Regular garden maintenance in Altofts
Some gardens need one big tidy. Most just need someone to keep on top of them. Regular garden maintenance means visits at an interval that suits your garden, with the grass mown, edges trimmed, hedges and shrubs kept in shape, beds weeded and everything left tidy. Affordable Gardens & Landscapes is a family run, fully insured business based in Knottingley, and we work across Altofts, from Lower Altofts up to Upper Altofts, for homeowners, landlords and commercial customers.
A village that knows its grass
Altofts has a long history of looking after green space. The cricket ground on Lock Lane was owned and kept up by the colliery owners, Pope and Pearson, until the mines were nationalised in 1947. Miners built a pavilion there in 1922, and a redevelopment in 1926 added a bowling green and tennis courts. Today Altofts Community Sports Club and its playing fields provide for cricket, football and bowls. A home lawn does not need to reach bowling green standard, but the same basics apply: regular cuts at the right height, crisp edges, and weeds dealt with before they seed.
Who it suits
People in Altofts today work in nearby towns and cities or on the Tuscany Park industrial estate at Wakefield Europort, and with the M62 running close to the village, a lot of the week goes on getting to and from work. Regular visits suit anyone whose spare time is already full. They also suit people keeping an eye on an older relative's garden, so it stays pleasant to sit out in and safe to walk round, and anyone who simply enjoys the garden more when someone else does the mowing.
What each visit covers
Every visit is planned around your garden. Lawns are mown and edged, hedges trimmed, shrubs shaped, and beds and borders weeded. Paths, patios and gravel areas are kept free of weeds, fallen leaves are cleared in autumn, and all the cuttings go with us. Janet Jones said of the team that "They were efficient and friendly and left everything tidy", and that is the aim each time we leave a garden. Over time, a garden on a regular routine needs less effort, because weeds are pulled before they spread and hedges are trimmed little and often rather than hacked back once a year.
The Altofts gardening year
Spring brings the first cuts of the year and the edges re-cut after winter, with beds weeded as plants start to grow. From late spring into midsummer, mowing is at its most frequent. Hedges need care in this period: the RSPB treats March to September as the main nesting season and advises trimming hedges only between 1 September and 28 February, and it is against the law to deliberately damage an active nest. So summer hedge work is limited to a light trim after a careful check, with the main cut saved for September. Autumn means leaf clearing and the last mows, and winter suits pruning, tidying borders and checking fences and paths before spring comes round again.
Gardens of every size
From the terraced gardens on Pope Street in Lower Altofts, where a visit might be little more than a mow, a trim and a weed of the yard, to larger gardens with long hedges and wide lawns, the routine is sized to the garden. Tell us what is in yours and how much you want to keep doing yourself, and the visits fit around it. You do not need to be at home, provided we can get into the garden.
Boundaries by the fields and the water
Altofts sits close to the River Calder and the Aire and Calder Navigation, and some gardens back onto open land rather than another garden. On those boundaries, brambles, nettles and bindweed keep trying to creep in from outside. A quick trim along the edge on every visit stops them getting established, which is far easier than tackling a boundary that has been left for a couple of years.
Keeping lets and business frontages tidy
For landlords, a garden that is mown and weeded through a tenancy makes a property easier to show and avoids a garden that needs clearing from scratch when a tenant moves out. For a business, it might be a strip of lawn by the road, a hedge along the car park and a couple of planted beds by the door, kept tidy on a schedule so nobody on site has to think about it.
Getting started
If the garden has already got away from you, start with a garden clearance in Altofts and move to regular visits once it is under control. Otherwise call 07347 572509, Monday to Friday between 9am and 6pm, and ask for a quote. You can read how the service works on our regular garden maintenance page, or see all our services in Altofts.
