Blackburn is one of the most heavily treed suburbs in the east. Gums, oaks and big native gardens mean bark, leaves and prunings all year.
Not a franchisee or a truck driver from a booking system. The bloke who quotes it is the bloke who loads it.
No bags to fill, no skip to load. Leave it in a pile and he loads it, sweeps up and takes it away.
Not a bin size. A heap beside the driveway and one at the bottom of a steep yard are different jobs and get different prices.
Standing tree, asbestos, or more rubbish than garden — he tells you before he starts, not after.
A pruning pile hauled away and a few bags of leaf litter collected is the usual combination on a Blackburn block.
Piles of prunings, branches, hedge trimmings, leaves and weeds that won't fit in the green bin. Ross backs the trailer in, loads it himself and takes it away to be recycled — you don't lift a thing.
Bark, leaves and native garden prunings.
Doing a big garden clean-up — overgrown beds, a back corner nobody has touched in years, a rental between tenants or a property being tidied for sale? Pile it all up and Ross collects the lot in one visit.
Clean-up waste from overgrown bush-style gardens, collected.
Fallen limbs, shed bark, leaf litter and dry prunings gathered up from around the house — the fine fuel that matters most in a grassfire or ember attack. Collected and taken away before the Fire Danger Period starts.
Leaf litter and bark cleared before summer.
A gum has dropped a limb across the driveway, or a windy night has left the yard covered. Ross collects what's come down and hauls it away. Standing trees and hung-up limbs are an arborist's job — once they've dropped it, Ross can take it away.
Heavy limbs from tall canopy trees.
Blackburn is known for its trees. Tall eucalypts and big exotic shade trees tower over many streets, and plenty of gardens are planted as bush rather than lawn. Blackburn Lake Sanctuary and the creek reserves add to the leafy feel. Houses range from post-war homes to architect-designed places set into the canopy.
All those trees shed. Bark peels off the gums, leaves pile up in beds and on roofs, and native gardens need regular cutting back to stay healthy. The green bin can't keep up, and the piles grow in the back corner. Ross collects the lot, loads it himself and takes it to a green waste facility.
In a Blackburn garden, a lot of the waste comes down from above: bark strips, leaves, gumnuts and twigs. It's constant rather than seasonal, although it peaks during hot, dry spells and after a wind.
Native gardens underneath need their own care: correas, grevilleas and wattles grow leggy and need a hard prune every few years. It all adds up.
Blackburn's canopy is valued, and many trees need a permit before they can be removed or significantly pruned. Check with Whitehorse City Council before planning any work on established trees.
Ross doesn't fell or climb trees in any case — that's arborist work. What he does is clear what's already been cut or come down, and take away the prunings from shrubs and gardens.
Some older Blackburn blocks are long and narrow, with the garden well back from the street and a single driveway down the side. Others have houses set down among the trees on sloping ground.
Ross will carry it out as needed. Photos of the access help him to quote accurately and bring the right gear.
By late spring, Blackburn gardens are carrying months of bark and leaf drop, and hot, windy summer days make that build-up a bigger concern. Book a clean-up in October or November to have it removed before summer and the Christmas rush.
Suburb, roughly how much there is, and what the access is like. A photo saves a lot of back and forth.
Ross comes back with a number. On big or awkward jobs he has a look first rather than guessing.
Loaded by hand, driveway swept, and off for proper green waste disposal.
Ross runs this on his own. He quotes the job, he turns up, he loads the trailer and he takes it away — the same bloke every visit. There is no office in between, no skip company, and no franchise cut coming out of what you pay.
It also means he will tell you when something isn't his job — a standing tree that needs an arborist, or a pile that is more rubbish than garden — rather than taking the money and leaving you with half a problem.
The suburb, roughly how much there is, and how easy it is to get a trailer to it is enough to work with. A photo of the pile gets you a price fastest.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Ross on 0416 030 925. Monday to Saturday, daylight hours — weather permitting.
Get a price on your pile. Takes a minute — Ross reads them himself.
Thanks — that's gone through to Ross. Spring is his busiest time, so if it's close to fire season he may take a day or two.
