Gardening lessons at home in Short Hills, NJ

Your garden, adapted

Mature Short Hills gardens often have deep borders and beds at ground level, laid out decades ago. Over time those get harder to manage. A gardener can help you rethink one area at a time: a raised bed by the kitchen door, a cluster of large pots on the terrace, a bench placed where you can deadhead from a seat.

You stay in charge. The gardener does the digging and hauling; you choose, plant and tend.

Many people also find that gardening with someone beside them is simply more fun. There's somebody to ask about the yellow leaves on the hydrangea, somebody to admire the first peony, somebody to carry the heavy watering can. The gardener will also leave suggestions for what you can safely do on your own between visits.

Borrowing ideas from local gardens

Greenwood Gardens on Old Short Hills Road is a 28-acre historic garden, open seasonally with advance registration. It's a wonderful source of ideas for planting, structure and color, even if your own garden is a fraction of the size. Bring photos home and a gardener can help you adapt what you liked.

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum is good for native plants and woodland ideas, which suit the shady lots common in Short Hills.

Houseplants count too. Many Short Hills homes have sunny rooms that would suit a collection of easy plants, and a gardener can help choose ones that forgive a missed watering.

Through the year

In October, there's still plenty to do: planting bulbs, cutting back perennials, collecting leaves for compost and moving tender plants inside. Over winter, houseplants and seed-starting keep hands busy. Spring and early summer are the busiest season outdoors.

If getting outside is difficult, many gardeners do indoor sessions: repotting houseplants, setting up a windowsill herb garden, or looking after orchids. Indoor gardening counts.

Over a full season, a weekly gardener helps you notice how the garden changes and plan around it. By the second year, many people know their own garden better than they did when they were doing all the work alone.

Cost

Gardeners set their own hourly rate between $50 and $150, with 1, 1.5 or 2 hour visits. Most garden sessions run 1.5 or 2 hours. A $2.50 booking fee and a 10% service fee apply, and a $25 travel fee is added if the gardener lives 20 or more miles away.