About us

Established in 2006, by David Burdick, County Grounds Maintenance is based near Exeter, Devon, and works across Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. Our flexible teams are fully trained and qualified to use a wide range of equipment to tackle any job – routine care of grass, shrubs and trees, planting new areas, looking after car parks and communal areas, soft landscaping works, care of sports grounds and handling all types of emergency. When the weather turns bad we’ll clear snow, free blocked drains and remove fallen trees. We offer a winter gritting service in Exeter and Plymouth, Devon.

Meet our team

Shaun Hacking

Project Manager

After 30 years in the property development business Shaun joined CGM in 2013. With this experience Shaun completes our site visits for surveys with clients prior to projects commencing.

He is guaranteed to be the first person in the office to scoff any cake and will freely admit has a very little patience for anything remotely electronic, in particular his PC!

Top Gardening tip from Shaun: Always try to create curved lines instead of straight ones for maximum appeal!

Lewis Baker

Grounds Maintenance Operative

Lewis joined CGM in 2021. Prior to joining us Lewis had his own gardening company for 4 years and so has a wide range of horticultural skills and is an experienced machinery operator.

Top Tip
Don’t cut grass too short during the summer months, to avoid the soil drying out and the grass dying off.

Sam Burdick

Team Leader - Tree works and specialist projects

Sam joined CGM in 2014 as an Apprentice. Sam completed his NVQ and Apprenticeship with Bicton college in the category of Horticulture in the Environment & Land Based Sector. Sam has gained much experience over the years he has been with us and is never happier than when in the John Deere Tractor!

Top Tip
Make sure to bark mulch your flower beds and tree pits to keep them weed free.

Kieran Davison

Apprentice Landscaper/Grounds Maintenance

Kieran joined CGM in 2019 as an Apprentice with South Devon college and is in the final stages of completing his Horticulture/Landscaping Apprenticeship. Kieran works within one of our landscaping teams.

Top Tip
Always keep us fed and watered to get the best out of us, it helps us go the extra mile!

Toby Derges

Apprentice Grounds Maintenance Operative

Toby joined CGM in 2019 having already completed a level 2 Horticulture Diploma in 2018/19 (awarded with Merit) from Bicton College and won the top academic student award. Toby is in the final stages of his Apprenticeship in Horticulture/Landscaping with South Devon College.

Top Tip
Don’t cut hedges between March and September as this is typically bird nesting season.

Richard Fassnidge

Head Landscaper

Rich joined CGM in 2014 and has over 20 years experience in construction, landscaping and grounds maintenance. Amongst his many talents Rich is a skilled and qualified bricklayer. Rich heads up our multi skilled Landscaping Team.

Top Tip
When laying turf, always put ends tight together and knit the ends of each roll, to allow for shrinkage when drying. Water at least every other days for a duration of 14 days.

Charlie Henderson

Team Leader – Grounds Maintenance

Charlie joined CGM in 2014 as an Apprentice. Charlie completed his NVQ and Apprenticeship with Bicton college in the category of Horticulture in the Environment & Land Based Sector. Charlie has gained much experience over the years he has been with us and as such has been promoted and now heads up one of the grounds maintenance teams.

Top Tip
The goal of annual plants is to flower, set seed, and die, removing the old blooms tells annual plants to produce more flowers. Removing dead flowers also encourages plants to use their energy to grow stronger leaves and roots instead of seed production.

Ron Jewell

Grounds Maintenance

Ron joined CGM in 2021 having spent 14 years in the grounds maintenance sector. Ron is a very experienced groundsman and has extensive horticultural knowledge and is an experience machine operator.

Top Tip
Planting too early (or late) in the season can be a disaster for your garden. You need to know the last average spring frost for your area so you don’t accidently kill plants by putting them out prematurely. It’s also good to know your first average autumn frost dates so that you get your plants harvested or moved indoors before late season cold damages them.

Marc Johnson

Landscape Team

Marc joined CGM in 2021 after a long career in the automotive industry. After a career break Marc decided on a change of direction and now works with one of our landscaping teams, assisting our more experienced landscapers.

Top Tip
Always check the ground for stones before strimming as they can act like a projectile if picked up by the strimmer and cause harm to pedestrians, cars and buildings.

Kris Martin

Grounds Maintenance

Kris joined CGM in 2021 with a wealth of experience in the grounds sector as a groundsman and has both sports pitch and greenkeeping skills. Kris has a Diploma in Sport Turf.

Top Tip
Always raise the cut at the beginning of autumn as this will make sure there is more leaf on the grass which means more coverage of lawn, this will also reduce stress of the turf and make photosynthesis a bit easier as light levels drop.

William Thomas

Team Leader – Grounds Maintenance

Will joined CGM in 2017 and is a valued and skilled member of the grounds maintenance team. Will takes a huge amount of pride in his work and as a result was promoted to Team Leader and now heads up his own team.

Top Tip
Always prepare well. Without good and well thought through planning of any gardening or landscaping job the end result won’t be to your satisfaction.

Pete Needs

Workshop Engineer

Our dedicated ‘go to’ man for all our machinery requirements. Prior to joining CGM Pete served in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm for 32 years, working on helicopters on land and at sea. Pete ensures our broad range of equipment, tools and machinery are in tip top condition and ready for the maintenance teams to use.

Top Tip
Always learn from mistakes.