average amount of time a yard takes per week ?? (how much, townhouse, pool)
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I am a widow that is downsizing and trying to decide between a house with small yard & a townhouse. What I have now is very time consuming ( hours every day) with 3 acres , pool , lots of landscaping plants.
What I want is a yard I can handle in a few hours on the weekend. I don't mind some yard work but I don't want it to take up all my free time.
I would prefer a townhouse if yards generally take 4 to 5 hours a week to keep
weeded, mowed, leaves up ect.
I know I have too much to care for now but I need help to know what amount of time it takes to care for a small yard.
A tract home yard shouldn't take more than a "few hours on the weekend". That still seems like more time than most people spend. Most people seem to have a gardener or landscape service. I am one of the few who does his own (because I enjoy it) and I probably spend a few hours a week mowing, trimming, edging, and maybe once a month or two planting flowers or something like that. I used to have 2.5 acre lot that was just wild grass and a couple times a year a paid someone to mow it with a tractor.
A tract home yard shouldn't take more than a "few hours on the weekend". That still seems like more time than most people spend. Most people seem to have a gardener or landscape service. I am one of the few who does his own (because I enjoy it) and I probably spend a few hours a week mowing, trimming, edging, and maybe once a month or two planting flowers or something like that. I used to have 2.5 acre lot that was just wild grass and a couple times a year a paid someone to mow it with a tractor.
That is helpful. I am struggling so right now to keep up that i wondered if a townhouse would be better than any yard,. We have a pool that is near shade trees so at this time of year the leaves cover the pool deck & pool and the drive is covered too.
so the weeds are full time until the leaves take over LOL.
I did have a normal size yard 15 years ago and took care of it myself with 2 small kids and i didn't remember doing much except mowing or raking leaves once a week.
After my two sons left home I considered selling my home and buying a townhouse. However, I do love having my own private yard, deck, flowers and garden. So I stayed in my home but pay someone to mow my 1/2 acre yard. That leaves me plenty of time to take care of my flowers and garden. The best of both worlds!
We used to have a .65 acre lot in Pennsylvania, and we didn't have any landscaping plants because there were so many deer (they ate absolutely everything). My husband mowed once every 2-3 weeks and that was it. I think a small lot will be fine for you, but you will have the normal issues of gutters, roofs, leaves, etc. There are definitely perks to a townhouse.
downsizing
trying to decide between a house with small yard & a townhouse.
want a yard I can handle in a few hours on the weekend.
Not a lot of difference between a TH and a small house.
fwiw; the choice between them should be about the neighbor aspect...
not which might need an extra hour of yardwork now and then.
Quote:
What I have now is very time consuming...
with 3 acres , pool , lots of landscaping plants.
Eliminate the pool and most of the ornamental planting
and you're down to 1 or 2 hours each week (on average).
Quote:
I know I have too much to care for now but I need help
to know what amount of time it takes to care for a small yard.
The real issue w/r/t how much time gets spent...
is the level of persnicketyness that is expected.
You really do help determine how much yard work you will have by what you plant. We have two very large flower gardens and 2 medium sized flower gardens. We spend at least 6 to 7 hrs on our yard each week (late spring and summer) - sometimes more. Right now we are cutting back perennials and removing annuals - we will spend 10 hrs on our yard at least this week. Same thing when we are planting for spring, summer and fall annual color, applying mulch, pruning, spraying - we can easily spend 8 to 12 hrs. a week.
If you don't want to spend much time in the garden, plant only perennials that require minimum care each season. We removed tons of hard-to-cultivate, needy plants when we moved into our home. Don't plant annual color or at least keep it to a minimum and use seeds when possible (annual color is wonderful but expensive to maintain and buy). Use time-released plant food that only needs to be applied a couple times per season. Buy plants that don't need tons of water. Keep potted plants to a minimum (they need lots of water and food during the growing season). Check with your local garden center to determine which plants do well in your area and require minimum care.
Good advice Cattknap, I did the same, downsized the lawn by replacing with hardscape or easy care plants; I also removed lawn from anywhere that was difficult to access with a sprinkler or equipment. Mowing takes about 15 minutes. Other work is hand weeding, watering, and fertilizing/liming, which takes about an hour each month (watering you have to keep an eye on, of course, but it's not work).
The lawn is by far the most labor-intensive of my gardening hobbies and I like it or it would be gone
OP, If you like plants but don't want the lawn you could have a meadow, patio, or woodland garden. Perhaps you could even do this where you currently live if you want to stay there.
After my two sons left home I considered selling my home and buying a townhouse. However, I do love having my own private yard, deck, flowers and garden. So I stayed in my home but pay someone to mow my 1/2 acre yard. That leaves me plenty of time to take care of my flowers and garden. The best of both worlds!
That is one option because I figured that the $ for townhouse fees would almost pay for having my yard mowed in a house,
We used to have a .65 acre lot in Pennsylvania, and we didn't have any landscaping plants because there were so many deer (they ate absolutely everything). My husband mowed once every 2-3 weeks and that was it. I think a small lot will be fine for you, but you will have the normal issues of gutters, roofs, leaves, etc. There are definitely perks to a townhouse.
Yes , weighing out those pros & cons is tough. I like having pets so that is an advantage of the house.
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