The best $35 I've spent!

[Vanquisher]

All right, so I spent $35 to have someone completely do my yard. It's a pretty good sized yard, and there is a lot of mess it can make. He mowed, edged, and put the pine straw where it goes (pine straw is some evil that they invented in the south, I think). All of this work took him about an hour. All of that work would have taken me AT LEAST 4 hours. Not to mention I have to do it when my son is home so he can watch my toddler.

My yard looks beautiful. I didn't have to worry about it getting done. It feels like 110 degrees outside. I didn't have to make dh use the precious seconds he has off to do a half-assed job at at.

I love it, love it, love it!!

I want it more!

It feels like I'm buying time, and sanity. I hate yard work.

So, I can't really afford the $35 regularly, but I can't really afford anything else either! LOL At the same time, I feel like I can't afford (mentally), NOT having him do it.

Am I crazy if I hired him to come back and do this every 2 weeks until it gets cold out? I can squeeze it in the debt right? What's $35 when you have a quarter of a million?

[PrincessFiona]

We got someone to come in and do our yard last year. Unti then, I had been the one out there mowing, edging etc...and before the sprinkler system I had of course also been out there dragging the hose around to try and keep things alive.

We hired a yard service to come in once a week last year because I just couldn't do it with the baby...and it has been fabulous. Like you, they charge us $35/time. We were only going to do it last summer, but now...we'll probably never mow our lawn by ourselves again.

It's the best money we spend!

kris

We finally hired someone to take care of our yard when I was 8 months pregnant and could no longer help dh with yard work. We pay him $30 each time he comes out and he mows & treats the grass, gets rid of the weeds, picks up broken tree limbs & pinecones, etc... We have almost 1 1/2 acres and figured dh was spending about 4 hours a week (at least) doing yard work so it has been well worth paqying someone else to do the work so dh can spend more time with our little guy (and me) on his days off. A couple of weeks ago the heat index was in the low 100s and I can't tell you how thankful I was that our gardener was the one out there braving the heat and not me! And our grass looks better than it ever has!

I agree with you on the pine straw...I hate it! There is never enough where we need it and too much where we don't want it (lawn, driveway, etc....)

[mommax3]

We have had someone do our lawn since residency, and I don't think we will ever go back, honestly. The guys we have now aren't licensed to handle the chemical stuff, so I am still looking for a place to do that. I don't want a fakey-green looking lawn, I just want only ONE kind of grass growing in it!

We MAY lighten up on paying someone to do our lawn when our boys get old enough to do it, but that is still a couple of years away.

Sally

Having grown up in the country where I was the help(non-hired!), I have a hard time letting someone else do my yard work....and it is a nice break from the kid duty for a little while.

Thank you, Heidi, for having the strength to say it.
I, too, spend about $25 every other week to have the lawn mowed. I used to mow our lawn (old house with a small lawn) with a push mower. It didn't take long and was great exercise. However, I am super-allergic to grass and it bothers me most when it is just cut. Buying a gas or electric mower and then doing a big mowing job was....just not happening last year. After asking the neighbor's lawn guy to come over "just once" I was hooked.
Budget wise, it balances out the higher winter heating bills for us (no a/c). How's that for justification?
For the last year I have been paying for an organic fertilizer to be applied (basically chicken poo and fish guts, in a proprietary blend, of course). The lawn has recuperated so I think it's time to cancel and see if I can keep it greenish on my own.

[PrincessFiona]

Th
For the last year I have been paying for an organic fertilizer to be applied (basically chicken poo and fish guts, in a proprietary blend, of course). The lawn has recuperated so I think it's time to cancel and see if I can keep it greenish on my own.

That's interesting. Does it have an odor at all or is it quickly absorbed?

[Vanquisher]

I used to mow our lawn (old house with a small lawn) with a push mower.

This is me too. We lived in a townhouse that had very little yard. Now, though we have a ton of yard, and so much blasted pine straw from the gigantic ugly pine trees that we also have. I really like the privacy they provide, but couldn't they have picked some trees that weren't as ugly and did shed so much! And I thought pine trees were evergreen. No wonder I kill all plants. This is not my area of expertise.

I hate yard work. I get no satisfaction from doing it. I wish I could pay less, and it might make me feel less guilty, but I don't feel a whole lot of guilt, just happy.

I'm somewhat intolerant to grass...wheezing and coughing, MUST shower immediatly after mowing. My solution is to get a condo with a nice sized patio area so I can container garden until we have enough $$ to hire someone or DH has time to mow.I'm done mowing.

[SueC]

We hired the kid across the street--for $20 he mows the front and back yard. He's actually not very good, but we're his only clients (aside from his parents) so we don't have the heart to fire him.

Th
For the last year I have been paying for an organic fertilizer to be applied (basically chicken poo and fish guts, in a proprietary blend, of course). The lawn has recuperated so I think it's time to cancel and see if I can keep it greenish on my own.

That's interesting. Does it have an odor at all or is it quickly absorbed?

On a hot day, it does smell but I don't think it's any worse than that Chemlawn smell. It's quickly absorbed with some watering and is safe for the kids and dog. And between the spot weed killer (also organic) and my weed pulling, it looks pretty good.

I think that you can buy a fish emulsion fertilizer and use one of those hose attachments to spray it on. I have used "Neptune's Harvest" for veggie plants and I think that Concern makes something similar. I need to start doing that because it will cost less. It really does work!

My lawn would be even greener if I were will to water more often but I'm cheap and am ok with not having a golfcourse lawn. I save the water for the vegetable garden and flower beds.

[DCJenn]

I know I've told this story before- jeez, I'm such a flippin' geezer- I'm actually starting multiple posts with this very phrase...

BUT nonetheless, my very second job after college was as a job coach for 8 guys with dual diagnosis: MR and MI. (mental retardation and illness) so, the ever brilliant people for whom I worked decided that these 8 needed hedge trimmers, gas cans, and lawn mowers. Yup, the lawn care crew.

So, I was raised by the guy living next door to Kris, the guy who talks to his grass, who wills it to grow tall and green. I took this grass cutting seriously. Until one really, really bad day. We were mowing the police station (we had all of the county police and libraries) and really, these guys were awful. and it was a non-profit so blade sharpening was pretty much a dream. and the Captain came out and just reamed me out about how pathetic we were. so, me, the big professional that I was, burst into tears. and this was before the days of cellphones so I had to call the boss on the payphone where all of the criminals were being booked and as I'm sobbing into the phone that we were being fired and all I wanted was sharp blades...the guys came in to get me, and they'd hand trimmed all of the over grown grass. I just cried more. If I go back to the MR field, I would seriously consider going back to direct care.

Jenn

PS- a few weeks later one of them tried to off me with a hedge-trimmer. He was mad because I was leaving to go back to grad school. After everything was finished (I was still breathing and so was my client) a high ranking officer walked by and asked if I was OK. I said, "Sir, the only thing you can do to help is either mow your own grass or take your gun and shoot me in the head. either would do."

Jenn - you've had one heck of a life and you have a knack for telling stories! I love your posts!

I just realized this looks like I've written it to myself.