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I sprayed my weeds today and will be performing another round after 2-3 weeks. I have both pre and post emergent weeds and Tenacity handles both with surfactant.
Its supply and demand right. Prices are normally lower in bigger cities because of the amount of supply for that service due its high demand.
It seems like my area has a lot of commercial companies providing lawn care. As someone earlier mentioned, these guys have expensive trucks hauling trailers with all of their equipment. They typically have the stand up zero turn mowers. I'm also in a rural area where the yards are bigger, hilly, and with a lot of trees.
My experience spraying weeds - I use Weed-B-Gon hose end. I find it gives the best kill when at the top of temperature range. And I spray again as soon as label permits. Roundup works best if very hot.
As for inexpensive labor you have to ask around. And I do use Nextdoor for ideas. On Next-door we usually PM each other to weed out help. If I see someone working in my area I stop and ask for a card or phone number. Workers only seem to last a few years for me. They find better work but they generally just disappear.
BBCJ above is spot on where I am. I have a fertilizer service for both lawn and shrubs, trees, ornamentals. They also spot treat. They cost about $700 for the year. Lawns around here average $50 cut and trim. Figure April to October, maybe 20-25 mows at one per week.
I cut my own lawn and even though I have the right equipment and go about it very efficiently I often wonder why I spend all that time and effort on it. I guess it’s exercise, and I do enjoy the results.
I spend the time and effort as well and the benefits are numerous, at least in my mind;
You cut the grass when needed, your getting exercise, fresh air and vitamin D, your doing it to your liking and not having to complain about not so good work by someone else and your saving money on something your capable of doing that could be spent elsewhere! The visual benefits are self satisfying as well.
I spend the time and effort as well and the benefits are numerous, at least in my mind;
You cut the grass when needed, your getting exercise, fresh air and vitamin D, your doing it to your liking and not having to complain about not so good work by someone else and your saving money on something your capable of doing that could be spent elsewhere! The visual benefits are self satisfying as well.
I have hated cutting grass since I was kid forced to do it...........needless to say I haven't owned a lawn mower in 20+ years. It has cost me $75-150 a month (depending on where I lived). ONE time I was aggravated with my lawn guy and I went to Home Depot to price out new equipment. I was at $1500 very quickly and realized I'd have to mow for over a year just to break even!
I changed lawn crews and moved on. I don't have the smelly machines in my garage and never have to "schedule" when I have to cut the grass. I do stuff like car maintenance/oil changes so I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, I just hate cutting grass!
You cut the grass when needed, your getting exercise, fresh air and vitamin D, your doing it to your liking and not having to complain about not so good work by someone else and your saving money on something your capable of doing that could be spent elsewhere! The visual benefits are self satisfying as well.
Which is great if you're physically able to do it and/or have the time. Not everyone is, or does.
I used to be able to work in the garden for five hours straight -- ripping out grass, planting everything from perennials to 8-gallon pots, weeding, pruning shrubs -- go inside, take a hot shower, maybe pop a Tylenol later that evening, and wake up feeling fine the next day. That all started to change in my mid 50s. Lower back problems, foot problems, bad right knee, carpal tunnel syndrome. Got hit with cancer at age 60 followed by a decade's worth of new, permanent health problems appearing. Now as a woman in my early 70s if I am lucky I MAY be able to get in 2 hours of garden work on a cool low-humidity day before having to call it quits. I now garden on heavy rocky soil where I cannot manage to dig a hole larger than a 1- or 2-gallon (if that) pot myself. Just don't have the upper body strength anymore. Kneeling or squatting for more than a few minutes at a time to weed exacts a price from my knees and lower back. There's no way that I could add cutting the lawn to that regimen, so I pay someone to do the lawn cutting.
At the other end of the spectrum is my son who is 35 and has owned his house for 10 years. He gets up at 5:30 a.m., boards a 6:10 train to his job in the city, and usually doesn't get home until 8 p.m., Mon-Fri. The last thing he wants to do when he gets home, or on the weekend, is to mow the lawn. He wants to relax and spend time with his wife, child, and friends. He does do planting, etc, himself but that's not something that needs to be done every week. So he pays someone to do the lawn cutting.
