Old township houses near the harbour, holiday places that sit shut for months, and newer streets further back — all with gardens that keep growing whether anyone is home or not.
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 Mornington 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.
Cypress, pittosporum and hedge cuttings.
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.
Holiday houses reset before summer.
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.
Treed blocks on the edges of town.
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.
Old cypress and pine limbs down after a blow.
Mornington is a proper town rather than a suburb, with a main street, a harbour and a mix of homes that goes back a long way. Near the centre there are older cottages and weatherboards on established blocks; further out are units, townhouses and newer estates. Scattered through all of it are holiday homes that get used for a few weeks a year.
That mix shapes the green waste. Township gardens have big old hedges and trees planted decades ago. Holiday houses get a season's growth at a time with no one there to deal with it. Units produce less, but have nowhere to put it. Ross handles green waste removal Mornington-wide — loading by hand and taking it off to be mulched.
Tall cypress and pittosporum hedges are a feature of a lot of older Mornington properties, planted as windbreaks against the weather coming off the bay. Keeping them in check is a real job, and a proper cut along a long boundary produces a mountain of cuttings.
Older yards also tend to have established fruit trees, roses and big shrubs. A winter prune across the lot can fill a trailer, and Ross will take all of it, then sweep the drive before he goes.
When a house is only used over summer, the garden gets away quietly from April to October. Owners arrive to find hedges over the path, weeds through the gravel and a few branches down across the lawn.
It makes sense to get it sorted before you arrive. If you can arrange a key or leave the side gate unlocked, Ross can collect the green waste and fallen branches ahead of time so it is done before the first weekend down.
Mornington has plenty of units and townhouses, often with a small courtyard or a strip of garden down a shared driveway. There is not much room to stockpile cuttings, and the bin fills after one trim.
A small pickup is still worth doing. Let Ross know about the shared driveway and he will work around the neighbours' cars.
From December Mornington is busy with visitors and holiday-home owners arriving. Book the garden tidy-up for October or November and it is done before the crowds and before the Peninsula's Fire Danger Period is declared.
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.
