20 May 2026

Maintenance subscription or one-off visit? How to choose

A fixed round is cheaper per visit, but not the best choice for every garden. The level-headed trade-off.

First the maths. A one-off garden-maintenance visit costs € 40 to € 80; within a subscription the per-visit rate runs some 10-15% lower. That difference is not a discount but route logic: a gardener doing five gardens in the same neighbourhood in one morning charges less travel time per address. Over six to eight visits a season the advantage adds up to tens of euros — and your garden never enters the season overgrown again.

The subscription wins when your garden needs continuous attention: lawn, borders and hedges, and you have neither time nor appetite to keep up yourself. There is a practical bonus too: in the peak months (March-April and October-November) fixed-route customers come first. Looking for a one-off visit then means joining the back of the queue.

The one-off route wins with a small or low-maintenance design, or when you do most of it yourself and only outsource the peaks. In that case book two fixed moments a year: a spring and autumn clean-up (€ 150 to € 350 per visit) together covers most of the yearly work. Many households grow from exactly those two visits into a full subscription.

Whichever you choose: have the first visit priced up front on the garden's actual state — a catch-up visit for backlog is normal and belongs in the quote, not as an afterthought. Set the amounts against the price index and, for a subscription, ask exactly what each visit includes.