Do you do your own yard upkeep?

[ericmedem]

When I evaluate what I would like to do and not do for myself, I always take into account the opportunity cost of my time. At my job I make roughly $150/hr, so if I can hire someone to do my yard for $10/hr, then I can get 15 hours of their time for every one of mine. If you only make $20/hr and dont enjoy doing your lawn, then work an extra hour and you can hire someone for 2.

If you havent read the power of focus you should, its a book about doing just what your good at if it pays well.

[threebeansalad]

We do our own. I enjoy working outside, especially in the garden.

[myself]

In some parts of the country this may seem like a premature question since some of you are still getting snow. But, here in the Dallas area the high temperatures have been in the mid-to-upper 70's and everything is growing, from the plants to the lawns.

While I was outside yesterday trimming bushes and edging the lawn, I noticed that 7 people on my block (there are twelve houses in total) had lawn services come and mow/trim/fertilize their lawns. We receive flyers for these services frequently and they average about $30/week for basic mowing to over $100/month for fertilizing/weed control, etc. So, these folks may well be spending upwards of $220/month 8 months a year(March-October) for basic yard maintenance. Our lot sizes average no more than 1/3 of an acre, so we're not talking large expanses of space.

A couple of these homeowners have mentioned they are behind in their house payments, yet they still pay for these services. I guess some folks don't enjoy yard work, but I find it a great form of exercise. It also gives me a sense of satisfaction in that I am the one keeping my home up and paying close attention to detail, plus it saves money.

I know that some of you may have larger home sites to care for, but I would be interested to hear your comments.

Yep. Someone does our cut/trim/cleanup. Somewhat expensive ($58/cut ... just went up from $55/cut the last 3 years). Our lot is 65,578 sq. ft. No, that's not a mistype, because it is slightly over 1 1/2 acres. I refer to a per cut basis, because we don't have a sprinkler system, and so there are 2-3 dry weeks during the summer that they don't cut.
I am also very allergic to freshly cut grass.


While your original post is kind of funny (in a serious sorta way), I have an even funnier story.
I told some of my family members and friends that we pay someone to cut our grass. They thought it was kind of dumb (because I can do it, I merely have a very hard time breathing by the time I'm done cutting it).
However, they didn't think it was rather dumb that they paid someone to fertilize their yard, which caused them to cut their yard up to twice a week for half the spring/summer months.

[StressLess]

We've been here 12 years now, and for about the first 6, we did it ourselves. We're at the age now that we'd have the younguns doing it (as we both did for our parents at various times)--but we don't have any!

The last straw was the year my FIL was sick, DH was working the same physical job he has now, trying to help me with our lawn, and going up to the in-laws to do theirs. He was totally exhausted and ended up taking more days off from work than he had vacation time, just to rest up. He lost so much pay we might as well have been paying a lawn service and enjoying more of our weekends.

We don't water the lawn, we don't fertilize, we don't even try anymore to fill in the dead spots from dog pee. I did overseed with white clover one year for fun, because my parents did it, and I like the feel of it under my feet. It adds nitrogen to the soil naturally, and the bees like the flowers.

One corner of the yard has lots of moss, and the "moss garden" is starting to fill in quite nicely. We also have some periwinkle (vinca minor) that's finally starting to take hold.

Anything other than grass is fine with us. It would be great if someday most of the yard were groundcover and garden plots, with just a tiny lawn we could mow ourselves. A couple doors up from us is a house with an entire front yard of ivy. They just have to clip it a few times a year--and it looks gorgeous.

Anyway, the lawn service charges about $37 including tax. They come about every 10 days-2 weeks. We've occasionally had a tree service, and this spring we had the lawn service guys do a yard cleanup. I want my limited gardening time to be for the fun stuff!

[shelbylovesmelby]

We do our own, can't afford to do it any other way.