Glen Iris blocks slope down toward Gardiners Creek, and the gardens grow thick. Ross clears the prunings and leaves and takes them away for recycling.
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 Glen Iris 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.
Prunings from sloping, established yards.
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 postwar 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.
Dead growth and leaf litter cleared out.
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.
Fallen limbs cleared from yards and drives.
Glen Iris is split between two councils, Boroondara and Stonnington, with the boundary running through the suburb. It's a hilly suburb, with streets dropping down to Gardiners Creek and the Monash Freeway corridor, and housing that ranges from Edwardian and interwar homes to postwar brick and modern rebuilds.
Many blocks here are larger than in the inner suburbs, and a lot of them have mature trees and thick shrubbery. When the green bin can't keep up, Ross comes out to pick up the green waste, loads it himself and takes it away.
With the land falling toward the creek, plenty of Glen Iris houses have back yards that sit well below the road, reached by steps or a steep driveway. Getting a pile up to the trailer takes effort.
That's part of the job. Ross carries material up by hand or with a barrow, and prices with the slope in mind.
Whether you're on the Boroondara side or the Stonnington side, the service is the same. The only practical difference is which council to call if a tree needs a permit before removal.
If you're unsure which council you're in, the rates notice will tell you.
Glen Iris gardens often have big eucalypts, elms and oaks alongside dense shrubs that have grown into screens. Leaf drop, bark and small branches are constant.
Ross can clear the accumulated material from under the trees and take away shrub prunings in the same visit.
Winter is when most Glen Iris gardens get their big prune, and it's also when strong winds bring down branches. Book a pickup for the end of winter and clear both in one load.
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.
