Landscaping & grounds maintenance · East Herts · North-west Essex · Cambridge
Domestic gardens and commercial grounds, run by the man who does the work.
Ace of Spades Landscapes is a small family-run contractor working out of Bishop's Stortford across east Hertfordshire, north-west Essex and up into Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Paul Robson quotes the job, oversees the specialist work and is on the ground with the team — whether it's a rear garden in Bishop's Stortford or a term's grounds maintenance on a school site.
Paul Robson, proprietor, on site · family run · Companies House 08422779
Paul Robson
proprietor, on site and overseeing
Company 08422779
registered at Companies House, active
Family run
a small team, not a call centre
Everything recycled
all waste off site goes on to be recycled
Bishop's Stortford · domestic & commercial · Ace of Spades Landscapes
Two trades in one firm — and that's the point.
Most landscapers build gardens. Most grounds contractors cut grass. Ace of Spades Landscapes does both, and the overlap is what makes the difference: the crew who lay your patio also know how to verti-drain a worn lawn, restore a pitch, mark out a running track and keep a school's grounds right through a whole school year.
That range came from the work. We build complete gardens from design to completion for private clients across east Herts and north-west Essex, and we maintain grounds for larger sites — schools and colleges, private estates and business premises. Specialist work is overseen by proprietor Paul Robson himself, so the unusual jobs get the same attention as the routine ones.
Landscaping
Complete garden creation from design to completion — patios and natural stone, block paved driveways and specialist surfacing, turfing and seeding, decking, fencing and soil retainment, ponds and water features, and shrub, hedge and tree planting.
Grounds maintenance
Grass cutting by gang, triple, rotary or flail mowing, shrub beds and ornamental areas, hedge trimming by hand or flail, leaf clearance, weed control, tree pruning, litter collection and decking or fence upkeep — booked as a round, for sites of any size.
Specialist services
The work most landscapers send elsewhere: drainage schemes, athletics run-ups and jump pits, sports pitch and lawn restoration, verti-draining and top dressing, tennis court restoration, safety surfacing, markings, tree and stump removal — all overseen by Paul Robson himself.
What we do
From a single patio
to a whole school's grounds.
01
Complete garden creation, design to completion
The whole plot taken on as one job — ideas discussed, drawn into a plan, quoted, then built and planted by the same team.
02
Patios & natural stone paving
Terraces and paved areas laid to proper falls, from budget slabs to large natural stone schemes.
03
Block paved driveways & specialist surfacing
Driveways in block paving, plus specialist surfaces for drives and paths where blocks aren't the answer.
08
Ponds & water features
Ponds and water features built into the garden, from a small patio pond upwards.
10
Grass cutting & lawn care
Gang, triple, rotary and flail mowing — the right machine for the size and condition of the ground.
13
Sports surfaces, markings & jump pits
Pitch and hard-surface markings, athletics run-ups, jump pits and safety surfacing.
Manuden · 300 m² natural stone
“Following completion of a new swimming pool we were commissioned to take up and dispose of all the existing paving, then create a large paved area in natural stone — 300 square metres in total — extending the garden wall and building in steps down to the lawn. All the planning and design was carried out by ourselves, with everything agreed with the client first.”
Our own project record — The Oaks, Manuden
Our work
Real jobs, named streets, our own photographs.
Front and back gardens rebuilt, with a block paved drive
A block paved driveway was specified and every other idea was discussed, drawn into a plan and quoted for. The rear garden was completed first, working in all weathers as far as possible; the front was done keeping disruption and mess to a minimum. It has given the family a very usable space that adds value to the property.
Little Walden Road, Saffron Walden
New stone terrace and extended garden wall around a pool
Following completion of a new swimming pool we were commissioned to take up and dispose of all the existing paving, then create a large paved area in natural stone — 300 square metres in total — extending the garden wall and building in steps down to the lawn. All the planning and design was carried out by ourselves, with everything agreed with the client first.
The Oaks, Manuden
A rear patio reworked, with a pond built into the corner
A smaller job: rework the rear patio, supply and lay budget slabs, retain the lawn and build a small pond into one corner. A quick, pleasant job with an immediate improvement to the look of the space — the client was very happy and all the works came in on the budget that had been set.
Portland Road, Bishop's Stortford
How we work
Look, quote, build — then keep it right.
01
We come and look
Call or email and we'll arrange to come out and walk the ground with you. For a garden that means levels, drainage, access and how you actually want to use the space; for a commercial site it means measuring the areas, agreeing the standard you need and working out a sensible visit frequency. No charge, and no pressure.
02
A plan and a written quote
We put the ideas into a plan and quote for it properly, so you can see what's included before anyone starts. On landscaping projects we'll talk through materials and the sequence of works; on grounds maintenance we set out what's covered on each visit and what sits outside the schedule. When pricing we make every effort to work to your budget.
03
The work, then the aftercare
We work in all weathers as far as possible, keep disruption and mess to a minimum and clear as we go — and every bit of waste we take off site goes on to be recycled rather than to landfill. When the build is finished we can pick the garden up on a maintenance round so it keeps looking the way it did on handover.
Garden & grounds year
What we'd be doing in your garden, month by month
Half the questions we get asked come down to timing: when to turf, when to cut a hedge, when to verti-drain, when to book summer works on a school site. This is how we plan a year across the gardens and grounds we look after in east Herts, north-west Essex and Cambridgeshire. It's a guide, not a rulebook — the weather gets a vote, and so does your soil.
Late winter · January to March
The quiet months, which is exactly why they're the right ones for building.
Spring · April to May
Everything starts moving at once, so the order of work matters.
Summer · June to August
Maintenance season on gardens, and the build window on school sites.
Autumn · September to December
The most useful season of the lot, and the one most often skipped.
Where we work
East Herts, north-west Essex, and up into Suffolk & Cambridgeshire.
We work out of Bishop's Stortford and cover east Hertfordshire, north-west Essex and the Cambridge area — Sawbridgeworth, Stansted, Saffron Walden and the villages between — and north into Suffolk around Haverhill, Clare and Bury St Edmunds, where the company is registered. Domestic gardens and commercial grounds alike; if you're not sure you're in range, ring and ask.
- Bishop's Stortford
- Sawbridgeworth
- Stansted
- Saffron Walden
- Manuden
- Haverhill
- Clare
- Bury St Edmunds
- Cambridge
Something you want looking at?
Ring Paul, or send the details and we'll come back to you.