Please share yard maintenance schedule for this first time lawn owner

[Anonymous]

Just bought our first house and have small to medium size lawn in front and back in NWDC. Mostly grass. One big silver maple. Shrubs. Am interested in out sourcing the upkeep. Who do I hire to come when? Estimated costs would be amazing. Thank you for helping me get my head around this.

[Anonymous]

You might be surprised by how much you like doing it yourself. Not in August, obviously. But in general.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. You might be right. Step one is Understanding what needs to be done when. Would love to know more from the experienced folks on this board.

[Anonymous]

We are new to this too, so we're are still learning. I was surprised how much I liked doing it myself once I get out there. We have a medium sized yard. I have done planting in 7 beds and 2 flower boxes and it's a really fun transformation to watch.

Some friends say they mow every week. We probably mow every 2-3 weeks. We edge every 4-6 weeks, which takes longer than expected to sweep up after. Today it took about 2 hours to edge and sweep front and back and do a little weeding. I have heard of people coming to mow and edge for $40-60 per visit. It's worth asking if they sweep up the trimmings, which is worth it to me.

Do you have any beds? The weeding has been really time consuming for us because we have a lot of beds. I bought 30 big bags of mulch this spring and just got 10 more. It's so satisfying to mulch by myself! It's so easy and makes an instant difference. Still have weeds though, but less with mulch.

I occasionally outsource when it feels too unmanageable but it's always ad hoc. You can look on NextDoor and ask around for people in the neighborhood who do yard work and odd jobs. Congrats and good luck!

[Anonymous]

I'm the long-winded poster above. I probably spend about half a day doing yard work once a month, but could stand to do more. My partner mows.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Lots of useful info. Didn’t even know about edging. ?

[Anonymous]

So we outsource 100% but my husband manages it. But generally:

Spring mulching, edging, weed n feed grass treatment. Mulch will cost about 5x what you think it should for labor if you’re too lazy to do it yourself ours is around $700-1000

Weekly mowing - our service is $40/week and then deal with edging and occasional weed treatment stuff.

Fall lead stuff ends up like mulching - pricey!

If you’re a first time homeowner you need to buy something along the lines of home maintenance for dummies or at least follow something like this: https://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/advice/home-maintenance-checklist/

If you don’t clean gutters, run water away from the house and make sure your sump pump is working, bad things will happen.

[Anonymous]

OP Yankee Clippers are all around NWDC and they prune shrubs. They can tell you what shrubs you have, the schedule of what to prune, how much, what shape and when. They can teach you to prune or I think you can hire them to do it for you. Lawn services mow and weed wack but they don't have the expertise that the small gardening services have.

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to add you don’t have to feed or water your lawn or treat it for weeds if you don’t want to. I accept anything that is green and can be mowed as “lawn.” It’s better for the planet. Over time I replace grass with flower beds that I try to fill with mostly native plants. It’s really fun to watch the birds, bees, dragonflies, butterflies and hummingbirds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to add you don’t have to feed or water your lawn or treat it for weeds if you don’t want to. I accept anything that is green and can be mowed as “lawn.”

Me too. But the downside is that weed grasses die in winter, leaving me with muddy surfaces instead of walkable turf. In the summer, too, a weed lawn isn't great for walking because it can't withstand much foot traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to add you don’t have to feed or water your lawn or treat it for weeds if you don’t want to. I accept anything that is green and can be mowed as “lawn.”

Me too. But the downside is that weed grasses die in winter, leaving me with muddy surfaces instead of walkable turf. In the summer, too, a weed lawn isn't great for walking because it can't withstand much foot traffic.

Can you just put grass seed down when there’s a bare patch? Not sure what the min temperature for germination is. I don’t have these problems honestly, I think my weeds are evergreen and super tough.