Estates, grounds and large sites

Grounds and Estate Maintenance in Harrogate and Nidderdale

Scheduled grounds care for estates, farm holdings, sports grounds, car parks, holiday lets and large private grounds across Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and Nidderdale. 28 years, fully insured, DBS checked and IOSH certified, with one clear invoice for the year.

WhatsApp Karen about grounds maintenance Call 07816 779 064
  • 28 yearsGardening since 1998
  • NPTCApproved and DBS checked
  • BS 3998Tree work standard
  • 4.5 from 19Rated on Google

For site managers and owners

Big ground, cut and kept on a schedule you can budget for.

Grounds care for people responsible for acreage rather than a garden. Estates and farm holdings, sports grounds, car parks, verges, holiday lets and second homes, and the large private grounds around Harrogate and out through Nidderdale. Scheduled visits, a named contact, and one invoice covering the lot.

Looking after a pub, restaurant, showroom or office instead? The frontage, terrace and indoor planting side of the work has its own page: commercial property maintenance.

Commercial premises are a different problem from tending your own garden, and most of it is about how the place looks to somebody arriving. A shop front, a pub beer garden or a showroom entrance is judged in about four seconds from the pavement, and it is judged on a Friday lunchtime rather than on the Tuesday that happened to suit the contractor. A town centre site also has to be worked around loading bays, pedestrian footfall and restricted parking, which decides the hour we turn up as much as the day. A care home wants planting that is safe, soft and pleasant to sit in. A school needs everybody on site DBS checked. A car park with public access through it needs the risk assessing before anyone starts a strimmer. What a premises manager is really buying is reliability and paperwork, not enthusiasm.

Hocus Crocus is set up for exactly that. Karen is IOSH certified and an ecological risk assessor, the team is NPTC qualified, DBS checked and fully insured, and we have worked across domestic, commercial and high risk sites for 28 years, established 1998. The site types we are insured and DBS checked to cover include car parks, public spaces, farmland, high risk sites, sports grounds, utilities, restaurants, commercial premises, residential lettings, hospitals and schools.

Free visit and a written price. No hard sell.

WhatsApp Karen about a commercial site Call 07816 779 064
A Yorkshire dry-stone raised bed planted with grasses and alpines in a pub beer garden
A newly made up and planted bed outside a bar and restaurant

Commercial grounds

What a schedule actually includes

What a grounds maintenance schedule includes is built around the site rather than sold as a package. A typical year covers grass cutting and edging on a set rotation, strimming back to boundary lines, walls, posts and around every obstacle, hedge and shrub work, bed weeding and mulching, autumn leaf clearance, path and entrance clearing through the winter, litter picking on public facing sites, and seasonal planting where the frontage matters. Tree work on the holding is quoted separately and carried out to BS 3998, the British Standard for tree work published by BSI in 2010.

Indoor planters with a palm and peace lilies in a commercial interior

Indoors

Indoor planting is part of the same contract

Indoor planting is part of the same contract. Reception areas, showroom floors, care home lounges, restaurant and bar interiors and office breakout spaces all take container planting, and it needs the same rhythm as anything outside: the right plants for the light levels, watering and feeding on a schedule, tired stock swapped out before it looks tired. We supply, plant and maintain displays indoors and out on the same visit, which is set out on our pots, planters and indoor planting page.

WhatsApp Karen about your site

A striped lawn and a sweeping drive at a large stone farmhouse

Nidderdale

Holiday lets and second homes

Holiday lets and second homes in Nidderdale are a particular fit. Owners letting cottages around Pateley Bridge, Summerbridge, Dacre Banks and further up the dale need somebody local who can cut between changeovers, keep the approach and the parking clear, and flag a fallen branch or a blocked gully before a guest does. We are based near Knaresborough, so most of this patch is our own doorstep rather than a long drive with a trailer on.

Great team,really professional,fair prices and all the rubbish cleared up when they finish. Would not use anyone else.

Les Winterburn, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Google review

Pricing and recent sites

Real Harrogate jobs rather than a brochure: a memorial garden designed and built for a Harrogate high school, a shop front retail flower bed display for a Harrogate shop front, and a replant of the outdoor seating area at the Foundry Project bar and restaurant in Harrogate. Amanda M left a Google review saying: “Great service from Karen and her team. Can be relied on to do a great job.” Hocus Crocus holds 4.5 stars from 19 Google reviews.

What it costs depends on the area of the site, how often we visit, how much of the work is machine cutting against hand finishing, access and parking, whether the site stays open to the public while we work, and how the waste leaves. We price a full year rather than a visit at a time, so the budget is known before the growing season starts and there is no run of surprise invoices in June. Karen walks the site with you, writes the schedule down and quotes it in writing, free of charge. Planting and design for an outdoor bar, terrace or barbecue area is set out in full on our outdoor bar and BBQ area planting page.

Site work runs alongside the rest of what we do: boundary hedge cutting and reduction on long runs, and tree surgery worked to BS 3998 where mature trees stand over a drive, a car park or a public path. If this is your own garden rather than a site you are responsible for, our domestic garden maintenance page is the one you want instead. Our grounds patch is centred on Harrogate and its business parks, with sites east in Knaresborough, north around Ripon and the estates near it, and on up to the estate country around Swinton Park. Everywhere we work is listed on our areas we cover page.

