Mowing, Landscaping, Yardwork, etc.

Do you have a yard you are responsible for taking care of?

What is your yard like?

Who does the work?

If you do it, how do you feel about it? Nice hobby, or dreaded chore? Do just enough to not be an eye sore, or a garden of perfection?

What equipment do you use?

If you hire it out, what things do they do, and what does it cost?




I have what I consider a fairly standard suburban yard. The lot my house is on is between 10-11k sq ft. The backyard has a vinyl fence around it, I have a decent sized patio, and some basic landscaping along two fence lines and in the front of the house.

When I first moved in about 7 years ago, I kind of enjoyed mowing and caring for my own yard. It was the first time I'd had my own yard since I was a kid. As a kid I did most of the mowing of our various yards. I didn't hate it, but I didn't enjoy it either. As the years have gone on in my current, I have disliked taking care of the yard more and more. The first couple of years I was religious about feeding it, weeding it, watering it, and mowing it. It was in really awesome shape, and was one of the nicest, if not the nicest, lawn on the street. But eventually the time, energy, and expense stopped seeming worth it. So for a year or two I basically only mowed it, and the lack of care started becoming evident. Too many weeds, a couple nasty patches, it went too far the other way. So the last few years I've tried to find a happy medium of investing some time, energy, and money into it so that it doesn't look bad, but not going crazy. I'd say anymore it looks above average, but not awesome like it once did. I'm cool with that.

In the past I did all the work. The last couple of years my wife has offered to mow some, and I've taken her up on it. I'd say she's mowed maybe 1/3 of the time. It is a big help to me, since I travel some and can't do it after work those days, and on the other days I'd rather spend the nice weather days doing something fun. So if she mows while I'm out of town, it gets done, then we can spend time together when I'm home. However, for the first time ever, I paid someone to do it for me yesterday.......more on that in a bit.

My piece of equipment is a Craftsman 21" push mower with a 6.75 Briggs and Stratton engine. I got it about 7yrs ago as a housewarming gift from my father. It has been awesome. I've changed the blades once or twice, but that's it. A joke I've heard about B&S mower engines is that the only way to break one is to change the oil. I've never touched it other than the blades. It starts on the first pull every single time, save maybe the first start of each spring, where it might take 2-3 pulls at the most. Couldn't be happier with the reliability. My string trimmer is a Remington battery operated unit. It is okay, but not as powerful as a gas unit, which I kind of wish I had gotten instead. After 5-6 years the battery has gotten to the point where it'll barely last through the entire yard's worth of trimming before it needs recharged. I'm tossing around the idea of either getting a new battery, or just an entirely new and upgraded unit. However, in light of the possibility of having it done professionally, I may not bother.

So, as mentioned earlier, I paid someone to mow my grass yesterday for the first time. I've threatened to do so in the past, but never pulled the trigger. Wait, a correction for full disclosure. I just remembered that two years ago when we went on vacation I paid someone to come mow it twice. THAT is the first time, and only other time. It was someone that I knew who had a mowing business on the side, and they charged me $45 to come do it.

Anyway, we are getting ready to go on another trip, so I decided to get some bids for mowing it while I was gone. We have someone looking after the house, but I did not want them to have to mow. So I searched Craigslist and found three ads for mowing in my town. I called all three. One went straight to voicemail, but the mailbox was full so I couldn't leave a message. Scratch that one off the list, I want someone who I can easily communicate with, for obvious reasons. I call and leave messages on the other two numbers. One texts me back minutes later saying that he'll call me in 90 minutes. He does, and we set up a time that evening for him to come give me a bid. The other calls me back after 10-15 minutes and we set up for him to come by that evening as well. The first guy shows up, looks at my yard, is very friendly, and asks exactly what I'm looking for. I told him that I want the next 4 mowings done (starting with the following day), and I'll evaluate after that if I'm going to go back to mowing it myself, or continue hiring it out. This is so that I can see how well it is done the first time (and be sure it was done) before vacation, have it done twice while I'm gone, and then have one more week after that I don't have to worry about it. I want the grass mowed, all trimming done, and the clippings blown off the drive, walk, and patio. I tell him I have another bid to get, then I'll decide who gets the job. He says he'll do it for $30 per cut. I tell him that I'll give him an answer by the next morning. He texts me later that evening to say that he will give me $10 off the first mowing, so the first time is only $20.

The second guy never shows up. Never calls. I call him once more and get his voicemail, so I forget about him. I text the first guy that he has the job. He tells me he'll be there to mow about 6:15 that evening. I look out the window at 6:16 and he's parked out front. Good communication and reliable, I'm liking it so far. He mows, trims, and blows the grass. Does a good job, probably a touch better than I do myself. We work out that I'll pay him now for the first two cuts, and then I'll pay him for the 3rd and 4th cut after the 4th cut is done. I don't know how he's making money on mowing my yard for $30 (took him over an hour, not including drive time) a pop, but if he's willing to continue to do it for that, I may just keep paying him. This time of year it needs mowed every week. Later in July and August it can probably be dropped to 3x per month. I'd rather free up 60-90 minutes of my time, let alone the work itself, and even have it look better. We'll see, if he stays this reliable that is the route I'm leaning towards.


You?

 

No yard work here. We live in an apartment, and we have a nice stretch of lawn out front that the yard people mow every Tuesday. I don't really miss yard work. My husband does, though.

Mostly I miss gardening. I love it.

 

Will respond with pics when I get a chance.
Our yard is just over 1/3 acre in suburbia. It is mostly lawn at this time.
Hubby is in charge of pest control and weed/feed application. I maintain our few flower/garden beds and mow when I can, usually just the front yard.
We just moved to this home. We have big plans for landscaping and gardening in the future, but have promised each other to wait a year before diving in. We want to see what all pops up and how the lighting impacts things. I've been moving existing plants around quite a bit so far, and plan to do more of that. We don't have a veggie garden this year, but we did start a small herb garden.

 

I'm enjoying the fruits of my non-labor right now. My patio is spotless with an excellent view of a well-trimmed lawn and lovely trees. I did nothing.

 

The lawn people here mostly do a good job. Mostly. There were some times they mowed this winter when they shouldn't have because all it did was damage the grass.

 

The ground gets soggy here due to rain, and for some reason, the complex didn't turn off the sprinklers until December. The mowers ended up tearing up some if the grass as a result. I found it strange that it went on as long as it did considering our apartment is very close to the maintenance shed.