Bulleen's mid-century homes sit on wide, flat blocks with fruit trees, vegetable gardens and big deciduous trees. That means heavy autumn leaf drops and serious winter prunings.
Not a franchisee or a truck driver from a booking system. The bloke who quotes it is the bloke who loads it.
No bags to fill, no skip to load. Leave it in a pile and he loads it, sweeps up and takes it away.
Not a bin size. A heap beside the driveway and one at the bottom of a steep yard are different jobs and get different prices.
Standing tree, asbestos, or more rubbish than garden — he tells you before he starts, not after.
A pruning pile hauled away and a few bags of leaf litter collected is the usual combination on a Bulleen block.
Piles of prunings, branches, hedge trimmings, leaves and weeds that won't fit in the green bin. Ross backs the trailer in, loads it himself and takes it away to be recycled — you don't lift a thing.
Fruit trees, vines and backyard prunings.
Doing a big garden clean-up — overgrown beds, a back corner nobody has touched in years, a rental between tenants or a property being tidied for sale? Pile it all up and Ross collects the lot in one visit.
Big back yards cleared before a sale or rebuild.
Fallen limbs, shed bark, leaf litter and dry prunings gathered up from around the house — the fine fuel that matters most in a grassfire or ember attack. Collected and taken away before the Fire Danger Period starts.
Summer build-up of dry leaves and grass.
A gum has dropped a limb across the driveway, or a windy night has left the yard covered. Ross collects what's come down and hauls it away. Standing trees and hung-up limbs are an arborist's job — once they've dropped it, Ross can take it away.
Wind-dropped limbs from large old trees.
Bulleen is a flat, established suburb between the Yarra and the Koonung Creek, built up mainly in the 1950s and 60s. Many houses are original brick homes on generous blocks, and a lot of those back yards were made to be used: fruit trees, grapevines, vegetable plots and big shade trees.
Those gardens are wonderful, but they create more garden waste than a green bin can take. Winter pruning of fruit trees and vines, autumn leaves from deciduous trees, and the clear-out when a long-held family home finally changes hands. Ross comes out with the trailer, loads it by hand and takes it off to be recycled.
It's common in Bulleen to find a back yard with a pergola of grapevines, a couple of lemon trees, figs and several stone-fruit trees. Pruning them properly every winter creates a mound of twiggy wood.
Figs in particular get big quickly and throw out thick, heavy growth. Ross loads the lot, heavy wood included, so all you have to do is prune.
A lot of Bulleen houses are passing from original owners to new families, or being knocked down for new builds. Before that happens, the garden often needs a big clean-out.
Ross can take away the cleared overgrowth and accumulated cuttings in one go, whether for a sale, a rental or a demolition. Anything involving removing established trees should be checked with Manningham City Council first, and standing trees need an arborist.
Unlike the hilly streets further east, most Bulleen blocks are flat with wide driveways. The trailer can usually back right up to the pile, which keeps the job quick and the cost down.
Where a garage or carport blocks the way, Ross barrows it through. A photo of the side access is useful.
Autumn is when Bulleen yards fill with leaves from elms, oaks and fruit trees. Midwinter is fruit-tree and vine pruning time. Those are the busiest weeks, so book a few weeks ahead, or book a single visit after both are done.
Suburb, roughly how much there is, and what the access is like. A photo saves a lot of back and forth.
Ross comes back with a number. On big or awkward jobs he has a look first rather than guessing.
Loaded by hand, driveway swept, and off for proper green waste disposal.
Ross runs this on his own. He quotes the job, he turns up, he loads the trailer and he takes it away — the same bloke every visit. There is no office in between, no skip company, and no franchise cut coming out of what you pay.
It also means he will tell you when something isn't his job — a standing tree that needs an arborist, or a pile that is more rubbish than garden — rather than taking the money and leaving you with half a problem.
The suburb, roughly how much there is, and how easy it is to get a trailer to it is enough to work with. A photo of the pile gets you a price fastest.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Ross on 0416 030 925. Monday to Saturday, daylight hours — weather permitting.
Get a price on your pile. Takes a minute — Ross reads them himself.
Thanks — that's gone through to Ross. Spring is his busiest time, so if it's close to fire season he may take a day or two.
