A balcony of pots does not need a full-time gardener at ₹13,000 a month, and a 2,000 sq ft lawn will not stay alive on one visit a month. Here is what each kind of garden work actually involves, what it should cost in labour in a typical Indian city, and what the nursery will charge on top.
The short answer
A visiting gardener charges ₹400 for a small garden or terrace of up to 500 sq ft, about two hours of work, and ₹900 for a large garden of up to 2,000 sq ft. Monthly upkeep is ₹1,500 for four visits to a small garden and ₹5,000 for eight visits to a large one. A gardener on payroll is ₹13,000 a month full time, ₹5,000 for two hours daily, or ₹550 for a day. Setups and lawns are priced per square foot, with the plants, soil and pipe on top.
| Job | Typical labour | Priced per |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance visit, small garden | ₹400 | visit |
| Maintenance visit, large garden | ₹900 | visit |
| Monthly upkeep, small, 4 visits | ₹1,500 | month |
| Monthly upkeep, large, 8 visits | ₹5,000 | month |
| Lawn mowing and edging | ₹1 | sq ft, minimum ₹500 |
| New lawn, turf laying | ₹25 | sq ft, turf extra |
| Lawn repair or re-seeding | ₹12 | sq ft |
| Potting or re-potting | ₹60 | pot |
| Tree or large shrub planting | ₹350 | tree |
| Tree pruning, up to 15 ft | ₹400 | tree |
| Hedge trimming | ₹40 | metre |
| Kitchen garden setup | ₹45 | sq ft |
| Terrace garden setup | ₹70 | sq ft |
| Drip irrigation | ₹20 | sq ft |
| Weeding | ₹2 | sq ft |
| Garden clearing and waste removal | ₹1,200 | visit |
| Pest or fungus spray | ₹600 | visit |
| Manure and soil treatment | ₹700 | visit, manure extra |
| Full-time gardener | ₹13,000 | month |
| Part-time gardener, 2 h daily | ₹5,000 | month |
Metro cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru run about 30 percent higher. A same-day call adds roughly 20 percent; flexible timing takes a little off. These are the figures the TheHire cost estimator uses, so what you read here is what it will quote.
How gardeners actually charge
There are three kinds of gardening work and they are priced three different ways. Most arguments come from mixing them up.
- Upkeep is priced by the visit or the month. A visit is a block of hours: watering if needed, deadheading, light pruning, weeding the beds, turning the top soil, sweeping. The size band matters more than the number of plants: a 400 sq ft terrace with eighty pots is still a small-garden visit.
- Setups and lawns are priced per square foot of labour. Turf laying, a kitchen garden, a terrace garden, drip lines, paving. Materials are separate and are the bigger number. Multiply the per-sq-ft rate by the area, then add what the nursery quotes for turf, soil, pots and pipe.
- A gardener on payroll is a monthly salary. Two hours every morning for a villa with a lawn and beds, or a full day for a large compound or a housing society. Tools are yours, and so are plants and manure.
The one thing to settle on the phone is which of the three you are asking for. "How much for my garden?" has no answer; "a monthly visit plan for a 300 sq ft terrace with forty pots" does.
The nine jobs most gardens eventually call for
1. A maintenance visit, ₹400 to ₹900
Two to four hours depending on the band. A good visit ends with the dead growth cut back, the pots loosened on top, weeds pulled with roots, and a short list of what to buy before next time. If the gardener finishes in forty minutes, you have paid for a watering, not a visit.
2. Monthly upkeep, ₹1,500 or ₹5,000
Four visits a month for a small garden, eight for a large one, usually on fixed days. This is the right plan for almost every house garden and terrace in a city: the same person sees the plants week to week and catches mealybug or a wilting pot before it spreads. Watering between visits is still yours, or a drip line's.
3. Lawn mowing, ₹1 per sq ft, minimum ₹500
Mowing and edging the borders. In most Indian cities a lawn needs this every 10 to 15 days from the monsoon through winter and every three weeks in peak summer. A gardener with a petrol or electric mower is faster and cuts more evenly than one with shears; ask which they bring. Most gardeners apply a minimum charge for mowing, so a tiny front lawn costs a little more than the arithmetic says.
