Port Melbourne's gardens range from small cottage courtyards to salt-tolerant bayside plantings. Ross takes away the hedge trimmings, palm fronds and prunings they produce.
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 Port Melbourne 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.
Hedges, palms and bayside plantings.
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.
Cottage and townhouse gardens tidied.
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.
Dry fronds and leaves out of courtyards.
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.
Wind-blown branches after a blow off the bay.
Port Melbourne has a mix of housing: Victorian workers' cottages and terraces in the older streets, the interwar houses of the Garden City estate, and newer townhouses and apartments closer to the water. Gardens range from small courtyards to proper front and back yards.
Being right on the bay, gardens have to cope with salt air and wind. Hardy hedges, palms and coastal plants are common, and they need regular trimming to stay in shape. The waste is bulky, often spiky, and not easy to fit in a bin.
Closer to the beach, Port Melbourne gardens are full of plants that handle wind and salt: dense hedges, palms, succulents and coastal shrubs. They're tough, but they grow thick and need a proper cut back to stay tidy.
Palm fronds, in particular, are heavy and sharp. Ross loads them carefully and takes them away.
The Garden City homes have proper front and back gardens, with hedges, lawns and established trees. The older cottages closer to Bay Street tend to have small courtyards and climbers.
Ross handles both: bigger loads from the Garden City yards, and smaller carry-out jobs from the cottages.
Newer townhouses in Port Melbourne often have courtyards, planter boxes and screen hedges. Access is usually through the garage or the house.
Ross protects floors, carries it through and cleans up afterwards.
Street parking in Port Melbourne fills up quickly, especially on warm weekends near the beach and in the permit zones around the older streets. A trailer needs a bit of room, so weekday mornings are often easiest.
If there's a driveway, a rear lane or a spot out front that's usually free, mention it when you enquire. It helps Ross pick the right day and keeps the carry short, which keeps the price down.
Port Melbourne gardens put on most of their growth in spring, and that's when hedges and palms need attention. A pickup after the spring trim keeps the yard ready for summer.
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.
