A Surrey village green with a cricket square and tile-hung cottages

Your gardener in Godstone

Regular garden care around the Green, Church Town and South Godstone, from a Horley team.

If you’re after a gardener in Godstone, it helps to know that the ground changes under your feet. The old village sits on the Folkestone Formation, a loose, pale sand that was once dug out for glassmaking and sold as horticultural sand. Head north up Godstone Hill and the soil turns to a lime-rich loam. Go south towards Blindley Heath and you’re on Weald Clay.

We drive over from Horley, about six and a half miles, and we’ve been gardening in this part of Surrey since 2004. The same team comes every visit and takes everything away. We work Monday to Saturday, 7am to 6pm, and nobody needs to be home while we’re there.

Garden services in Godstone.

Back lawn and borders on an evening visit

What Godstone gardens ask for

Sand drains fast. That’s lovely in February, when a lawn near the Green is walkable a day after rain, and hard work in July, when it browns before anything else around. So a lot of what we do in the village is mowing high through dry spells, mulching hungry borders and keeping boundary hedges in shape. The housing is a real mix, too. The 2011 census counted 655 detached houses, 824 semis, 498 terraces and 406 flats in the parish, and the gardens vary just as much.

Down towards Blindley Heath it’s a different job. The ground there is Weald Clay, which soaks up winter rain and goes very soft, so a lawn can stay too wet to mow for a week or more after a downpour. We time cuts and hedge work around that, and we’d rather wait a day than rut a soft lawn with the mower.

Two conservation areas, and what that means for your garden

Godstone has two conservation areas, The Green and Church Town, both designated by Tandridge in 1973. Gardens there often have old walls, long-established hedges and big trees, and they suit a lighter touch. We trim, weed and tidy. Trees are another matter: work to them needs six weeks’ notice to the council, and it’s a job for an arborist. If you’re unsure where the line falls, we’ll tell you what’s ours to do and what isn’t.

Commercial grounds around the parish

Godstone’s commercial ground is varied and spread out: units at Lambs Business Park on Terracotta Road, two primary schools, a nursing home on Tilburstow Hill Road, old inns around the Green and a fair number of flats. For sites like these we write an annual schedule, agree a fixed price and invoice monthly or quarterly. Quotes are itemised, and insurance certificates are there whenever you ask.

Grounds maintenance for Godstone businesses.

Annual contracts for blocks, offices, schools, care homes, churches and landlords.

Gardening in Godstone: your questions

Anything else, just ring. You’ll speak to the people who do the work.

Do you cover South Godstone and Blindley Heath as well?

Yes. Both are well inside the 15 miles we cover from Horley, and so are Bletchingley, Nutfield and Oxted. A small front garden in the village is easy to fit in.

Can you work on a garden in the conservation area?

Yes. Mowing, hedge trimming, weeding and shrub pruning don’t need permission. Trees do: work to them needs notice to Tandridge first, and we’re not tree surgeons. We’ll point out anything that needs one.

How do I get a quote?

Ring 07720 886244 and we’ll come over, walk round with you and give you a fixed price. It’s free. The figure depends on size, access and how often you’d like us.