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

Your gardener in Newdigate

Lawns, hedges and borders on Newdigate’s heavy clay, looked after by a Horley team since 2004.

If you’re looking for a gardener in Newdigate, it helps to find one who understands clay. The village sits on a flat stretch of the Weald, and the ground here held enough clay to keep brickmakers busy for generations. We’re based about 4.5 miles east in Horley, on much the same soil, and we’ve been looking after gardens like these since 2004.

Newdigate isn’t a place of small gardens. Most homes in the parish are detached, and the 2011 census counted only 26 terraced houses in the whole of it. So the usual job here is a long lawn, a run of roadside hedge and a few deep borders, often with a field or a copse over the back fence.

The old centre is tiny. Church Lane, Village Street and Kingsland held most of the houses until well into the 1800s, and the core around St Peter’s is now a conservation area. Out at Parkgate there’s a cluster of residential roads, and Mulberry Place stands on the site of the old brickworks.

Garden services in Newdigate.

Front hedges along a street, cut in one visit

What most Newdigate gardens ask for

Regular grass cutting and hedge work, usually as part of a fortnightly visit. Clay explains most of it. It stays cold and wet well into spring, so the first cut comes later than on lighter soils, and in a dry summer it bakes hard and cracks. It’s rich ground, though. Hawthorn, laurel and leylandii all put on serious growth, and a hedge left for a season along a lane soon starts reaching for the verge.

The parish council has reminded residents that keeping the roadside boundary clear and safe is the homeowner’s job. With the village strung along its old roads, that counts for more here than it would in a town.

Newdigate’s commercial grounds

Newdigate’s commercial grounds are spread through the village and the farmland round it. There’s an infant school on Village Street, two country pubs with big gardens, a listed church, a playing field at the Brocus, and farm buildings let out for storage and local firms. For any of those we can write an annual schedule, agree a fixed price and invoice monthly or quarterly. Ask and we’ll send over our insurance certificates.

Grounds maintenance for Newdigate businesses.

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

Gardening in Newdigate: your questions

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

Is Newdigate too far out for you?

No. It’s about 4.5 miles from our base in Horley, comfortably inside the 15 miles or so we cover. Parkgate, Cudworth and the farms out on the lanes are all fine too.

Do I have to be at home when you come?

Not at all. We’re out Monday to Saturday between 7am and 6pm. As long as there’s a way into the garden, you don’t need to be in, and we’ll let you know once we’ve finished.

What’s the best way to get a price for a Newdigate garden?

Ring 07720 886244. We’ll come over, walk round with you and give you a fixed price, free of charge. Rural gardens vary a lot, so we’d always rather see yours than guess over the phone.