What to put in your request
A supplier can only price what they can see. Answer these and the quotes come back for the same job, which is the only way they can be compared.
- What you need: a maintenance contract, a once-off clean-up, new landscaping, irrigation installed or repaired, tree work, or invasive plants cleared.
- The site: the address, the size of the grounds, and the lawns, beds, trees, paving and slopes. A site plan or an aerial photograph helps.
- For maintenance: how often the team comes and for how long, and the tasks on each visit (mowing, edging, weeding, pruning, leaf clearing), with what is done monthly or by season.
- Who supplies what: fertiliser, compost, plants, fuel and equipment, and whether garden refuse is taken away.
- Water: municipal water, a borehole or harvested rainwater, and whether there is an irrigation system and who looks after it.
- For tree work: which trees, how tall, what is near them (buildings, power lines, roads, parked cars), and whether the stumps must come out.
- For weeds and pests: where, and whether you will allow chemicals at all.
- Access and timing: gate hours and sign-in, when noisy work such as mowing and leaf-blowing is allowed, the start date and the contract length.
What to compare when the quotes come back
The lowest total is where comparing starts, not where it ends.
- The hours behind a maintenance price: how many people, how many visits a month, and how long each lasts.
- The task list for each visit, so the work can be checked against it.
- What is included and what is extra: refuse removal, fertiliser, plants, irrigation repairs, and the rates for extra work.
- For clearing invasive plants: the method, and how many follow-up visits are included. The law expects control to deal with regrowth and seedlings, not only the first cut.
- For new planting: the plant list with sizes, and whether plants that die in the first months are replaced, and on what conditions.
- For irrigation: the controller, the zones, and whether it can be adjusted for season and rain.
- Public liability insurance, especially for tree felling near buildings, cars and power lines.
On SupScope every quote arrives with the same three figures: the total, the lead time and the deposit. The first comparison is done before you open anything. The rest of this list is what to read in each supplier's notes and documents.
Paperwork worth asking for
- Pest control operator registration, for anyone spraying weedkiller
- Weedkillers and garden pesticides are agricultural remedies under Act 36 of 1947, and a contractor paid to apply them must be registered as a pest control operator with the Department of Agriculture, in the right field. For gardens, ornamental plantings and turf the field is Landscape; roadsides, railways, power lines and industrial land fall under Industrial Vegetation and Noxious Weeds. Ask for the certificate, and for the treatment notice the operator must put up before each application.
- A plan for any invasive plants on your land
- Under the Biodiversity Act and its Alien and Invasive Species Regulations, whoever owns or controls land must stop listed invasive plants on it from spreading. Category 1a species must be eradicated and Category 1b species controlled; Category 2 species generally need a permit and may not spread beyond the area it allows; and Category 3 species growing near rivers, dams and wetlands count as Category 1b. Ask the contractor to name any listed species on your site, give their category, and say how they will deal with each.
- A licence before a protected tree is cut
- Under the National Forests Act, nobody may cut, damage, destroy or remove a protected tree without a licence from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. The list of protected species is published every year and includes yellowwoods, camel thorn, marula and baobab. Before an indigenous tree is felled or heavily pruned, ask the contractor to check the list.
- Clarity on your municipality's water rules, and any borehole
- Municipal water by-laws set rules for garden watering, and restrictions can tighten them during a drought. Cape Town's, for example, allows no watering with municipal water between 09:00 and 18:00 even when no restrictions are in force, requires a new irrigation system to avoid spraying water onto paving and to be adjustable for rainy weather, and requires boreholes and wellpoints to be registered with the City, with its sign displayed. Check your municipality's rules before an irrigation system is designed.
And from any supplier
- A SARS Tax Compliance Status PIN
- It replaced the old tax clearance certificate. Checking it on eFiling shows the supplier's status on the day you check, not the day it was issued.
- A B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit
- Only if your own scorecard counts it. Small suppliers (turnover up to R10 million) may use an affidavit instead of a verified certificate.
- Company registration and a bank confirmation letter
- Worth having before the first payment, so the account you pay is the company you chose.
General guidance, not legal advice. Regulations change, and some depend on your municipality or the job, so confirm anything you rely on with the authority concerned.
How this works on SupScope
- Step 1
Post it once
Describe the job and choose Landscaping & Garden Services and your province.
- Step 2
It reaches the right suppliers
Only suppliers who work in this trade and cover your province see it.
- Step 3
Compare and award
Quotes arrive side by side. Accept one and the others are told.