Bramble Kitty Landscaping

06/27/2025

Hey, I'm a landscaper that focuses on clearing land from highly invasive plants such as himalayan blackberries, scotch broom, daphne spurge, st john wort, thistle etc. This list of invasive plant species is quite high. I work with a student. We also, trim bushes and w**d gardens. We charge a low rate of $35/hr per worker. As there are 2 people, that will be $70/hr. I have some time available in July. Please call or text Nathalie at 250-619-9087.Text is preferred.

Send a message to learn more

02/04/2025

Snow shoveling $50/driveway, $80/double. Call or text Nathalie 250-619-9087. Be careful out there, the roads are bad. For those who are stuck, if you are close to home, you can grab a couple of towels or jackets you don't care about and pop them under the front wheels of your vehicle. Most vehicles are front wheel drive. There's also cat litter if you have a cat. Pushing works if you can get someone to help. I'll be out there again soon. There's also taxis and busses running today. I will have 2 towels in my truck to help out. Please support your local labourers!

Send a message to learn more

02/03/2025

Hey it's snowing. I do shoveling. If you need me please call or txt 250-619-9087. $50 per driveway, $80 for double car and if driveway is long, we can negotiate.

Send a message to learn more

02/03/2025

Winter indoor cleaning services $25/hr.
Hey, Nathalie with Bramble Kitty Landscaping. It's winter and jobs are scarce for a maintenance landscaper as our work is normally seasonal. Many landscapers do drywall and small house repair work in the winter to fill the gap. That's not in my skill set. I am offering my winter indoor cleaning services at $25/hr until my contracts pick up in mid March. I feel like we all know what cleaning entails but I will put down a list anyhow. Vacuuming, floor sweeping with wet swifer, thorough bathroom cleaning, scrubbing toilets (including behind the toilet) and tubs and sinks, doing laundry if you have the facilities otherwise it will be extra, cleaning kitchen, doing dishes, moving range to clean behind etc. When you ask for my services make sure to point out what you would like to have done and it will be done. I can't provide an estimate on the work because there are too many factors involved. Have me come over for a day, I will take pictures to show. If not satisfied, don't have me back.
I charge $35/hr for my landscaping maintenance service which includes full blackberry removal. If you're from the west coast you understand that that means blackberry bushes and crowns but not permanent eradication.

Send a message to learn more

01/13/2025

It's only January here in Nanaimo and the weather is already warming up. The snow drops are starting to poke out and our lovely landscapers are getting their tools ready and beginning to advertise. Thank you to those who have already booked with me and to those I have already serviced this year. I am offering my base rate of $35/hr only until mid March. After that I will be charging $50/hr for my services to cover for the increases in insurance, fuel, tool depreciation and overhead cost with the new employee or employees. I know this will boost my work load early in the season but what a nice week we've had so far! I took some pictures of one of the most beautiful gardens I've had the pleasure to work on and I tried to take a picture of the blackberry job removal I did this year but the owner's dogs were let out. They're lovely dogs but as a rule of thumb, I never go on a property that has dogs without the owner there unless the owner trusts the dog or dogs. I had actually left the fenced yard, finished cleaning up the yard waste mess that always seems to develop around the truck when loading it and then rushed back to take pictures but the dogs were there. That's ok, I didn't talk to the owner about taking pictures because she was getting ready to go out. I'm sure I will have many other opportunities on many other properties.
It was an interesting job though. It was one of those where I had already worked on a few months ago, almost a year ago. After I cut down the bushes so that only the stems were sticking out, I tried to rip them out with the pick mattock as I normally do but it wasn't working. Turns out the pick mattock can only hook onto the blackberry if it has a crown on it and these guys being less than a year into their growth cycle and likely growing from a root that remained after the crowns were ripped out had not yet developed a crown. Many of them were also super deep. Maybe that's a defense mechanism after being ripped out. I ended up only using the pick mattock where the ground was packed in to loosen the ground and having to pull as carefully as possible in order to get as much of the root as possible. They seem to break near the end so I could only get a few inches down but I believe pulling is always better than w**d whacking and I did find 2 (lol. 2) that had crowns. Those are likely 2 that I missed on my last visit as it takes at least a year to make a crown.
Anyhow, check out this beautiful garden complete with deer and ocean views. You can't see it because it's behind the deer but there were 2 kayakers out there on Friday. The finish on this garden I believe is called a "fluff & tuff" where you rejuvenate the mulch by scraping it with a dutch hoe. Gardens get packed and weathered, their colour begins to fade after some time but you don't always need to add mulch to rejuvenate. I start all gardens by individually removing w**ds by hand and with the japanese hoe for the deep rooted ones. These gardens now look like they have a new bed of mulch when in reality it was just fluff & tuff. Ok, I just checked Google and ''fluff & tuff" didn't come up. Just, "fluffing mulch" and "rejuvenating mulch". I like "fluff & tuff" better. It'll become a thing if we keep saying it right.

