Talk to Me About Yard Maintenance
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Anonymous
| We are moving to a home on a full 1.1 acre lot after living in a townhouse for a decade. We have never had to maintain a yard. DH is ambitious and thinks he can handle it all. I'm thinking more realistically and say we should hire a lawn service to do our regular maintenance. Can anyone tell me either (1) how long it would take on a weekly basis to mow/weed/edge/pick up leaves, etc. for a full acre or (2) what the cost of paying someone to do this for us might cost? |
Anonymous
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It's so hard to say without knowing your lot, types of trees, square footage the house is taking up, fences, etc. That said, that's definitely a property you'll want a riding mower for. Will you have a shed or garage space to store it? I would guess it would take about 3 hours a week if you do a full mow, wedging, raking, etc -- by the time you get the tractor out, gas, oil, etc etc etc. Obviously it isn't year round, but if you have a long driveway, get a tractor you can also put a plow on.
We were super gung-ho about doing our own lawn maintenance on a slightly smaller lot for the first year and a half. Then I got a job promotion and was just totally over spending every Saturday morning during the nice months that way. Hired it out and it is worth EVERY PENNY. I would cut my cleaning lady before I cut the lawn guys. Buy your mower used so you can easily resell it later if he decides he wants to hire it out. I'd let him to go town on working on it, but wouldn't make a big point of helping OR a big deal about how long it takes. Leave it so he's comfortable coming back and saying he wants to hire it out, not like he has to come and say "you were right." Maybe he'll love it. But he'll probably get sick of it taking up what feels like a 1/4th of the weekend (morning/evening, 2 days) during the best months. |
Anonymous
I'd budget around $2,400 a year for basic maintenance including things like liming, overseeding, etc. There's a lot more to it than just cutting and edging. |
Anonymous
| My husband used to do our mowing and it would take him 1.5 hours for 1/3 acre with a push mower. I can't imagine that you'd use a push mower for a full acre. We now pay $35/week for weekly mowing/edging in the summer plus another $400 for leaf removal in the fall and another $1200 -$1500 for spring cleanup/mulching. |
Anonymous
| I have 1.5 ac lot w/ 1.0 ac lawn. it takes me about 1.5-2 hr each week to mow and trim 1 ac (nothing fancy). you also need to get a riding mower - at least 42 inch deck (i have two - 42 inch and 46 inch). it's a lot of work. i don't know how much landscaping guys charge. i always have done it myself. |
Anonymous
| Once you get over half an acre, you should really consider reducing the "lawn and garden" area of the property and letting the rest go natural habitat. Anything more than half an acre of "lawn and garden" is asking for trouble, whether it is time it takes to care for yourself or the cost of paying a service. |
Anonymous
Or xeriscaping. Expensive up front, but saves you in water and maintenance long term. The thing about letting it go "natural habitat" is, depending on what is planted there, it can get quite tall and attract pests, snakes, etc. -- and if you're in an HOA, forget about it. It is an adjustment, but you'll love being on an acre, OP. It's so nice to go outside and not be right up against your neighbors. |
Anonymous
| We pay $20/week for 1/2 acre lot, only 1/4 acre mowed. All our neighbors mow too with no fences in between? so they come and do all the yards on our block in an hour. Everything else, we do ourselves and save a fortune! |
Anonymous
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Do you have a shed to store your mower/edger/weed wacker/racks/ leaf blower/bush loppers, etc. ? Just something to think about.
Also, how "into" the lawn are you? DH hates clover, bermuda grass, crab grass, and the like in the lawn and takes pride in our nice, lush, grass-only yard, but at the expense of several hours each weekend...not sure if that's a priority for you especially if your lot is relatively large, but something to consider if you're talking lawn. |
Anonymous
| Just paid 1100 for a day of work today to clean our yard. |
Anonymous
| When we moved my DH had expectations that he would mow the lawn himself. That lasted about 2 years. I think what did him in was that he didn't know how to maintain the riding lawnmower and would have functional issues with it. |
Anonymous
What is wrong with wildlife living in a naturalized habitat? |
Anonymous
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Here's a basic maintenance calendar:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/_docs/locations/frederick_county/MG%20Gardener%20Guide%20MD%202-12.pdf |
Anonymous
| So both of you are adults and never had to maintain a yard?? It's not that hard or time consuming if you get a zero turn mower with a decent deck and don't have too many trees. Weed whipping around a lot of trees sucks. It sounds like you probably aren't into manual labor, so you should just hire some Latinos to do everything for you. Buen Suerte! |
Anonymous
| 21 years ago, a lawn company was charging me 400 to 600 a month to cut the grass using a grass catcher, edging, blowing off driveway and walks for one acre. Leaf cleanups were 1500 twice in the fall. Spring cleanups were bet: 1000 and 2000. Gutter cleanouts were 1000 a year. Snow plowing, they would plow the driveway for 2,000 with a separate contract. I fired them after first or second year and doing everything myself. |