Planted trough borders on the paved terrace outside the Foundry Project bar and restaurant in Harrogate
Indoor planting kept topped up on a car showroom floor beside the cars

What is covered

What a grounds maintenance contract covers

Restaurant, bar and cafe outdoor areas

Beer gardens, terraces and pavement seating kept sharp for the days you are busiest, with the planting made up and changed over on a schedule so the outside of the place sells it before anybody reads the menu.

Scheduled grass and edges

Machine cutting and hand finishing on a set rotation, strimmed back to boundary lines, walls, posts and around every obstacle on the site.

Boundaries and hedges

Long hedge runs, shrub beds and shelter belts kept back off paths, parking and sight lines, cut on a seasonal programme rather than on request.

Frontage, beds and borders

Weeding, mulching and seasonal planting where the shop front, the pub garden, the showroom entrance or the school gate is the first thing anybody actually sees.

Indoor and container planting

Planters and displays for receptions, showroom floors, care home lounges and restaurant interiors, chosen for the light they actually get and kept going on the same schedule as the outside.

Clearance and winter work

Autumn leaf clearance, gully and path clearing, litter picking on public facing sites, and winter tidying so the site stays usable all year.

Risk, insurance and access

Fully insured, DBS checked and IOSH certified, with an ecological risk assessor on the team and the method agreed before work starts.

One schedule, one invoice

A written year plan with a named contact and an annual price, so the grounds budget is known before the growing season starts.

WhatsApp Karen a photo and she will price it Prefer to send the details in writing?

Before and after

Ground we look after

Karen's own photographs of real sites.

  • The Omaze garden, restored, maintained and manicured by Hocus Crocus
    Omaze garden
  • Chest-high nettles and brambles covering a plot before a full grounds clearance
  • The same plot cleared to bare ground, uncovering statues and mature yews
  • Karen crossing a striped lawn on a maintenance visit, with the dale behind
  • Waist-high grass filling the garden of a neglected property before clearance
  • The same neglected garden after mowing and cutting back, lawn striped and clear
  • A gardener on a platform topping a tall conifer boundary hedge with a long reach trimmer
  • A clipped hedge and planted border kept tidy between the bays of a car park
WhatsApp Karen a photo of yours Call 07816 779 064

Question not answered below? Call Karen on 07816 779 064.

Before you tender

Grounds maintenance questions we get asked most

What kinds of commercial premises do you look after?
Shops and shop fronts, pubs, cafes and restaurants, car and furniture showrooms, care homes and schools are the ones we do most, alongside estates, farm holdings, holiday lets, offices, car parks and residential lettings. Real jobs include a memorial garden for a Harrogate high school, a shop front retail flower bed display for a Harrogate shop front, and a replant of the outdoor seating area at the Foundry Project bar and restaurant in Harrogate.

Can you look after planting inside the building as well as outside?
Yes. Reception areas, showroom floors, care home lounges, restaurant interiors and office breakout spaces all take container planting, and we supply, plant and maintain it on the same visit as the grounds. Plants are chosen for the light the space actually gets rather than the look of the catalogue. Details are on our pots, planters and indoor planting page.

Do you work for estates, schools and businesses as well as households?
Yes. We are fully insured and DBS checked to work on car parks, public spaces, farmland, high risk sites, sports grounds, utilities, restaurants, commercial premises, residential lettings, hospitals and schools. Karen is IOSH certified and an ecological risk assessor, so method and risk are agreed before anyone starts.

How often would you visit our site?
That depends on the site and the season, and it gets written into the schedule rather than left vague. Grass usually needs a shorter cycle from April to September and a longer one either side. Hedges, beds, leaf clearance and any planting sit on their own dates within the same plan.

Can you look after a holiday let between changeovers?
Yes, and it suits us because we are based near Knaresborough. We can work to your changeover days, keep the approach and parking clear, and tell you about anything that needs attention before a guest finds it. Keyholder arrangements are agreed case by case.

Are you insured and DBS checked?
Yes. Hocus Crocus is fully insured and the team is DBS checked, NPTC qualified and IOSH certified, with tree work carried out to BS 3998. We are happy to send current documents over before a contract starts, and we only ever claim the accreditations we actually hold.

How is grounds maintenance priced?
By the site and by the year, not by the hour. We look at area, visit frequency, the balance of machine work against hand finishing, access and parking, public access while we work, and waste removal. You get one written annual price and one invoice rather than a bill after every visit.

Do you take the green waste away?
Yes. Arisings, clippings and leaf litter are removed and disposed of responsibly as part of the schedule, unless you would rather we composted or chipped on site, which is often the better answer on a larger holding. Either way it is agreed in advance and written into the plan.

Where we work

Covering Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and the whole of Nidderdale.

Karen is based near Knaresborough and works right across Harrogate and its villages, out to Knaresborough and Ripon, and up the whole of Nidderdale. Not on the list? Just ask.

Not on the list? WhatsApp Karen and ask
  • Harrogate
  • Knaresborough
  • Ripon
  • Killinghall
  • Hampsthwaite and Birstwith
  • Boroughbridge
  • Summerbridge and Dacre Banks
  • Pateley Bridge
  • Wetherby

Need one team to look after the whole site?

Free site walkover, then a written annual schedule and price with no obligation. Call Karen on 07816 779 064 or email karen@hocuscrocus.com.

WhatsApp Karen about your site Call 07816 779 064