What it does need is somebody there in the two windows where neglect turns expensive: the growth after the spring rain, and the dry weeks before the fire season. We keep the grounds on a rhythm rather than rescuing them the week before you arrive, and we photograph each visit, so you can watch the garden change instead of taking our word for it.

What is included

Lawn mowing and edging on a seasonal interval, clippings removed
Hedge, shrub and oleander trimming
Olive, fig and citrus pruning in the correct season, cuttings disposed of legally
Irrigation timers, valves, lines and heads tested and adjusted
Terrace, path, gravel and drainage channel weeding
Fire-risk vegetation cleared back from the building
Mediterranean planting and replanting suited to the exposure
Watering while you are away, reported on

Through the year

Spring is when everything grows at once: mowing moves to a short interval, hedges are cut back, the irrigation is recommissioned and tested valve by valve, and replanting is done while there is still water in the ground. In summer the mowing slows and the watering matters — pots, young plants and anything the irrigation misses. Autumn is leaves, pine needles and storm debris off the terraces, out of the gutters and clear of the drainage channels before the first heavy rain, and the olives pruned. Winter is the structural work: hard pruning, hedge reshaping, weeding out the joints in paths, irrigation drained.

Fire risk is the part you can control

Dry growth against a building is what turns a passing fire into a lost house, and it is the one factor an absent owner can actually influence. We clear dead branches, undergrowth and dry material back from the walls and photograph the result. Where a municipal order names a specific requirement we read it, translate it and tell you what it actually demands — not what a neighbour thinks it demands.

Where we stop

Terracing, retaining walls, tree felling near power lines and anything needing machinery beyond our own goes to a partner firm through trades coordination: quotes on one written scope, the work supervised, the invoice checked. We garden; we do not build the ground the garden sits on.

Caretaker service Croatia

Common questions

Garden care: what owners ask

Can you keep the garden presentable for guests?

Yes, and if the house is let we sequence the garden visit to land before the changeover rather than after it.

Do you do the fire clearance the municipality asks for?

We clear dry growth, dead branches and undergrowth back from the building and photograph the result. Where an order names a specific requirement, we read it and tell you plainly what it demands.

What about a bigger job — a wall, a terrace, a new olive terrace?

That goes through trades coordination: three quotes on the same written scope, the work supervised, the invoice checked before it reaches you.

Will you water while we are away?

Yes, on the visit schedule, and it goes in the report. For a property that stands empty through August, the watering interval is usually what decides whether the planting survives the summer.

Background reading