01/09/2025

Attention all property management companies, investment property owners, Air B&B managers and owners of commercial property, I am announcing my new strategy for 2025. This year I have more employees and as such I have more availability to service more clients. I offer full service maintenance including but not limited to
* Lawns: Mowing, W**d whacking and Edging.
* Curbside clean up: manual sweeping and w**d
whacking vegetation growing through cracks.
* Pedestrian paths: Gravel w**ding and small paver
repairs such as sunken and displaced pavers.
* Gardens: W**ding, raking and hedge trimming,
thinning, dead plant removal and planting.
* Whole property garbage clean up: Parking lot etc
* Pet poo clean up
* Garbage, Recycle and compost bin cleaning.
* On time curbside bin moving. This one is for
rental owners and air B&B to take advantage of.
This service ensures the correct bins are always out
on time and on the appropriate day and back in
for the evening.
* Commitment to a clean and professional finish on
every job. For example, w**ding includes a raked
finish and a clean up of all spill overs.
* Flexible service hours. Some business's would prefer
maintenance services after hours and we offer that.
* Flexible service schedules: Weekly, Bi-weekly or
Monthly. Payment preference is monthly.
* Snow removal services are only available for
sidewalks and pedestrian paths. We will be
shoveling and salting.
* Emergency clean up services. We can be called up
to do same day clean up service including garbage
and yard waste clean up. Storm clean up for all
debris including break down and removal of fallen
tree(s). Service does not include trees hung up in
branches or leaning trees that are about to fall. You
need a tree feller for that as there are special
certifications, knowledge and insurance involved.

There are so many outdoor maintenance services available that I'm sure I missed a few. Irrigation and power washing are two of them. So far, I haven't been asked about doing irrigation but branching out to commercial properties may change my mind about that. Power washing requires a whole different set of equipment and should be considered a specialized service. The services will be tailored to the specific needs of the business and will be included in a contract. The services are also inter changeable. For example, if you choose a weekly service and paver repair wasn't in the contract and find yourself needing paver repair, I can swap out the regular services for one of the weeks for paver repair, saving you some money as I won't charge extra as long as the service time we accounted for remains the same. There's also flexibility in doing extra work and extra chores for a service rate of $50/man hour.

01/09/2025

It's that time of year again when landscapers begin their advertising campaign. Always trying to expand our business so we can hire more, work on bigger projects and make the name a household brand. Yes, this year is a new and exciting year for me. This year, I am not going solo so that I can accommodate more clients. I have also been learning and applying new skills including topiary pruning and fruit tree pruning. I have a new sprayer I will be using to spray fruit trees starting in mid January. I am working with someone to learn how to do this properly. I have spent some time researching my options and have found some landscaping companies that will gladly sub contract and labour agencies that are always looking to match businesses with labourers for both skilled and unskilled labour. I'm hoping to find a few regulars through the agency. Essentially, since I've been operating for about 5 years now, I think it's time for me to take on a more managerial role. I will still be working with the new employee this year though. Please understand that with increased overhead comes increased rates. I can no longer afford to charge $35 per hour. The best I can do now is $50 per hour and that's per person. Do consider that jobs will be done quicker, more efficiently and safer with 2 people and one of them will be myself. If I get lucky and get a lot of projects, then I will find more experienced people to work on sites on their own. The price increase does not come into effect until mid March. From now until then I am still charging $35/hr for bramble removal and any other invasive species removal and any and all yard and garden maintenance including spring cleaning, w**ding, garden edging, hedge trimming, concrete and paver w**d whacking to remove vegetation from cracks, mowing and w**d whacking and topiary shaping.