4. A new lawn, ₹25 per sq ft plus turf at ₹12–₹30 per sq ft
Levelling, a 4 to 6 inch bed of soil mixed with sand and manure, turf rolls laid tight, rolled and watered daily for three weeks. Mexican grass and Korean grass are the usual carpet lawns for small areas; Bermuda, called doob, and Selection 1 are the tough choices for sun and foot traffic. Repair of a patchy lawn with plugs or seed is ₹12 per sq ft.
5. Potting and planting, ₹60 per pot and ₹350 per tree
Re-potting is the most useful job on this list and the most skipped. A plant that has stopped growing in the same pot for two years is root-bound; a ₹60 re-pot into a size up with fresh mix brings it back. Trees and large shrubs are ₹350 each, which covers a pit twice the root ball, manure in the base and staking.
6. Pruning and hedges, ₹400 per tree and ₹40 per metre
Tree pruning up to 15 ft with a pole saw, cut clean at the collar, is ₹400 a tree. Above 15 ft, or near a power line, is a different trade with ropes and a permit from the municipality in many cities. A hedge is ₹40 a metre, both faces and the top. Small tree removal is ₹2,500 with disposal extra, and in most cities a tree over a certain girth needs permission to fell even on your own plot.
7. Kitchen and terrace gardens, ₹45 and ₹70 per sq ft
A kitchen garden in the ground is beds dug, soil mixed with compost, seedlings put in, labour at ₹45 per sq ft and materials around ₹20–₹60 per sq ft. A terrace garden costs more, ₹70 per sq ft in labour and ₹40–₹120 per sq ft in grow bags or pots, soil mix, and a drainage layer, because everything has to be carried up and the roof has to be protected first. The waterproofing is the mason's job and comes before the gardener.
8. Drip irrigation, ₹20 per sq ft plus ₹10–₹25 per sq ft in pipe and fittings
A 16 mm lateral along the pots with a 2 or 4 litre-per-hour dripper to each, a filter at the tap, and a timer if you travel. On a terrace the catch is pressure: an overhead tank a floor above gives barely enough, and a small pressure pump is sometimes part of the bill. A drip line is what makes a monthly plan work in a house where nobody is home at 7 am.
9. Clearing, spraying and manuring, ₹1,200, ₹600 and ₹700
Clearing an overgrown plot and taking the waste away is ₹1,200 a visit. A pest or fungus spray, neem oil or a chemical where it is needed, is ₹600. A manure and soil treatment visit, where the gardener works compost or vermicompost into every bed and pot, is ₹700 with the manure bought separately; do it before the monsoon and again in October.
One rule that saves money: bundle the setup with the plan. A gardener who lays the drip line and then holds the monthly contract has a reason to make the drip line work. Gardeners on TheHire discount from the fourth item in a single request.
A gardener on payroll
For a villa with a lawn, beds and trees, or a society garden, the arithmetic turns over at about eight visits a month. ₹5,000 buys two hours every morning, six days a week, which is enough for watering, sweeping and the daily round of a large house garden. ₹13,000 is a full-time gardener, the right choice for a compound over half an acre or a society with lawns, hedges and a nursery corner. A day's labour at ₹550 is for the one-off, a pre-Diwali clean-up or an afternoon of re-potting.
For payroll staff the same norms apply as for any household help: a weekly day off, a Diwali or Pongal bonus of a month's pay, and a month's notice on either side. Tools, a mower and a hose are yours to provide.
What the nursery adds
Labour is the smaller number in any setup. Rough shop prices in a city nursery: a 5 kg cocopeat block ₹150 to ₹300; a 25 kg bag of vermicompost ₹250 to ₹500; a 12 inch plastic pot ₹80 to ₹200 and a terracotta one ₹150 to ₹400; a 12 × 12 inch grow bag ₹40 to ₹100; a drip kit for fifty pots ₹1,500 to ₹3,000; a seedling ₹10 to ₹40; a 3 ft flowering shrub ₹150 to ₹600. Ask the gardener for a list with quantities and buy it yourself, or ask for the nursery bill in your name.
When the price is not the price
No water point on the terrace. If the gardener has to carry water up a floor, every visit takes longer and the per-visit rate stops making sense. A plumber's tap on the terrace fixes the next ten years.
A plot that has gone wild. A first visit to a garden nobody has touched for a season is a ₹1,200 clearing, not a ₹400 visit. After that, the normal rate applies.
Trees over 15 ft, or near wires. Pruning stops being a gardener's job. Expect a separate quote with ropes, a second person, and in most cities a letter from the horticulture wing of the municipality.