Kew East backyards grow more than the fortnightly bin can take. Ross collects the prunings, leaves and cut-back shrubs and hauls them off 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 Kew East 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.
Backyard prunings and cut-back shrubs.
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.
Tidying long-held family gardens.
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 dry litter off the back fence line.
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.
Branches brought down by a windy night.
Kew East is quieter and more suburban than Kew proper. Most of it was built between the wars and after the Second World War — brick bungalows, clinker-brick homes and solid family houses on decent-sized blocks, with the Eastern Freeway along its northern edge.
Those blocks usually have a proper back yard: fruit trees, a lemon tree, a veggie patch that's had its day, and shrubs along the fence that have been let go. When it's finally time to deal with all of it, the pile is bigger than a couple of green bins. That's the job Ross does: green waste removal in Kew East, loaded by hand and taken away.
Many Kew East gardens were planted by the first owners and have been maintained lightly ever since. Camellias are now three metres tall, fruit trees haven't been pruned in years and the side fence has disappeared under a creeper.
Cutting that back produces a lot of woody material. Once you or your gardener have done it, Ross turns up and takes the whole lot in one visit.
Compared with older inner suburbs, Kew East is kinder to a trailer. A lot of houses have a driveway down the side, which makes loading faster. The catch is usually a car, a carport or a gate that's narrower than it looks.
If the driveway is clear on the day, Ross can back in and load straight from the pile. If not, he carries it out. Either way the price is agreed before he starts.
Some households here keep on top of the garden themselves but run out of bin space every time they prune. A green waste collection every few months — after the spring prune and again after autumn — takes care of that.
There's no contract. Ring or message when the pile is ready and Ross will book in a time that suits.
September and October are when most Kew East gardens get cut back, and everyone runs out of bin space at the same time. Book the pickup for the week after you prune and the pile doesn't sit on the lawn killing the grass.
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.
