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For those of you who hire landscapers to do your lawn in summer and fall, how much do you spend for an annual contract?
And what is the size of your yard ?
We have about an acre and spend $45 per mowing. More in the fall with leaf collection. I'd say we end up at about $1200-$1500 per year.
Wow, that sounds like a really good price for the mowing. We have a half-acre lot (with a large house, in-ground pool, and a natural wooded area, so certainly not a half-acre to mow) and pay $70 per mowing. Thankfully we can get away with having it mowed every other week, March through Oct or Nov. He charges only $20 additional to trim bushes, about once a month.
Annual totals:
Mowing $1200
Trim bushes $160
Weed and feed contract $1000
Pest control contract $800
Spread mulch in the fall $800
I live in a 3 unit townhouse and I was shocked at how much the landscaping costs were in my first year (over $1K). Now, I'm managing the landscaping and I'm cutting the cost way back. Last yr was probably under $350 total.
Mowing - we have a really small footprint in terms of lawn size. Each mow is $40. Instead of weekly or bi-weekly mows, I request our lawn guy on a As-Need basis. It turns out no mowing is needed at all during the hottest months (late June, July, Aug). We only needed about 6 total mows the entire season last yr (May to Oct) compared to 15+ mows previously.
Trim bushes - this used to cost hundreds. Now I just do the trimming in front of my door (there are only 3 bushes) - unfortunately my 2 neighbors just let theirs grow. Most other bushes are right against my unit so I trim those as well. Insane to pay hundreds for this. Luckily the builder initially put in really good perennial bushes that now fill the entire planting areas. We don't need to mess with putting in flowers, etc. Bad thing is there are some trees that are too close to the house which I'll need to do more major trimming.
Mulch - the lawn guy used to charge many hundreds for this; now we pay <$50.... I just buy the $2 bags from HD or Lowes and spread them out myself at a fraction of the cost. Lately, I've been letting the leaves stay to act as mulches to reduce the amount of artificial mulch needed.
Leaves cleaning - we used to pay hundreds for this as well; now we pay nothing. I ask each unit to clean up their own area. Unfortunately that means I have to do the bulk since my unit has the biggest side yard next to it. I recently bought a used blower and an electric mower to mulch down the leaves so the clippings just stay in the lawn.
I'd be curious about how many work hours are involved in whatever is paid.
I have most of an acre to tend (2/3's mine; 1/3 easement).
I have a broad range of tools to do it with including an okay riding mower
and I don't object to any of it aside from the flower beds which I happily hire out.
(this PITA can easily chew up an entire day at least twice a year)
The three BIG oaks get trimmed by a pro on a ten year cycle.
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The smaller trees and shrubs require about 8 hours a year to keep trimmed (8).
The lawn requires a bit more than an hour per week betw Apr and Dec ...
all mowing, dropping fertilizer, etc and the substantial fall leaf work (52).
That totals up to about 60 hours in all... mostly spring/summer/fall.
The $1200-$1500 UConn mentioned ($20-25/hr) is almost low enough to consider
contracting it out. I've never shopped it for rates from landscapers.
$50 every two weeks for mowing and cleanup-shrub and tree trimming included, so about $600. Usually start in April to September and after all the leaves have fallen we pay $50 to cleanup. I do give him any other yard work we have though so he makes a little more when we replace mulch or add stones/landscape timber etc.
Not going to post what I pay, but this past year I thought "Hey great, yard work is over for the season!" Then I calculated what I spend daily/weekly for bird seed for all my feeders and realized "Holy crap, yard work is a lot cheaper by comparison". The birds here (I live in a bird sanctuary) can go through one $13.86 bag of bird food daily! As soon as the "yard" season is over I have to start feeding the little buggers!
I live in Hawaii so have 12 months of yard work. We have 2 acres. Things grow prolifically - 2" per week for grass in the summer.
I do all the mowing myself + weed whacking + picking up palm fronds.
When we go away we pay someone to do what I do. Takes him 5 hours, and it costs me $200, per visit, bi-weekly. So about $400/month.
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