rotavated all the land for 30lev. Of course everyone was happy especially us only paying £55 to have the garden sorted. But the next time they came they wanted more, saying the work is very hard etc. We went to the Mayor was not very happy about the charges so now he send us the workers and we pay him what ever the daily rates is.

We have to bear in mind that a Bulgarian school teachers only get 300lev to 350lev a month. Drivers get 250lev to 300lev per month, both working 9 hours a day, so looking at that, why would a gardner/handyman get the same for a few hours a week. So in answer to your question find out the going rate in your area and stick to it.

Oddy

Good avice from you Berni - we have all made mistakes when we first arrived here and the locals took us for a ride on the cost of working on our field. Unfortunately for them, they will never work for me again, I take great umbrance of someone taking advantage of my generosity and they pay the cost in the long run!!

i have been stung at the beginning. locals chopped my wood and transported it down the garden with a donkey and cart. i was charged 25 levs each for the 2 adults, 25 levs for a 4 year old boy and 25 levs for the donkey. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
hence to say, if i need anyone now, i use a british fully qualified electrican with multiple skills for any work that i may need. the locals have lost out because of their greed. :Headbang:that was 6 years ago.

Since becoming friends with "
Bernard"
our Bulgarian neighbour, he has welded my wallet together. He is the one person I go to when we need work being done. His answer to it all is a beer or cigarettes, but not for him, but for the person doing the work. As an example, we had a local person who Bernard knew and he replaced some tiles on our barn and then he climbed up the roof of the house and sorted all the tiles out up there and the cost: 30 cigarettes!!! What a great neighbour he is.

Recently my Hero has become the village strimmer! He gets paid what the villagers can afford which isn't much but covers the cost of the petrol plus the usual home-made rakia (which he can't drink) and invitations to have a meze! The money he gets varies from 5-15levs depending on the size of the land. When we upgraded our strimmer for heavier work it was a good investment not for the cash (although its enough for his few beers) but for the gratitude from elderly pensioners in the village.

robert bridges wrote:

I take it your wee gardener pal is costing you a fortune.

No, you have got that wrong, our wee gardener pal is not costing us a fortune. I put my post on the forum as a general inquiry to open up a new and interesting topic and to see what others are paying in different area's ::