I am Jesper Offersen, BSc in agricultural science, and my advise in regards to Gingko Gardens for short is: Don't use them, so they get one start as I have to minimum give one. They have been doing the gardens, at the court where I live, for some months now and it seems from my observations a no watering project apparently, deadheading if pushed and that so that lots of petals are left on the grounds (the common sense way I feel is of course to deadhead well before the leaves falls off by themselves (or as soon as a flower does not look attractive any longer) that way avoiding leaves all over that you need to pick up which Gingko Garden workers don't do as I see it), no mulching of roses and so on. If you look for that extra care that you think you have found when reading their webpage then in my opinion don't be fooled, the info about that they have trainees sounds sweet and you think good they doo something to qualify people that might not have something to get a job with but it seems from my experience that it simply means that those send out to do gardening are at the level of trainees or there about and to me don't come across as interested in gardening as such. First attempt on our garden barrels/flower baskets happened well into the summer when you for months had seen it elsewhere and it was not a pretty sight to me and in general is it orange and pink Pelargonium plants but then some barrels here and there sports a white Pelargonium and I obviously get the feeling that they just threw something in and they had not really a clue as to which colours it was and because of the late time it was done it might just have been leftovers from other jobs, it seems to me very likely. The barrels is a set-up of a centre conifer and Ivy plants around it so you have a base to work with and you just change summer and winter flowers in between the Ivy plants leaving the conifer in the middle as you see so many places, however when the summer planting was finally done some Ivy plants was already dead so if you think they were replaced you are wrong and that's the sort of "attention to details" you can expect with Gingko Gardens in my experience. I thought Pelargonium plants were a bad choice for the barrels and in general simply because they need deadheading and as I predicted it's not happening and so you see a barrel in need of deadheading but Gingko Gardens has just been here the day before so clearly that is not something they pay attention to is my perception of it. We have some borders hedged by a low hedge plant and behind it there are Anemone japonica and roses. After pushing hard the roses are sporadically deadheaded but though the guy doing it must see that the Anemone japonicas are poking through the low hedge nothing is done about it until you several times complain about it, something that should not be needed told to some who works as professional gardeners, I feel. If you imagine that these low hedges are evenly and levelled cut you are wrong I think and it looks to me like the person doing it was on a boat as it happened, the sort of job done by some who has not tried cutting a hedge before, a trainee for example or someone at a similar level, I feel. How do the young men send out here work, well I would say that it's not unusual to see one of them being on his phone, throwing his tools into the air and catching them again for fun in the style of "I have lots of time at my disposal..." and in general I don't think these people seems over burdened or full of enthusiasm for gardening for that matter. Of the two guys I have seen here one is sometimes here on his own and that means no deadheading and the reason could very well be that he is on a level where he don't know how to do it... or so I presume. Best regards Jesper Offersen BSc agricultural science
Particularly enjoyed the drive of one of your skip lorries on the M4/A4 this morning, lane hogging in the outside lane in an HGV on a motorway. Abusive when passed, if you can't even employ drivers that understand the road rules I hold out very little hope for the rest of the company and your 2.5 stars shows I'm not alone!
I had spent several weeks building a beautiful lawn in my garden by digging deep, sifting, removing all clay and fertilising the soil. My landlord Notting Hill Genesis hired Gingko to destroy a beautiful mature sycamore tree at the edge of that lawn. The contractors dropped all the heavy branches and large slices of the trunk from a great height onto the soft lawn totally ruining it in the process with craters and lumps and no grass left. After a long delay Gingko sent a contractor with a stump grinder. He left behind a giant pile of of wood chippings that covered a large part of the mud that was literally all that was left of my lawn. I reported the situation to the landlord. I was told Ginkgo had agreed to repair all the damage they had caused. After another very long delay Gingko finally sent two contractors. They came into the garden with only a tiny box of grass seeds telling me they been allocated had one hour to "re-seed my lawn" I asked them to please remove the giant pile of wood chips that they could see had been dumped a foot deep over several square metres of the destroyed lawn they were hoping to "re seed" The contractors flatly refused, stating their orders were only to "re-seed the lawn in one hour" I said that unless they removed the debris first, which must have been obvious to any sensible gardener, that my lawn would never recover by sprinkling seeds on top of the horrible mess their company had created. They left after 2 minutes of conversation without doing anything at all. Gingko then complained to the landlord that I had refused to give them access. Not only did Gingko behave thoroughly unprofessional by leaving behind so much damage and mess, they added insult to injury by blatantly trying to lie their way out of a bad situation, that is entirely of their own making. So far Gingko have sent 3 lots of uncaring contractors, none of whom have shown the slightest respect for my garden nor concern for the severity of the damage they have caused. I am shocked and surprised that a company who treats people the way they have treated me, gets any contracts at all.
Ginkgo Gardens periodically cuts the lawn in my neighbor's garden. Last time, they started throwing garden waste into my green bin. After I told them that my green bin does not get emptied and to take out any stuff thrown in, the Ginkgo Gardens employee became sarcastic and rude. Mistakes happen but I would expect a more professional attitude. The encounter also denotes Ginkgo Gardens' lack of care and interest – they want to be done as quickly as possible while doing as little work as possible.
Once again Ginkgo have done a lovely job in my garden. The garden was designed by them many years ago and they have been doing ongoing 6 monthly maintenance on it (spring and autumn) ever since. I have just had them create a new hard standing area to deal with an old fox den with a new summerhouse installed replacing an old shed. The whole job was very well managed by Matteo from initial discussions through to completion and I am very happy with the result.
