For the quiet, tree-lined streets of Ringwood East, where mature gardens and deep back yards turn out more prunings than a green bin can hold.
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 Ringwood East 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.
Prunings from deep back yards and side beds.
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.
Mature gardens that have got ahead of you.
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 tidy of dry growth near sheds and fences.
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.
Branches brought down by wind from big old trees.
Ringwood East has kept more of its original character than its busier neighbour. It is mostly established housing from the 1950s to the 1970s on decent-sized blocks, with long back yards, big trees and gardens that have been built up over decades by the same families.
That kind of garden is lovely to live with and hard work to maintain. Hedges keep growing, the old shrubs need a hard cut every few years, and the trees drop more each season than anyone plans for. When the pile behind the shed gets too big for the bin, Ross takes care of the green waste removal in Ringwood East — piled up, loaded by hand, and gone.
The typical Ringwood East yard runs a fair way back from the house. Down the far end you tend to find a veggie patch that has been let go, a compost heap that was never turned, and a row of shrubs along the fence that is now twice the height it was meant to be.
Clearing the green waste from that end of the yard is one of the most common jobs here. Ross works through the pile, stacks the woody material tightly on the trailer, and takes it for green waste disposal at a facility where it gets mulched.
Because so many Ringwood East homes have had the same owners for a long time, a fair share of garden work comes when a house is being handed on — someone moving into a smaller place, or a family sorting out a parent's home. The garden is usually the part that has been let slide.
Ross can clear the green waste in one go so the house is ready to sell or lease. He works around whatever else is happening on the property and doesn't need anyone to be there, as long as the gate is open.
Big old eucalypts and exotic trees are part of what makes these streets pleasant, and they do let go of branches in strong wind. If one has come down on the lawn or across the driveway, Ross will load it up and take it away.
He won't touch anything still attached to the tree. Split limbs and leaning trees need an arborist, and many trees in Ringwood East are covered by permit requirements — check with Maroondah City Council before anything standing is removed.
September and October are when most Ringwood East gardeners get stuck into the hedges and shrubs, and the requests for a green waste pickup follow straight after. Book as soon as you've finished cutting, or before you start, and the pile won't sit on the lawn for weeks.
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.
