Anonymous wrote:My clients opt for spring clean ups because my crews do an amazing job that sets their yards to look great all summer. And our average cost is around $2200-$3400 for 7500sf lots (majority of our work close in MD suburbs and NW) Annuals and container extra. Unlike most clean ups-we’ll remove old mulch, amend soil, grade if necessary to fix drainage issues. I have our maintenance crews booked through mid-May. Our clients like gorgeous yards and while some like to garden-they’ll pay us to have it all done in one day.

Nice ad!...but you forgot to pass on your business card..

I wish it was “only” $1k. Ours was a lot more.

MYOB.

My clients opt for spring clean ups because my crews do an amazing job that sets their yards to look great all summer. And our average cost is around $2200-$3400 for 7500sf lots (majority of our work close in MD suburbs and NW) Annuals and container extra. Unlike most clean ups-we’ll remove old mulch, amend soil, grade if necessary to fix drainage issues. I have our maintenance crews booked through mid-May. Our clients like gorgeous yards and while some like to garden-they’ll pay us to have it all done in one day.

We do a lot on our own, but there are 5 million leaves on our property and that's after filling nearly 30 bags in the fall. There's a lot of fresh mulching to do, also. We are 62.... both in great shape. We are not elderly or infirmed- no arthritis or back problems.

Buying 20 to 30 lbs of mulch..yes, it's only 1/4 acre, is crazy after trying to purchase it, pile it up in 3 loads, drag it all over the place, and it's never done in one weekend. It's weeks. Now I hire guys to do the base work and clean up, and we do the rest. And there's still LOTS to do. This year they are removing some dead small trees shrubs, trim back shrubs, mulch over a large area after replacing weed cloth, planting some more stuff...about 2k. And aerate and seed some grass ( HATE GRASS, ACTUALLY),and clean up those leaves. Next year it will just be mulch and leaves. The following year- a bigger job like this.

Hiring is a good deal for us. I shop around, but when I find someone good, I generally stick with them.

Can people who are paying 700 to 850 list who they are using?

I have a physical disability you can’t see that makes yard work very difficult.

I consider other uses of my time much more valuable.

I have lots of money.

I posted this on another thread but we are in Bethesda and I paid $1200 for our spring clean up/mulch. I estimate that the crew put in 20-24 man hours (8 guys for around 3 hours). I don't have 24 hours, or even 12 if both DH and I do it, to spend on clean up and mulching. And DH has back issues so I'd be the one hauling the mulch bags up the steps and hill and doing any heavy work. It is worth a lot to me to just have it done. And frankly one of the benefits of earning a lot of money (me, not DH) is that I don't have to do that kind of work. I will do some gardening, like planting or weeding or light pruning, but I'm not doing 24 hours worth of heavy labor.

For us, it’s simply time. We have a huge 6600 sq ft lawn, but most of it is landscaped with only a front yard. The backyard is all mulch and landscaping. I tried to do some of it before having kids, but it was never ending and I didn’t even have a lot to show for it. Now with two kids and a small business, it’s worth to pay $750 (including $250 in mulch) for a spring cleanup and than do my own maintenance. It’s easily 16-20 hours of work. I have a neighborhood teen who also helps with the lawn or raking services when I get busy.

Great discussion topic!

We have a house in Bethesda in a lot that is 8000 square feet. Last spring, I paid about $825 for a spring clean up, including mulch.

I really love yard work, but I also love having the yard look really good. The professional guys just do a better job with their professional equipment.

We used to outsource everything, but once my oldest child (son) turned 14 a few years ago, we asked him to start mowing the lawn. He needed to learn, and I didn't want him to grow up not knowing how to mow a lawn. He now (at age 17) takes great pride in our lawn, which is wonderful.

So we pay for clean-ups in the spring and fall, and gutter cleaning, and TruGreen to use chemicals on the lawn (sorry but it works). But we do the mowing and weeding ourselves.

BTW, many of our friends who pay for Spring clean ups (SFH's) are paying $1,500 or more. So not cheap even though the labor is.

Two FT working parents with 2 young children. Between taking our kids to soccer/dance/swim practices, grocery shopping, and many other errands - we just don't have much free time. And what free time we have we prefer to spend enjoying 1:1 time with our kids. Also DH had back surgery a few years ago, so no heavy lifting.

Anonymous wrote:For me it's as simple as I hate gardening with a passion. But I like having a pretty yard and garden. So I pay someone to do it because I can afford it.

Why
I did not used to ever do gardening, now I love it

My DH has always done our yard, mowing, leaf cleanup, edging, etc. It takes him hours but he takes a great deal of pride in how our yard looks. I used to occasionally mow the lawn until my allergies got so bad I was miserable for days after I mowed. We do pay a landscaping company to fertilize and aerate our yard - they do something about four times a year. So our grass looks fantastic. With all this rain, our grass was really long. My DH was not able to get to the first mowing (it was always raining or too wet when he had free time) so we contacted our company to have them do a mowing and spring cleanup. My DH and I did talk about how nice it was to come home to a freshly mowed lawn but then we had to pay the bill! The touching part of this story: one of our neighbors came to the house to make sure my DH was ok - he bought for sure he must have been ill since we had someone else mowing the lawn!

My yard is small and I enjoy it. But is my yard was larger, my kids were younger or my job more stressful, then I’d pay. It is a ton of dirty manual work.

It would probably take one person a lot longer than hour to do all of that work. There are plenty of people that make more than $500/hour, that negates the minor “expense”.

Also a lot of people travel frequently for work an can’t reliably stay on top of yard work. If it rains on weekend when they plan to do it it could be another couple of weeks before they can get to it.