When I was in my early 50s and was living in a small house on 1/8 acre I did buy a Neuton battery powered mower and cut the grass myself for about 2 years. There was maybe (?) 2000 sq ft of grass area. It would take me a good 40 minutes to do that because I bagged the clippings (that mower really didn't mulch well, and the lawn looked a mess if I did it that way) and the mower wasn't self propelled. But that would wipe me out for doing any more physical stuff for that day, especially during July and August. There were days when I'd get halfway through and have to stop, and I was in a lot better physical shape than I am now. When I moved from there to a half acre, I sold the Neuton mower and started paying someone to cut the grass again.
Its supply and demand right. Prices are normally lower in bigger cities because of the amount of supply for that service due its high demand.
It's also because in areas like mine (suburbs of a major city) there's a lot of competition. Don't like the lawn service you used this year? Jot down the name and phone number of the other 5 trucks you regularly see cutting lawns in your neighborhood and call them for next season. They didn't work out? Try somebody else next year.
The typical timeframe for the typical crew of 2 or 3 guys to do a cut/edge (weedwhacker)/blow for a half acre is 10 minutes for a 1/3 or 1/2 acre. One guy on the riding mower, one weedwhacking the edges and then following after the mower guy to blow the clippings off the driveway, walkway, or patio. If they have adjacent-lot customers there are usually 3 guys so that each guy moves from one house to the next as he finishes his part of the job. Ten minutes in/out, with 15 as an absolute max; I've occasionally timed it, and that has always been consistent even though I've always had multiple planting beds that they need to edge around.
These guys usually keep their services local, too, for lawn cutting. Although they'll travel for non-cutting jobs (to an extent), they won't do so for cuts. Usually they stay within one community or perhaps two adjacent. Saves them money in gas and travel time. The guys who have done "projects" for me here are based in a community 8 miles away but if I wanted them to cut my grass I'd have to pay $60 for it because I'm not "local." The guys who cut my lawn for $35 when I lived in a town 12 miles away would not come this far to do either lawn cutting OR projects.... I'm too far 'out of area' for them.
The one mistake many make is over fertilizing. A cold season grass such as fescue likes to slow down in the summer. It does not need or want a lot of fertilizer. But lawn companies make money this way. I mulch mow and fertilize in the late fall.
When you don't fertilize a lot your lawn will not grow like crazy. Thus you can get by with less cuts.
Fertilizing when lawn wants to slow down pushes it and promotes disease.
The lawn is still going to need water.
I suggest you contact the NJ Rutger's Extension Service. Ask them to send you their free fact sheets on lawns.
Which is great if you're physically able to do it and/or have the time. Not everyone is, or does.
Yes, that’s obviously true as well as those that have unlimited financial resources and would rather get exercise walking around and sightseeing in other countries or a nearby gym. I choose to do it because I physically able to do so!
I sprayed my weeds today and will be performing another round after 2-3 weeks. I have both pre and post emergent weeds and Tenacity handles both with surfactant.
Yep, Tenacity is fantastic stuff and lasts a long long time. I’m still on the same bottle from 2016 for a .4 acre lot.
Mix it with Drive XLR8 and that’ll also wipe out any crab grass too with one shot and total ease. To manage bug, fungus and disease all at the same time - Caravan G is your golden ticket (also by Syngenta - same company as Tenacity). Caravan G once in the spring will carry you to fall, and once in the fall will carry you to spring. Since you already know about Tenacity - then you clearly already know that if you want pro results, you gotta use the pro stuff! Anything from Syngenta is a pro favorite, from farmers to golf courses. And when you realize how little it takes, it’s quite cost effective when compared to anything you’ll buy at a typical big box retailer.
When we bought our current house in late 2015, the lawn was a weed and crab grass farm. A completely neglected disaster. Two rounds with the backpack sprayer of Tenacity and DriveXLR8, and it was back to 100% grass. Seeding and fertilizer, and it was back to perfect. I’ve not needed to do much beyond spot treat here and there ever since. I will spray the mixture along the edges of our lawn that meets a the road (no sidewalk or curbs in my neighborhood, just blacktop to lawn) as that’s where we tend to see crab grass and weeds come in from the neighbors. This year, we only had two spots of crab grass by August. Two hand sprays of the mixture, and gone in a week...
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