Lawn Service Questions

I pay $32 a week for what I consider a medium size lawn. They also carve out my flower beds and weed. They do the edging and make sure they use a blower to get rid of all the grass clipping from my yard. They charge $44 for a fertilizer treatment, and they would charge $300 to do our mulching. We do each of these ourselves because it is cheaper. However, one year we bought the mulch ourselves and they put it down and asked us just for a tip and kept it off the books. One guy came out and did it for $60 and was done in about an hour. Our yard requires about 30 bags of mulch, so he did a lot of work. We're in Texas, so we don't hire them for the winter, and I probably wouldn't hire someone for the winter. There are enough kids around that will do it for us. If you are looking for something to do in the winter, how about Christmas Lights. It's a huge business here and people spend a small fortune to get it done.

Wow! Lawncare companies here won't pull their mowers off the truck for under fifty. My nephew does landscaping and hardscaping (own his business) with emphasis on green materials (sustainable materials) and being environmentally friendly and he does VERY well! Good luck!

We had a service and we were on a 1 year contract which was around $250/month (even in winter). Some services did weed control and fertilizer... hubby did that himself.

Basically, they came out weekly in the summer until the last leaf collection in the fall and never came back until the spring. We were still obligated to pay per the contract. It was a high end company and they were known for great customer service.

We used them for several years but when we built this house, the yeard is much larger and trickier due to it being tiered and lot of stone walls.

We've since stopped the service because my husband is pretty picky and he just decided to do it himself. It is the only way he'll be happy with the work.

Our retired neighbor mows our lawn and we love what he does for us.
He cuts it when it needs it - April through October (it's dormant rest of the year) - which is roughly every 10-14 days depending on how fast it's growing.
We don't get much/any snow in southern Virginia, so shoveling/plowing isn't something we need.
(The schools here practically close for a hard frost.)
He trims around the trees/shrubs/house/sidewalk, weed whacks the drainage ditches and sprays our gravel driveway with weed-b-gone and fills any sinkholes that happen - we pay him for all materials (spray/gravel/dirt).
We have 3 acres - it's a mowed field (we do not weed/seed/feed). On a good day it takes him 4 hours of mowing and he typically charges $85 per mowing (he charges by how much time it takes him, so it varies).
His work is so good and his rates are so great I just pay him anything he wants - our yard always looks wonderful because of him.
We couldn't get a lawn service to even look at us for less than $250 per mowing session.
He mows other lawns besides us and we're happy to have him as long as he wants to mow for us.

We have a typically-sized suburban lot and pay $27/cut. We LOVE that they are consistent (come every Fri morning at about the same time each week), they are thorough--don't leave strips un-cut, they use the weed-whipper for the edges. They also comb the area to check for my kids' small toys.

I wish that they'd also do bush trimming. If they offered periodic weeding in the flower beds, I'd be interested in getting a quote for that too.

We clear our own snow in the winter--can't wait for others to show up to do it for us because my hubby has to leave early in the am.

ETA: Oooooh---ditto the Christmas lights suggestion. I JUST got my lights down last Friday, because it was too icy out there until March, and then I was too pregnant to go up on the ladder...and then...well, you know...mom stuff.

I do most of my lawn servicing my self like over-seeding aerating and mowing. I rent out an aerator and mower from the home depot tool rental http://www.compactpowercenter.com when I need it.. my estimate is that it costs me and approx $50/month doing it my self, I will happily employ someone who can do this with the quality I do (and paying a little less)... For fertilizer treatment I am charged $55, $325 to do mulching. Hope this helps :)