Do you have your lawn work done by someone else?

[Droopy]

I hate to do lawn work. I figure I work 70 hours at my job every week. That's the last thing I want to do when I get home.

I know someone who is out of work right now. Instead of hiring a professional lawn service I offer the work to him. If it weren't for him I'd probably hire a neighbor kid to do it.

[trof]

1. Yes. Miz t.

[Droopy]

3. I'm sure she appreciates that :)

Do you at least make iced tea for her?

[trof]

12. She actually likes mowing.

Has a little red Honda rider.
Looks like a lady bug.
Oh, the price for lawn mowing around here is $50-$60 a pop.
Haven't heard of a fuel surcharge yet, but I bet it's coming.

[Droopy]

14. My dad is like that

I had to live with my folks for a little while a few years back. They wouldn't take rent money so I offered to do house work and keep up the lawn. My dad wouldn't let me do the lawn. He has a John Deere riding mower and he really digs getting out there with a cold beer and cruising around the yard.

[trof]

16. No iced tea, but she gets a gin & tonic at quittin' time.

;-)

[tjdee]

2. I have bad allergies and asthma, so I should. But I can't afford it.

So I put on a very attractive mask and do it myself.

I'm sure my neighbors don't appreciate how long I let it go between mowings, LOL, but dang.

[Droopy]

6. Last year I let mine go so long

that one of the neighbors called the city on me. They left a note on the door telling me to cut the lawn or they would have a lawn service come do it and send me the bill. I didn't jump righht away. I let it go a couple of days longer. :evilgrin:

[hfojvt]

32. one nice thing about Kansas, so far

is that we seem to have a drought every summer, about 30 days with no rain, so I can just let the lawn go for about six weeks. I also have alot of shade, so that helps.

I do not understand why you don't get your bf to do it.

[tjdee]

48. I don't have a boyfriend!

:cry:

Man, he sure would have come in handy, what with the kitchen leak, the lawn, the broken storm door.... :silly:

[AlCzervik]

4. my lawn is tiny and i have no back yard so i mow the front myself

when i lived in Houston we had a big lot so i have a 6 1/2 hp scotts lawnmower, you can imagine how silly i look mowing my 40x40 lawn, i really need to sell the damn thing becasue i'm pretty sure i could do the whole thing with the weed wacker. The one part of mowing that i like is edging, i love that straight neat line.

[Droopy]

8. I've seen folks with a big ol' lawn tractor

out there mowing their 700 sq. ft. lawn. I always thought that was silly, but I never stopped to think that they might have moved from a place with a much bigger lawn.

[AlCzervik]

9. me neither until i moved and i have no excuse for not selling the damn

thing, maybe i'll put an ad in the penny saver this week and pick myself up a small honda mower.

[trof]

13. Check into a cordless/rechargeable electric.

Kind of pricey, but perfect for a small lawn and starts every time.

[supernova]

5. Yes, Someone else mows my yard every 2 weeks

I have a large yard. I could easily spend a day mowing and trimming it. In fact it's too much work for me. So I pay someone else to do it. They're good and they're done in about 45 minutes.

What's really nice is that they haven't raised their rates since I signed on with them oh 7 or eight years ago now.

[Droopy]

10. Good deal

Every two weeks? Where do you live? I live in Ohio and I have to have mine done every week or the neighbors get fussy. This is Spring though. When we get into the dog days of Summer I could probably let it go for two weeks.

[supernova]

50. I always get compliments on my yard

If it rains a lot, it might bet a little shaggy in between, but the guys live near here and they swing by to see if it might need it sooner.

I also live in the unincorporated part of the county, so no nasty overly uptight neighborhood covenants to adhere to.

[skygazer]

7. I don't have a lawn where I am now

I'm in the woods and surrounded by trees. We do what little raking and trimming needs to be done.

Last time I lived where I had a lawn, I had three kids at home to do the dirty work!

[Droopy]

11. I'd like to have a lot of trees surrounding my house

Not only would it be pretty, but it would probably save on my a/c. It seems like one drawback, though, would be having to clean the gutters more often.

[skygazer]

18. It's so pretty and peaceful here

I step out my front door and on the little hill directly in front of me is a large deck surrounded by Redwoods. It's like a cathedral. The hill in back of the house is covered with Bay trees and oaks and to the left, off my deck are Madrone and oak - the Madrone have a deep red color to their wood and the bark rubs off and shows the red underneath. It also twists so you have this graceful twining branch with a beautiful reddish glow.

The other side of my house is what I see outside the window next to my computer - a hillside of mixed oak and madrone. Sometimes there are deer grazing there. My home really is a sanctuary for me.

[trof]

15. I miss that. Didn't own a lawnmower for 16 years.

Out in the NH woods.

[skygazer]

19. Are you from New Hampshire, trof?

Whereabouts did you live, just out of curiosity? I'm from southeastern Vermont (Brattleboro) and I know New Hampshire well.

[trof]

20. Lived in Merrimack, '77-'93.

About 45 minutes north of Boston.

[skygazer]

22. I know Merrimack

Seems like there was some sort of zoo or amusement park there we used to go to. Benson's Wild Animal Farm maybe?

[trof]

27. Nearby Hudson. M'mack has the Bud Clydesdales.

At the brewery.

[In_The_Wind]

17. I do most of it myself.

I'm truly happy pruning, planting, mowing and making things beautiful, my way. :)

[Droopy]

21. I bet you have a beautiful yard

You can tell who likes to do yard work around my neighborhood. They always have the best looking lawns.

