Big blocks, tall eucalypts and bush gardens make Ringwood North one of the heaviest green waste suburbs in Maroondah. Ross loads it by hand and takes it away.
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 Ringwood North 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, sticks and native prunings off large blocks.
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.
Sloping bush gardens that need a real clear-out.
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.
Litter and dead growth taken away from around the house.
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.
Gum limbs down across lawns and driveways.
Ringwood North feels a long way from the Ringwood shopping strip. The blocks are bigger, the streets wind over rolling ground, and a lot of properties have kept the tall gums and native understorey that were there before the houses. The Mullum Mullum Creek corridor runs through the area, and some homes back straight onto bushland.
All of that means a lot of material to deal with. Bark and sticks come down constantly, native shrubs sprawl, and a big block with a steep bit down the back can hide years of accumulated prunings. Bulk green waste like that is exactly what Ross's trailer is for.
On a Ringwood North block, the green waste isn't one tidy pile. It's shed bark along the fence, sticks all over the lawn, a heap of pruned grevilleas and wattles, and leaf litter piled up against the house. Ross gathers it from wherever it is, as long as you point him at it.
Native gardens also need an occasional hard reset. Wattles and tea-tree that have gone leggy, dead shrubs that were never pulled out, and understorey that has crept too close to the house all add up to a proper garden clean-up rather than a quick pickup.
The homes that back onto reserves and the creek corridor carry more risk over summer than a typical suburban street. The loose fuel close to the house — dry leaves, bark, piles of cut material — is the stuff worth moving before the weather heats up.
Ross can load that material and take it away in late spring. It's a lot easier to get done in November than in the first hot week of the year.
A fair few driveways in Ringwood North are steep, and some yards drop away sharply behind the house. Ross loads by hand, so a pile at the bottom of a slope isn't a deal-breaker — it just takes longer, and the quote reflects that.
If you have a lot of material on a large block, it may take more than one load. He'll tell you that up front rather than surprise you on the day.
Ringwood North's treed blocks shed the most bark and litter as the weather warms up. Aim to have the fine fuel moved away from the house by early December — once the hot, windy days start, everyone on the bushland edge wants the same job done at once.
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.
