Your lawn: mow yourself or hired service?

[minnie mum]

DH actually likes taking care of the lawn. Especially since it shrinks every year as I enlarge or add garden beds. It only takes him 30-45 min to mow and trim. We have hired someone to take care of our winter snow removal though. Whenever it finally starts to fall.

 

[DebbieB]

One of the benefits of living in a townhouse - the HOA does it. My HOA is only $69 a month, grass care is the biggest part of it, plus common areas. I have a front and back yard (middle unit so no sides).

 

[donac]

I wish we had a lawn service. Dh and I do three lawns. He and I do his sister's and his mother's.(Don't ask long story) Then he does ours. One of my sons' will sometimes help him at our house. We are lucky we are off from May to Sept because a lot of his time is spent on yardwork.

 

[Pinkos]

We do it our selves. 3/4 of an acre. DH has a ride on, takes about 45 min once a week. When he is out of town I do it . It takes me a bit longer bc I'm not the best driver. Lol

 

[Tiffylv]

.

 

[MrPTato]

We have a townhouse so our HOA dues cover that. They also cover snow removal and shoveling. $221 a month (includes other things of course). They fertilize and trim, mow once a week, do a great cleanup and take care of sprinklers. Usually they are out from mid April through end of October. Only downfall is that they start at 7am sometimes. My morning this past year to sleep in was the day they mowed.

 

[eliza61]

One of the benefits of living in a townhouse - the HOA does it. My HOA is only $69 a month, grass care is the biggest part of it, plus common areas. I have a front and back yard (middle unit so no sides).

this is us.
love it. 150 month and they also shovel the snow.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

The house my roommates and I rent has a lawn service hired by the landlord. I don't know what they pay for it, but it's rolled into our rent.

It annoys me in the summer because they only come once a month, and our grass gets so tall that our neighbors must hate us.

 

[DebbieB]

this is us.
love it. 150 month and they also shovel the snow.

We don't have sidewalks and the borough does the streets but we have to do our driveways. There are usually kids or a service that comes around offering to do it. I can usually manage it, it's only 2 car lengths long and 1 wide. Sometimes one of my neighbors brings his snow blower around and helps.

 

[Danman]

We have a half acre lot that I mow myself. Love mowing grass, it's my veg and let my mind wander time.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

Thanks for the replies. Our lawn care has cost us $1428 this year + the additional visit they paid me today! Not sure what that will be. I think it's time for me to get out there and do it myself, maybe?

Dang, I'm in the wrong business.

 

[Minnesota!]

Ourselves. Our lot is 50 x 296. With a massive hill. I cannot imagine what I would be charged. My 11 year old does it for free The 8 year old does the front.

We do have a friend who is a lawn-man and he sprays and weeds for us. $20/hour. Takes him about 5 hours a few times a summer.

 

[tvguy]

Just would seem odd to me to be paying to have my lawn cut, and also paying for a gym membership .
Do it myself and still need a gym membership to try and get into shape.

My mom had a half acre of grass and paid $90 a month for service every week, 52 weeks a year. If the lawn didn't need cutting, or was too muddy, they trimmed trees and bushes, or weeded the flower beds.

 

[Neesy228]

Surprisingly that more teenagers do not mow lawns for some extra money. Non existent in my neighborhood. I ask students all the time if they ever mow lawns to make money. Never get an affirmative response. Same when asked if they rake leaves or shovel driveways.

My husband is equally appalled by this. He always says, "When I was a kid, that was how I made my spending money before I could get a job!" I tell him that he sounds much older than his 41 years and he gets pretty quiet!

Along those same lines....our two sons mow our lawn - because that's what my husband did when he was young. We have a little less than a half acre and they split the work using a push mower. We also pay them, so it's not slave labor - like they would both have you believe.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I know my teen boys would never do it. Most people have landscapers in our neighborhood (except for a few senior citizens). 3 guys show up and have it done in less than 20 minutes and only charge $25. My kids would take hours to do it!!!!

When I was a teen boy, I had no say in the matter LOL

 

[Jennasis]

Both. I mow our very large farm...approx 3-4 acres (our other 20 acres are pasture and mowed by DH with our tractor). However there is one section that is sloped sharply so I pay a local lawn guy to mow it so I don't have to kill myself doing it and he also does the weeding around our riding arena. I pay him $50 every other week to maintain this area.

 

[dotfurio]

We pay $80 a month for front and back yard. They also weed our beds in front and trim the bushes. They come out once a week, even when our lawn was dead from the drought. Now that's it a rainy winter we actually have grass!

I couldn't tell you how long it would take us to do ourselves because we'd never do it.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

we have lawn guy $45 for every two week service, trimmed hedges, weed pulling when needed. We pay additional fees for fertilizer, mulch in the spring.He last mowed the lawn in October and we wont see him again until late March.

 

[LargoLori]

We pay $69 per month. He is out one per week in the hotter months and every other week in the "winter".

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I have a lawn service - a man that has workers - they come out every week, sometimes every other week, and every few months (when needed) they cut back bushes, etc. I've been paying $65/month since 1997. He's a good guy. I live at the end of a cul-de-sac and my yard kind of wraps around, so it's a little bigger than my neighbors. But, I live in Los Angeles, so our lots aren't that big. I do the watering, though, once a week. It takes me 2-3 hours to water the front and back. (no sprinklers) Right now, though, I'm letting the occasional rain take care of the yard, and will start watering again after El Niño passes.