We pay $25 per mowing which includes mowing, edging, weedeating and cleanup of all trimmings and whatever else has fallen in the yard between mowings. Our yard guy comes every two weeks beginning in April through October, and sometimes we'll have him come in the middle of winter if the grass grows. I live in Houston so the grass can/does sometimes grow in winter.

He usually charges us $45 for the first mowing of the season -- it's only fair because things tend to get a bit unruly during March. He charges me an additional $20 - $25 when I ask him periodically to trim bushes or clean gutters.

He doesn't do any weeding or fertilizing -- well I should say I've never asked him to, so though he may do those, I don't know what the charge would be.

I know we get a great deal!

I got a quote of $25 per week for mowing only (I'm on a 1/4 city lot but there isn't that much grass). It does not include the landscaping stuff and spraying. I think $160 is a really good deal.

We pay $20/week for mowing, and then $120 for spring cleanup and I think about the same for fall cleanup. He does charge extra for fertilizer, etc, but I can't remember how much. He never weeds. Drives me crazy.

I just got a quote from someone else though, because our guy has gotten really bad over the years...I'm assuming he stopped coming with his workers and that's why, but I'm not sure. The new quote was $85/month for mowing and weeding, then $150 for spring cleanup and $30 for whenever he fertilizes etc. Fall leaves was $200, or something like that, but I need to call him and find out exactly what that entails. I don't need to spend that much just to have leaves blow back on the lawn!

We're on a 55x100 corner lot in a burb of NYC...

While we were in Cairo and renting our house, we paid for lawn care service. It was $30 or $35 a week for mowing and clean up. No fertilizing or anything else.

This was for a half acre, wooded.

Sounds like you are getting a good deal. Of course, we live in DC, not the cheapest hood in America. Now that we're home, we do it all ourselves.

Ivette

I'm so envious of you folks who enjoy yardwork (or at least "tolerate" the yardwork to get to the result.)

I hate it. I hate everything about it. I hate to sweat, hate that "gritty" feeling from being outside, hate to plant something that doesn't thrive, hate to repeatedly have to mow and weedeat...and hate the fact that the dern grass has the nerve to grow back the next week!

If I wasn't so embarassed, I'd post a photo of what our backyard looks like right now. It seriously resembles some of those homes you see on those TV shows. You know, the shows where the people live in filth, there are cats everywhere, and dead cars in the yard?

Today I had a landscaper come by and he literally stood speechless while he stared at my yard. He did alot of neck rubbing and shaking his head. Seriously. It's that bad.

He said it may take the whole summer just to get the yard to look "normal". Oy. I need a margarita.

I pay $23 per mowing (done weekly) for cutting/edging/trimming/removal of clippings. I am on a 5000 sq ft lot, but the house takes up most of it, and the side yard's all flowers, so I don't have a lot of grass.

Renofan. I HATE lawn work. Yet I love gardening, and happily can spend the day digging and such. I can't tell you how much I enjoy looking at my lawn and knowing I didn't have to do anything; I can't believe I didn't hire a service last year! I am all for outsourcing whatever you don't like, and it sounds like landscaping is something you should outsource!

Oh reno! You kill me! ha ha!

What you have to understand is that DH has a lawn tractor manly man thing that he enjoys riding around and pretending he's a farm boy in Iowa again, when really he's a suburban yuppie in Northern Virginia and who are we kidding, but oh well. To me, gardening extends to taking care of the lawn. But I draw the line at mowing, especially in THAT contraption.

Meanwhile, I love to garden and I actually find weeding therapeutic in a Zen kinda way. Could I be more strange?

Cheers to you and the margarita, yummmmmm.

Ivette

Reno,
I would take your quote. Ours are much, much higher. I'm in the Boston burbs and my town gets "zipcoded"! Just our mowing was $50 per week. A neighbor down the street had a contract that included similar stuff to your quote and the yearly price was around $10K and that included not doing anything during winter, Nov-April. Doesn't your quote sound good now? LOL

reno fan, we pay $25/week for mowing, no fertilizing or seeding, we do that ourselves. They blow the leaves to the curb (we have huge tulip poplars, so piles of leaves) for about $170, which includes two sessions. To have them taken away is more, so we don't do that b/c the county collects them for everyone. I actually think the mowing is a bargain considering that the neighborhood lawn boys used to get 15-20 when i was growing up. Course, they didn't have those mowers you can stand on and do the whole lawn in 10 minutes...

