How to have a low cost/maintenance lawn or yard in Austin

[teasipmom]

Originally Posted by leorah

We have one crape myrtle and our neighbor has two. Our deep red one is quite close to our house thanks to the previous owner, so we do prune it from time to time to keep it off of the walls. Our neighbor never prunes her white and pink ones. They all bloom profusely, so it doesn't seem to matter whether they are cut back or not. I know a local arborist who says they do not need to be cut back or regularly pruned. Try not pruning it for a year and see what happens!

Ok, I'm convinced! Thanks!

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by teasipmom

So, in all, I'm probably paying about $1100 a year for minimal maintenance (that includes sprinkler fixes) and that doesn't include hedge trimming. Doesn't this seem like a lot just for yard maintenance?
.

You are actually paying a lot less than I do for yard maintenance. I paid $40/week, $2080/year, but that includes St. Augustine lawn, no zero scraping, trimming shrubs, tree branches to keep them off the roof, etc. I rarely pay anything extra unless its is for something very unusual, such as bringing in a load of mulch and mulching all of the beds.