[In_The_Wind]

25. I'd like to replace my grass with short ground-cover that's strong.

The last time one of my house mates mowed while I was out of town, we needed to replace a thermal-pane sliding glass door. x(

[LeftyMom]

23. Neighbor kids

They wash the cars and mow the grass twice a week and handle any other manual labor we need done around here.

It works out for everybody- they get out of the house for a bit, they get pocket money I doubt thier parents can give then (these are the two oldest of eight kids) and we get a nicer lawn and shiny cars.

[Droopy]

26. Capitalism at it's best

[Blue Diadem]

37. That's nice. Good way for kids to make their own money..helps

build work ethic. I don't see many kids around here doing lawns or shoveling snow anymore. My youngest son used to have several regular lawn jobs during his early teen years..mowing, trimming, raking leaves. Two of customers used him all year round paying him monthly to make sure the snow was always shoveled.

[Ava]

24. my mom has guys that come and cut the lawn and trim the trees and hedges

they come twice a month. :shrug:

[Droopy]

28. You're the second person to say they have their

yard work done twice a month. If I let my lawn go that long they would declare my property a wild flower refuge. I think I have more weeds in my lawn than grass. It doesn't take them long to get tall.

[Ava]

30. hmm.. ours stays short all month long.

:shrug:

maybe there is a difference in the type of grass.

[Shine]

29. Yup, we have a buddy our ours do it.

he's a landscape guy we've hired for bigger projects, but mostly he comes on a maintainence schedule that he calls "Mow, Blow and Go". He's in an out of here in under 45 minutes.

IMO, it's worth it. :hi:

[Droopy]

31. It's definitely worth it

I get to sit inside in the a/c on my day off and watch the ball game or chat with you all. :hi:

[Wcross]

33. My neighbor cuts 10 acres of my lawn for free.

Of course I do the acres around the house myself. The neighbor does it twice a year for hay.

[Droopy]

36. That sounds like a good arrangement

How many acres do you have? I thought about moving out the country before, but land prices around my area have gone up quite a bit over the years. You used to be able to get out of the city for a good price. Now it seems like everyone wants a big new house on five acres out in the sticks. A five acre lot in the country around here costs nearly as much as my house. Then people put $300,000 houses on them.

[Wcross]

44. 15 acres.

Even the prices in southern Tennessee are getting outrageous. I paid 2500 an acre three years ago. Three years ago if you bought farmland in larger tracts (100+ acres) it was going for 1800/acre. I have seen it as high as 7500/acres for large tracts now. There is no way to farm it at that price. I suspect I will start to see the Mc Mansions starting to pop up soon.
I have a very small house on mine (700sq ft). Thats all I need.

[riona]

34. We did our own for years

Now it's part of the HOA dues. I still like to do a little gardening.

[Droopy]

38. You are forced to hire a professional service?

I'd be pissed about that.

[riona]

53. No, we weren't forced

Our dues pay for outside painting, roof, all water, road resurfacing, landscaping etc. It's a small subdivision - we don't have tennis courts or anything like that. At my husband's age and with this hot climate, it works for us.

[graywarrior]

35. Don't get me started about lawn service.

We have a 90-ish year old manager who hires fuck-ups that show up every Sunday morning with their perverted little leave blowers and ride 'em cowboy mowers that waste gasoline and disturb my cat to the point of him hiding in my closet for the entire day.

Then, they take 6 hours to do whatever the fuck they do...loudly. I HATE THEM. No one needs to cut grass weekly in Florida during the winter months. Can't wait to move out of this Jebhole.

[Droopy]

39. Sorry you have had a bad experience with the lawn technicians

Where do you plan on moving to?

[graywarrior]

45. W. Lebanon NH

Where my lawn will be a forest.

[Blue Diadem]

40. We do our own.

We both enjoy working out in the yard. We have 1/2 acre..not all that much but we do use a rider for most of it. I'd never be able to push a lawnmower up and down the hill out back.

[Droopy]

42. My folks have a lawn of similar size

I have mowed their lawn with a push mower when I was a kid. It was an agonizing experience. We're talking sunburned, sweaty, and tired. Then dad bought a riding mower and I haven't mowed their lawn since. ;)

[Blue Diadem]

47. My kids used to argue about which one would use the rider

and who got got stuck with the push mower. Mostly their Dad ended up using the rider. Amazing how Dad's like those things.

We still have one of those non-electric reel mowers. I've thought about trying it..especially with the cost of gas now..but I think it'd probably kill me.

[AirmensMom]

41. We do our own.

We're probably the only people in Boca who do. But it's good exercise and we do a better job than anyone we've ever hired.

[yellowdogintexas]

43. not in the past but I fear this is the year that I will have to

we hired an out of work guy to rake our half ton of leaves and do some other odd stuff last winter, but I can't do the grass any more. Kills my back and other achy joints.

[LaurenG]

46. Mostly this guy does it

[Gormy Cuss]

51. That's a cute lawn guy.

Maybe you should keep him around for the rest of the week. ;-)

[LaurenG]

52. Yes, brilliant idea! I think I shall take that advice!

:D

[Fleshdancer]

49. technically yes....

I live in an apartment. ;)

[flamingyouth]

54. Yes, and I appreciate them very much.

:)

[azmouse]

55. I do most of my own yard work.

Just had a fella in to trim the big trees that are too much for me to handle.

[shanti]

56. thinking about it....

when i moved into my halfplex 10 years ago, i swore that i would do the yard (small front/back) myself and have. but it seems like this year, i cannot keep up with it all and my yards look like hell and the sprinklers don't work. every so often someone leaves a flyer on my door, so maybe it's time to hire "juan" to do it now:)