Oh, and for the record, i enjoy gardening, but hate doing anything involving the lawn, especially watering (ugh--maybe b/c all our hoses leak and i end up soaked??).

For reference, though, my neighbor whose yard is pristine pays $250/month!! They get the fertilizing, trimming, etc., for that. Her guy came over and proposed that to me when we moved in, and i'm afraid he had to shove my eyes back into their sockets (we were coming from an apartment; no lawn care there!).

We live in DC...we pay $35 per week for mowing, edging & blowing. Fall leaves were $490 for weekly visits from November - December (we have 4 large oaks, zillions of leaves). Spring clean up & mulching with tons of mulch was $550. Lawn aeration, fertilizer & seeding was $190. Other work is extra. We have 1/4 acre. For our area, these are great prices. I love to have a nice looking yard. I do all the flowers, the yard guys do all the heavy work. My DH is too tired to do all that work, plus I want him to spend his time with the kids & me, not doing lots of yard work.

reno, you are getting a heckuva deal. I have neighbors who pay that in mowing ALONE. No spraying, fertilizing, weeding, and certainly no trimming of trees or bushes.

WOW - I'm glad I don't have lawn service. I thought housecleaning was bad.

So if I do all our yardwork myself can I tell my DH we're saving over 1K a year? :)

Okay, I'm feeling better about the quote. DH signed the contract yesterday. WHOO HOOOOOOOOO!!! I won't ever have to look out upon weeds/overgrowth again!

Fly, tell your DH he's a lucky guy. ;)

I used to do the majority of this work. I really never liked it, but I labored under the delusion that I could make the yard look nice. Fact is, it never looked *nice*. We always seemed to be the one house on the street with scraggly edges, etc.

My husband asked me what I thought lawn service would cost, and I told him it was probably around what it would cost to get a maid.

So he still cuts the grass.

Renofan -- Feel good about your quote. Like Chispa, I'm in an $$$$ area. We pay $60/ time with 2 fall clean ups; mowing every other week. It runs $900 for the season -- April to Nov. That doesn't count any tree work or wood splitting or other stuff (gutter clean out) that goes on though we have woods surrounding us and two enormous lawns. Any planting, mulching, landscaping is also extra.

I'm considering going shopping for someone new as it is approaching extortion but these guys do a great job on the lawns and no one can argue that the gas price rise alone must be having a very bad impact on their costs.

Do you tip them as well? One of my neighbours said the guy hinted that 'most' customers gave him a tip.

Northern IL, 6 acres, MANY trees to mow around, hills and retaining walls; $140 a week for mowing. I do quite a bit of work with this company so we do get a discount.

I have a company edge, weed eat and blow for $10.80 a week. My son or I mow.

I think it's a huge bargain. My yard always looks very neat even if the grass is slightly long. We have a normal suburban lot with a wood fence, mowing takes under half an hour.

If I am remembering correctly a cut/trim crew needs to be charging about $2 per MINUTE they are on the property working to stay in business, that number may be regional, but it is a way to evaluate prices. We are paying $175/month annual to cut, trim, blow 1 acre and maintain 6 planting beds. The beds get roundup as needed and the hedge lines are kept shaped. This was bid as $150 for the cut/trim/blow and $25 for the beds. The crew is on site ~20 minutes with two mowers running. In the summer they need to double cut if there is rain, winter they cut bi-weekly or less.

For the combo service including application of chemicals you will get a cheaper rate because the crew can apply during a trip to cut. There is also the possible benefit that the cutting crew MIGHT see issues before a scheduled application - but don't count on it. The cutters who apply chemicals are often just trying to make a buck by marking up the materials a little while undercutting the competition. They may have no clue what they are applying... so do consider the cost of losing the lawn to pest or disease. We pay $60/month annual contract for a minimum of 6 applications and whatever else is needed to maintain healthy grass.

We pay roughly $2000 - 2500 a year total to our landscape service. This includes all cutting ($40 a week in season) mulching, weeding, fertilizer, grub control, spring and fall cleanups, leaf blowing, gutters, trimming the hedges, etc. This in in NJ for a 1/2 acre lot. I do not think it is unreasonable. We do not do a thing ourselves outside.

Who does your yard work? We live In pine bl Arkansas