ottotheboar

We cut our own grass, the best thing we ever did was buy an industrial zero turn mower, they are not cheap but worth every penny. A couple of my neighbours have done the same after seeing how quickly ours did the job.

Sarah

Same in NYC. We watch the team of landscapers come every Monday and blow dust around my landlords yard and trample his plants.

scrubbedexpat097

Unless you really physically couldn't do it I think you, like me, would still do it ourselves even if we could afford to pay someone else. Right?

I get a lot of enjoyment and also burn off some frustrations when I work in the yard. I moan about the heat but I love to see the end product and M and his riding mower and joined at the hip so at least I knoe the grass is always being cut.

Jerseygirl

Hubby does it...we bought a sit down mower when we moved into this house 13 years ago and it's paid for itself many times over. We have around 3 acres...half of which is woodland. I think we are the only household for miles around who doesn't use landscapers.

Nutmegger

And thus yours is probably the only house without a burned-out lawn in August. These darn yard guys mow the heck out of the lawns, cutting them way too low, regardless of the weather and whether they need it or not!

cindyabs

The folks that used to live up the road from my Mom were VERY house and lawn proud. Still, the wife would get out on the riding mower EVERY Friday to cut the grass. Considering that part of FL has had more drought years then not since my mother has lived there, I never did quite see the logic in mowing dust................

This is the same gal who would cook the vegetables in the microwave for exactly the amount of time on the box-didn't matter if they were done or not.

I think she was a bit OC.

cindyabs

I would probably want to do it myself, to make sure it was done "right", . The few times I had someone in about 10 years ago to just mow, I lost a gardenia bush and some other plants. Still, I would like to get a crew in to do some serious clearing and trimming since that hasn't been done for a few years-but for sure under my supervision.

I AM quite proud of my OGR rose bushes, well really just bands, that I got from Ebay a few weeks ago. I transplanted them into nice big pots, and repotted Ferd the avocado tree and they are all happy little bunnies. DH has been very good about watering them for me.

Bob

Speaking of lawns, I hadn't seen before here were the spinstripe lawns...I've seen two of them recently now in a neighbouring town

Awesome Welles

I think that utilizing a 'Landscaper' in the proper sense of the word, to mow grass, is a bit like employing an architect to clean your windows.

SultanOfSwing

Kicks the shite out of doing it yourself though, doesn't it

Leslie

But it's not a 'Landscaper' that mows the grass. It's a crew of Mexicans that works for a 'Landscaper' or 'Landscaping Company' (most likely off the books).

SultanOfSwing

Most landscaping companies will do the lawn care/mowing/edging maintenance stuff so they can keep regular work going throughout the season - we will do the maintenance from April - November and it means we get a steady cash flow in between the larger installations and actual 'landscaping' work. Plus, the plant packages we do for the homebuilders are down as well (but picking up luckily) so it helps that the residential accounts are still there. That's also why we plow snow in the winter too, and have set up a nursery/landscape supply yard in our car park during the summer.

I'm glad we do it, since I bill and collect for all this stuff and I'd be out of a job otherwise . . .

Leslie

I'm not dissing it. It is what it is.

And your point is taken, unless you are top dog in a large market, I don't see how a 'Landscaper' could make it otherwise.

SultanOfSwing

It's much like the professional musician who writes jingles for commercials to keep things ticking over. Not necessarily what you want to do day in and day out, but someone else has already written and released 'Abbey Road' so you just have to make do

Bob

It's amusing how they're all Brazilians down my way

But a lot of these landscapers also offer holiday seasonal decoration services, like putting up the lights during winter, halloween and what not.

It's a good money earner for one in town as they also have a spare warehouse where they charge a monthly fee to store the out of season decorations. Last winter it was something like $1K to set up the house with winter lights and then $200 to put up and take down the lights per season, plus the monthly storage fee if you wanted them to keep the stuff.

Good side racket for the off season.