10/16/2024

Oh man, I stupidly agreed to comply with a strata complaint that was completely unfounded because I thought it wasn't going to be any trouble to do as requested but I was wrong. I wish I had a landscaping company I could chat with to inquire about stuff like this. This is the first strata I've ever worked for and I haven't had many complaints but the few that I have had made no sense. One person asked me to not mow their lawn between certain hours during the day. Thank goodness it was just one person because I would never be able to keep track of time requests like that from more than 2 maybe. This latest request is the worst and I don't think the home owner or the strata quite realize how much more work they've just dumped on my plate if they actually want me to do this. So, I have 45-50 trees to trim nice and tight to look like christmas trees or like jujubes. I think of them as jujubes. My contract is coming to an end soon and of course they want this done before my contract ends. I have 25 or so more to do. Each tree takes me about an hour to trim as I have to use a ladder to do the top and as it's on a 45 degree angle slope, I take my time to make sure the ladder is secure. The slope has soft clay near the surface (no grass) and it's quite slippery. Even the ladder came down once but it's only a 6ft ladder so no worries and it only came down 3 feet because of the extreme angle of the slope. Essentially the ladder pole on the orchard ladder slipped as it does sometimes when dealing with slopes. The landscapers will know what I'm talking about. Back to the issue of the strata home owner request. They've asked me to no longer park beside the grass between the 2 homes and to not leave my tools in the grass. I really can't see why this inconveniences anyone but check out what it will do to me. This was the closest I could get to a hard to reach space where I already had to walk 20ft to get to as it's behind the homes. Now they want me to park my truck on the courtyard side just across. First problem is that there's a strata mailbox there and my understanding is that I can't park closer than 20ft from a mailbox. Ok, another 20ft then. That lands me in the visitor parking, just about as far in the strata complex as I can get from my actual worksite. Maybe, not such a bad deal if I only had one run to do but I work alone and if you know anything about trimming for hours on end, you know it produces a lot of yard waste. In fact, each tree produces 2-3 buckets/garbage bin of yard waste. So, after 4-5hours, I should have about 4-5 trees done and that means 8-12 trips with the bucket. And now, there's an extra 20ft added to each trip. So, each trip is now, 40ft one way, and across a street after trimming for 4-5hours that's just not fair and kind of dangerous. Did I forget to mention that I'm also on a time crunch to get this completed. It's not like this is the only task I do during the week for them. I also, mow, rake leaves and w**d the gardens. I'm going to ask for a compromise on this one because #1, making anyone park this far from a worksite is inefficient and unkind. I'm a mother and I would like to not have to spend my weekends doing this because somebody was unhappy with the sight of my tools in their yard (which they never use and likely won't want to as there's a kid's park just next door for when they have kids over, honestly, these tiny yards are pretty much just used for show.). My plan is to ask the strata manager if I can park there long enough to get my tools in the site yard, then move my truck to visitor parking, then move my tools to the actual site behind the homes and start working and when I figure I've done as much trimming as I could get away with in one day, I would need to park there again to load the trimmings into the truck. This will also waste time than if I could simply park near the site but this is the best compromise I can do. Anything else is unreasonable and there's a very good chance the home owner doesn't understand my side at all. There's also a small chance that the homeowner doesn't care and may even be enjoying the difficult place they have just put me in. There may be another solution that beats this one though. There's this one jovial character, a lovely gentleman that seems to treat everyone with kindness. A kindred spirit who loves to be outside a lot. He lives in the next house over. Maybe he can help me. Heck, maybe I just won't do the trees directly behind her yard. Why should I do those trees when I'm access to them? Is it too much to ask to just let people do their work. I would be done sooner if you just let me park closes to site. My work vehicle wasn't blocking anyone's parking space and my tools in someone's front yard (while I'm working in the back btw) why is that even a problem? I'm actually kind of angry that the strata manager didn't just tell her that I need access and that I would be done soon. Anyway, I'm not using up anymore of my weekends I could be spending with my daughter. If this isn't resolved and I don't get proper access, those trees aren't getting done. I'm not running an extra 20ft per bin especially when there's already 20ft to site from the closest access. That's 40ft one way with an estimated 8-12 trips, that's 16-24 trips one way, that's 640-960ft total travel. I'm not sure but I feel like that will take me a whole extra day just to pick up the yard waste.

10/15/2024

I dropped off my kid to school today. Sometimes it's my husband that does this. I complain a lot about the bad drivers in the area at that time in the morning but this time, one kid just blatantly jumped into traffic with his scooter at the intersection of 5th and Bruce and no one beeped or said anything. Yeah maybe that's the polite canadian thing to do but at times people need negative feedback. May save his life one day as it may make him think twice before just jumping into traffic. Granted, traffic was stopped at the intersection because the light was just about to turn green for opposing traffic and we had to sit there and wait for this kid to cross while it was actually green for us to go. He jumped in just as the light turned. Someone taught him this or maybe it's just a habit he's taken up but this has to stop. Not everyone's going to see him (doesn't help that he wasn't brightly dressed, typical boy clothes) and they sure as heck won't expect it. No parent, mind this kid looked to be about 10-13. More than old enough to know what he was doing. No one wants to hit a kid ( I presume, as I sure as heck don't) but this is asking for an accident. People don't usually expect someone crossing when the light is a hard green, especially when turning. When turning left people just focus on oncoming traffic, not too worried about pedestrians because when the light is green they don't have the go. Then, a little further on closer to home, there was a stop where there was a little girl who did everything right, got off her scooter, put up her hand so she could be seen and crossed. She looked to be about 7. My only beef about this one is that the parent was nowhere to be seen. Maybe it's just me but 7 seems to be much too young to be going to school on ones own, let along crossing the street on their own. Kid's are short and small and often hard to see especially if you're in a truck and often (but not always) make poor decisions especially when on their own. Like, lets cut corners on the crosswalk and get real close to the truck as the truck is turning right. Look, if you're not in between the crosswalk lines, vehicles may not see you and it only takes one accident to ruin your whole life. Parents, I know when kids are teenagers they won't let you walk them or in some cases even take them to school. I was like that when I was a teenager except I lived 30km from school then and in another province so the school bus was my transportation. I asserted my independence in other ways. Point is, I personally think it's great that teenagers are getting themselves to school but no matter how late they think they will be if they don't cut into traffic, it's never worth the consequences of getting struck by a vehicle. Please remind them just how important it is to wait for the walk signal.

08/25/2024

Rave to Iconic Island Dwellings for providing affordable manufactured homes for the island and a great rave to Steve at Iconic Island Dwellings for answering my questions regarding the options available.