You could either do an hourly rate x how long it will take. Or come up with a per foot price that covers your labor and machine cost, with a minimum dollar amount for small jobs.

 

Yes thats kinda what I was thinking. From what I've gathered the going rate seems to be somewhere around $1.50 to $2 a linear foot? But just looking for some first hand experience on what the market rate is.

 

What did you charge for spade edging?

 

I was at a buck fifty last year per foot. I have a brown bed edger and a bed shaper for my grasshopper. Both will be for sale soon as I am going to be doing just aeration going forward. Getting too old to be throwing mulch anymore.

 

I charge $100/h but I use a hand edger to a make a nice deep edge and then polish/clean it up with the trimmer upside down. Not sure how to explain exactly but I'm sure people here know what I mean

 

I have one that fits a Walker if anyone is interested. I have never used it picked it up on a auction site.

 

Bed edgers are fine, in the right conditions they pulverize the soil nicely, but they still need to be cleaned up with a spade to be crisp. Come up with a per ft price. I’m at $1 a ft currently. I wouldn’t do anything with a powered edger by the hr.

 

Are you guys including hauling away all the dirt/sod you pick up for 1-2 per ft? Seems cheap honestly.

 

I personally just leave the dirt that I dig up in the bed. The big chucks I break down and spread out with a rake. The dirt will break down naturally so it will not matter in the long run. If my trailer was equipped to handle the extra weight, I would just dump it all on there.

 

Are you guys including hauling away all the dirt/sod you pick up for 1-2 per ft? Seems cheap honestly.

I charge for hauling and dump fees yes. $100/h to edge beds with an edger is cheap? What do you charge for general gardening labor per man hour?

 

I usually price per job. It sounds nice, but to haul away all the sod you need a heavy duty dump trailer (at least some of the jobs people ask me about), dump fees, time going to and fro the dump etc. So are you charging 100/pmh PLUS dump fees/time etc?

 

$1.25 per linear foot.

 

I've always just quoted whatever number of hours I think it would take times my labor rate. A property with no existing edge where you need to haul away a lot of sod and grade out the soil in the bed is much more time consuming than just touching up an existing edge that needs minimal to no removal and leveling out the soil.

The linear foot pricing works if you don't mind going off averages knowing you will earn and lose money on some jobs.