Tecoma's small, steep blocks fill up with prunings and leaf litter fast. Ross loads the lot by hand and takes it away so you don't have to find room for it.
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 Tecoma 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 tight, sloping Tecoma 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.
Overgrown rentals and cottages along the ridge.
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.
Leaf drifts and gutter debris collected before summer.
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 down across driveways after storms.
Tecoma is a small village squeezed between Upwey and Belgrave, with the highway and the railway running through the middle and houses climbing the hill on both sides. Many of the blocks are compact and sloping, so there is not much room to stockpile garden waste before it starts taking over the yard.
The trees here are tall and close together, and even a modest garden throws off a surprising amount of material through the year. When the green bin is full after one afternoon of pruning, a green waste pickup is the easiest way to deal with the rest. Ross comes with the trailer, loads everything by hand and takes it to be recycled.
Tecoma houses often have more garden than flat ground. Retaining walls, garden beds on terraces and shrubs that have been left to grow for years are common, and neighbouring trees overhang from every side.
Because space is tight, piles tend to end up somewhere awkward — along a side path, behind the carport or at the bottom of the block. Ross will collect from wherever it is. Just keep it in one or two heaps rather than spread around, and he'll do the loading and carting away.
A good share of Tecoma housing is older weatherboard cottages and rentals, and gardens on those can get away from people quickly. A place that has been vacant for a few months can be half swallowed by blackberry, onion weed and self-sown saplings.
Ross does garden clean-ups between tenants and before a sale: once the overgrowth has been cut back and the weeds pulled, he gathers up the debris and takes the whole load away. Landlords and property managers can book by photo without anyone needing to be home on the day, as long as the gate is open.
Tecoma is right in the Dandenong Ranges bushfire zone. Every house benefits from having leaf litter, bark and dry clippings cleared well back before the hot weather, especially around timber decks, under-floor spaces and woodpiles.
Once those areas have been raked out, Ross can load up the leaf litter, bark and clippings and take everything away in one trip. That beats piling it up for a burn that may never happen once restrictions come in.
Every spring, Yarra Ranges households start clearing ahead of the Fire Danger Period at the same time. Book a clean-up in September or October while there is still time to fit you in comfortably.
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.
