Your questions answered
Everything you might want to ask.
Grouped by where you are — weighing us up, planning a landscaping job, or looking for someone to keep grounds right through the year. If your question isn't here, ring and ask.
Before you call
Do you charge to come out and quote?
No. We'll come and look at the garden or the site, talk through what you're after and put a written quote to it, with no charge and no obligation. If we don't think an idea will work, or there's a cheaper way to get you most of the way there, we'll say so at that visit rather than after you've paid for it.
Who will I actually be dealing with?
Paul Robson, the proprietor. It's a small family-run business, not a sales office — Paul quotes the work and personally oversees all specialist works, and you'll see the same faces on site rather than a different subcontractor each week.
Do you take on small jobs, or only big projects?
Both. We've built complete gardens from design to completion and laid 300 square metres of natural stone around a swimming pool — and we've also gone out to relay a small rear patio with a pond in the corner on a set budget. Neither gets a different standard of preparation underneath.
Do you work for businesses and schools as well as private clients?
Yes, and it's a large part of what we do. Our grounds maintenance clients have ranged from schools and colleges in Essex and Cambridgeshire to private estates and business premises, which is why we run gang, triple, rotary and flail mowers and do sports markings, jump pits and pitch restoration as well as domestic gardens.
Which areas do you cover?
East Hertfordshire, north-west Essex and the Cambridge area as standard, working out of Bishop's Stortford — and north into Suffolk around Haverhill, Clare and Bury St Edmunds, where the company is registered. For larger landscaping projects and grounds contracts we'll travel further; just ask.
How long have you been going?
Ace of Spades Landscapes Ltd has been registered at Companies House since 27 February 2013 under company number 08422779, and is currently active. You can look the record up yourself — we'd rather point you at the register than make a claim you can't check.
Landscaping projects
How does a complete garden project actually run?
We come out and discuss every idea with you, put them into a plan and quote for the lot. Then we build — working in all weathers as far as possible — and where a job has a front and a back garden we'll usually complete the rear first and then do the front, keeping disruption and mess at the house end to a minimum. Planting and turf go in last so they land into a finished scheme.
Will my patio or drive still be level in five years?
That depends entirely on what goes in underneath, which is why we price the groundwork honestly rather than shaving it to win a job. We dig out to depth, consolidate the base, get the falls right so water runs away from the building, and restrain the edges. It's the part you never see and the only part that decides whether the surface moves.
Can you design the garden as well as build it?
Yes — complete landscape service from design to completion is exactly how we work. On the swimming pool project at Manuden all the planning and design works were carried out by ourselves, with every consideration discussed with the client before we started.
What happens to all the waste?
Ace of Spades has always promoted the recycling of materials, and all the waste we take off your site goes on to be recycled — so nothing we remove ends up illegally disposed of or in landfill. On grounds work, litter collection is the one exception: some of it genuinely can't be recycled, and we'd rather say so.
Do you do fencing, decking and ponds as well as paving?
All of them, and usually as part of the same job — fencing, decking, soil retainment, pond and water feature construction, shrub, hedge and tree planting, turfing and grass seeding. Having one team cover the whole list is what stops a garden being built in disconnected pieces.
Grounds maintenance & specialist work
What's included in a grounds maintenance contract?
It's built around your site, but typically: grass cutting by gang, triple, rotary or flail mowing, maintenance of shrub beds and ornamental areas, hedge trimming by hand-held trimmer or flail, leaf clearance, weed control, tree pruning, litter collection, and decking or fence maintenance where you have them. We set out what falls in each visit and what sits outside the schedule before you sign anything.
Why does the mowing machine matter?
Because the wrong one either takes far too long or tears the grass. Gang and triple mowers cover big open areas efficiently and leave a proper finish; rotary suits general grass, banks and awkward corners; flail handles long, rough or neglected growth that would clog anything else. Running all four means we price a site on what it needs rather than what we happen to own.
Can you look after sports pitches and athletics facilities?
Yes. Sports and hard-surface markings, athletic run-ups and jump pit construction and maintenance, sports pitch restoration, verti-draining and top dressing, tennis court restoration and safety surfacing are all things we do. School and college sites usually want this work programmed into the summer holidays, so it's worth talking to us before the end of the academic year.
Our lawn is worn out and waterlogged. Does it need replacing?
Usually not. Compaction is the most common cause, and verti-draining, top dressing, fertilising and overseeding will bring most worn grass back for a fraction of the cost of starting again. We'll tell you honestly if a surface really is past restoring — but we'd rather restore it.
Who oversees the more unusual jobs?
Paul Robson. All specialist work — drainage schemes, pit and run-up construction, pitch and court restoration, safety surfacing, tree and stump removal — is overseen by the proprietor personally, which is why the unusual jobs get the same attention as the routine ones.
Still wondering about something?
The quickest way to a straight answer is a call, or a WhatsApp photo of the garden or the site. No obligation, no pressure.