Lawn Maintenance - What Are You Paying?

[Anubis]

About $8 a month for lawnmower gasoline.

yea something like that

gas for the mover/wacker

some fertilizer. generally just stage 1 and 2

 

[PrinceofWands]

Nothing, I do it myself (well ok, pay for supplies, but who knows how much). One of the joys of home ownership.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

$65 for a lawn that size is pretty good. I was paying $68 per treatment for a 6 or 7 visit cycle per year and finally ended it this year. Angie's List had a deal for 3 treatments at $89 total and I decided to give that guy a try. I'm not super impressed after the first treatment, but we'll see.

At my old house, I used to treat my own lawn. It would generally look great in the spring and early summer but I'd start slowly losing the battle in the middle of the summer. So, I decided to start using a service and it paid dividends. Honestly, in my current house, the lawn is so well established that after these 3 treatments, I may just start doing it again myself.

If your lawn is not established or in bad shape, I'd pay someone to treat it for a year or two and once it is established, you can take care of it. It is much easier once it is established. Weed-B-Gone and Roundup are your best friends.

 

[JulesMaximus]

About $8 a month for lawnmower gasoline.

Man, I could go months on $8 of gas for my lawnmower and trimmer combined.

 

[MotionMan]

I pay $150 a month for mow and blow of about 12k sq. feet. of grass and some plants/bushes. He also does special stuff and requests either for free or cheap.

MotionMan

 

[olds]

Just ask oldsmoboat. He does my lawn for a 6 pack and rent-free use of my basement.

Your wife says if you refer to her as "lawn" one more time she will put her foot so far up your ass that mr winky will double in size to 6".

Hey, don't kill the messenger.

 

[edro]

Roundup only kills what it touches. It doesn't kill through the roots.

But you should spray in towards the main stalk, right?
If not, I have been doing it wrong for a long time.

To kill a dandelion, I spray it in the center of the stalk, so it soaks into the main root.

 

[Wyndru]

Do any of you have children? I've been applying organic fertilizer and want to add some kind of weed killer to my lawn, but I'm worried about my daughter playing in the yard. When I checked out the sprays at our local garden shop, it stated that it's toxic, and needs to be fully watered into the soil before pets or children can play on it.

Is any of this lawn maintenance that companies like trugreen provide ok for kids? I see the yellow warning signs up on neighbors lawns after they have been there, but I've never read them.

 

[sdifox]

Do any of you have children? I've been applying organic fertilizer and want to add some kind of weed killer to my lawn, but I'm worried about my daughter playing in the yard. When I checked out the sprays at our local garden shop, it stated that it's toxic, and needs to be fully watered into the soil before pets or children can play on it.

Is any of this lawn maintenance that companies like trugreen provide ok for kids? I see the yellow warning signs up on neighbors lawns after they have been there, but I've never read them.

Assume 2 weeks off the lawn after application.

 

[Wyndru]

Assume 2 weeks off the lawn after application.

Oh...yeah that won't work. Oh well, she enjoys the dandelions anyhow.

 

[sdifox]

Oh...yeah that won't work. Oh well, she enjoys the dandelions anyhow.

I think I want a flame thrower just for dandelions...one of those ashphalt softener should work.

 

[spidey07]

But you should spray in towards the main stalk, right?
If not, I have been doing it wrong for a long time.

To kill a dandelion, I spray it in the center of the stalk, so it soaks into the main root.

You spray the leaves. You want the plant to take up the chemical via it's leaves. Spraying the root does very little.

Then again, round up kills anything it touches.

 

[TwiceOver]

Pump bottle of roundup + 2 Gallons of Gas: ~$25/yr

 

[richardycc]

I was paying $80/treatment from Scott's last yr, but I was not happy with their services, and cancelled the service this year. I got 2 bags of weed and feed from lowes at the end of the season last yr @ $8 a bag, I will use it as my step 2 and 3, so this year shouldn't cost me more than $100 for the whole season. My yard is about 14k sq ft total.

 

[NFS4]

I was paying about $60/treatment for a 5,000 sq ft lawn. But I decided to take care of things this year myself. Been using weed/feed and the lawn has pretty much been kept in check. However, I have noticed some of these things popping up in the lawn and the concentrated "spot" weed killer (I mix it in a 2-gallon sprayer) doesn't appear to be killing them.

Anyone know what this is? I've even seen them prop up in my flower beds ON TOP of the weed guard fabric barrier that I put down, so whatever it is, the seed was airborne and started settling all over the yard this spring.

 

[Train]

those are Trees, little baby trees. And you killed them.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Places like ChemLawn will charge between $200-$400 to chemically setup your lawn.

They will not seed it.


This spring, I seeded and fertilized the lawn. $100 including the hose and sprinkler.
Have the irrigation system temp turned off due to a broken line

Because I am out of town so much; the wife has a service comes in for $35 every two weeks to mow the front and back

 

[LookBehindYou]

I have trugreen come out, 50 bucks a shot, 8 treatments a year, 1/3 acre lot.

 

[NFS4]

those are Trees, little baby trees. And you killed them.

Fucking trees better get out of my lawn!

 

[MustISO]

Doing it myself although I would like to find an organic or more green way of maintaining it. I tried corn gluten meal this year and will give it a shot for a few years to see how it does. Some claim it works well, others say it doesn't.

 

[Saint Nick]

Oh - something else people tend to do incorrectly: Your lawn needs about 1" of water a week (Put a tuna tin or something in your yard and time how long it takes to get 1" of water in there). People tend to do short waterings every couple of days. This tends to promote shallow root growth which is mroe susceptible to drought and sun damage. Watering once or twice a week for longer periods of time will tend to result in deeper root growth which will lead to healthier grass

How about for zoysia?

 

[cerebusPu]

For my lot Id guesstimate that a lawn service company would charge $50-$65 a mowing every two weeks, or $35 a mowing every week. Also about $80 a trip for chemicals for 4 to 6 trips a year.

I'm guesstimating because i mow and chemical treat the lawn myself. i check for dandelions in the spring when its the easiest when the yellow flowers are out. i also check for the fluffy seed balls before i mow so they dont get spread around. i just pull them out with a sharp weeding tool that works perfectly for dandelions.

for chemicals i just treat maybe 3-4 times a year at $20-25 a bag. early spring for crabgrass preventer, late spring for broadleaf killer, and once again in the fall for nutrients. treating with chemicals is really easy. you just need to pour them into the spreader and push it around for 15mins.

if your lawn is sparse and super weedy, you will need heavier dosages and concentrated applications. my backyard is like that. the regular chemical treatments wont do much on the tons of weeds, poison ivy, and thorn bushes, so i got a $10 pump sprayer and some concentrated broadleaf killer ($6), poison ivy and tough brush killer ($12), and super concentrated round up ($10). there's also a lot of manual labor with the string trimmer to knock them down after the chemicals.

since i dont have kids that need attention on the weekends, and i need the exercise, i do my own yard work. Except for the gas powered tools, the costs arent that high and if its something i can do myself i enjoy doing it rather than paying someone else to do it.