$400 a month for yard care?

[Anonymous]

We were given two estimates and were shocked by the expense. Is this normal? House is in Reston, yard is not large (0.5 acre) but does have a lot of different planting beds edged in brick (maybe 8?), various shrubs, and of course all the grass that surrounds them needs to be cut and edged. There's also a bit of a slope. Does this add up to $400 month?

[Anonymous]

My house is also in Reston and a pay $25 a cut which is weekly at the moment. I think there they consider it 30 cuts over the year. However, my yard is pretty small and all I want them to do is cut the grass and clean up the edges.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a lot to me but we have a small lawn (.25 acre) and pay a fraction of that. We pay more about twice a year for weeding, pruning and mulching but monthly maintenance costs are much lower.

[Anonymous]

How much are they working with those plant beds? If you expect them to weed them regularly, then I can understand the high price. However, if you just expect them to mulch the beds at the beginning of each season and then cut and edge the grass throughout the summer, I think the price is quite high at $100 per visit.

[Anonymous]

Your property sounds very labor intensive. Do you typically complain about what you need to pay people to get what you want?

[Anonymous]

Half an acre is a pretty decent sized yard unless the footprint of your home is very very big.

[Anonymous]

We pay $25/week (so $100/month) for our tiny yard. And yours sounds easier 4x as much work. That said, everything is negotiable. Ask if they can do any better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My house is also in Reston and a pay $25 a cut which is weekly at the moment. I think there they consider it 30 cuts over the year. However, my yard is pretty small and all I want them to do is cut the grass and clean up the edges.

Who do you use?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were given two estimates and were shocked by the expense. Is this normal? House is in Reston, yard is not large (0.5 acre) but does have a lot of different planting beds edged in brick (maybe 8?), various shrubs, and of course all the grass that surrounds them needs to be cut and edged. There's also a bit of a slope. Does this add up to $400 month?

We are in Vienna, half the size and were quoted $200/month which I told is too much.

[Anonymous]

$400 is high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$400 is high.

High maintenance requires a high price.