Do you mow?

[ScaredtoQuit]

I've had 1/2 acre to mow since 1977. For the first 28 years, I was one of only two families on the block that mowed their own lawn. Two years ago, my wife persuaded me to turn it over to my nephew at a cost of $25 per cut. In a year or so, he's off to college so I'll be back to mowing very shortly. Hopefully, by then I'll have a lot more free time to do it!!

Quick cost analysis: Professional lawn mowing in our area costs $35 to $40 per week times 25 cuts per season equals $875 to $1,000. At a 28% tax bracket, your pre-tax cost is $1,215 to $1,389 per year. That means you would have to devote more than $30,000 of your portfolio just to cutting the grass!!!

 

[d]

At a 28% tax bracket, your pre-tax cost is $1,215 to $1,389 per year. That means you would have to devote more than $30,000 of your portfolio just to cutting the grass!!!

... which brings me back to

don't water, don't fertilize, don't grow, don't mow.

 

[Donzo]

Got 12 acres - about 5 need mowing - I bought a tow behind mower w/ a 54 inch swath. I pull it w/ my quad.....it is kinda fun and it looks great/smells great when it is done. My wife thinks I'm playing when I mow

 

[Goonie]

I have about 1/4 acre that I mow with a Toro self-propelled 22" mulching 'push' mower. Also have a small Sears rider that I run around once in a great while just to collect grass clippings for the compost pile. Of course the house, garage, and garden shed take up a nice chunk of the yard. I also have a large composting site (5' x 10') near the back by the garage. Also have SEVERAL gardens scattered all over the yard...mostly perennials and small shrubs......and I'm adding another 200 sq.ft. shade garden this year. So I really don't have a lot to mow....it takes me about 45 minutes to mow, and about once a month I trip with a weed-eater.

Mowing, gardening, yard work, etc. is like therapy for me.....VERY relaxing!!! I love it!!!

As a matter of fact that's the kind of stuff I'm really looking forward to doing when I'm FIRE'd! I love outdoor stuff like that. I've even talked to a couple of the neighbors and may help them with their yards and gardens, too.

 

[TromboneAl]

For 1/3 of an acre, you should be able to get a used lawn mower for under $80. I just gave mine away on Freecycle. I had bought it 10 years ago for $15 and it never failed to work perfectly (electric).

I am converting my lawn over to something else. Just have to find something that will grow in the shade with too much water and pine needles on it.

 

[Sarah in SC]

T-Al, English Ivy is a good choice. Can you improve the drainage at all so the roots will dry out periodically? Vinca is another nice groundcover. Depends a bit on your zone.

Sarah

 

[saluki9]

I'm leaning towards doing it myself. It's just that I'm sick of buying crap. It's been two months since we moved in and I can't go a week without dropping a couple hundred $$$ on something else for the house.

That being said, I am a sworn Hondaphile so if I do buy that will be it. (I do dream about being able to use a Deere tractor though)

Check out this baby

 

[FIRE'd@51]

Lawn service would run about $60 a month.

$60 a month in a wealthy suburb where no one does their own lawn is downright cheap. Are you sure the quote wasn't $60 a week?

For a $60 a month I'd hire the service in about 2 seconds and spend my weekends playing golf.

 

[Gumby]

Unless it's raining, I mow my 1/3 acre every Saturday morning from late April to mid-July, then about once per month until November. I find it to be relaxing.

We got the cheapest 20" push mower that Home Depot had 15 years ago (I think it was about $100) and have used it ever since. I change the oil and filter about every other year. I have replaced the blade once. You don't really need to spend a lot on a mower. For most people it is more a question of time.

 

[maddythebeagle]

don't water, don't fertilize, don't grow, don't mow.

or get one of those wild flower yards...but something tells me the area that OP is going to be living in wont allow it...

 

[saluki9]

$60 a month in a wealthy suburb where no one does their own lawn is downright cheap. Are you sure the quote wasn't $60 a week?

Sorry, it's $30 a mow. I was hoping to get by having it cut twice a month. We have a lot of shade, so hopefully the grass isn't going to grow that fast.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

I mow, but use a mulching mower, so the whole 1/5 acre takes maybe 20
minutes once every 2-4 weeks. 19 years of this means my yard have a nice
spongy feel when walked on. I have never fertilized or watered, but my
neighbors water so much that most of my lawn is green all summer anyway,
and turns all green after any rain. About once a year after a good rain, I
distribute a bag of grass seed across my lawn, mainly to fill in the holes left
by my 'weeding' (I use RoundUp).

 

[TromboneAl]

T-Al, English Ivy is a good choice. Can you improve the drainage at all so the roots will dry out periodically? Vinca is another nice groundcover.

Thanks, yes, I'd choose ivy, but it's frowned upon around here because it escapes into the forest, competes with native plants, and strangles trees and small animals.

I think that if I can help the pine needles in their efforts to kill all the plants, I can get that nice brown forest floor effect.

 

[FIRE'd@51]

Sorry, it's $30 a mow.

OK - that makes more sense.

I was hoping to get by having it cut twice a month. We have a lot of shade, so hopefully the grass isn't going to grow that fast.

You may be able to get by with twice a month in the heat of summer. But in the spring, I think you will find that it will need cutting at least once a week, maybe every 4 or 5 days, depending on the rainfall.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Lawn service would run about $60 a month.

$60 a month for a 2/3 acre lawn? Take it.

 

[TromboneAl]

IOW, $7,200 over the next ten years.

 

[John Tuttle]

We have five acres, but most of it is vegetable and flower gardens, pond, second growth fir and hemlock with a small grass yard for the dogs. I LOVE to mow the yard and work in the garden and my greenhouse. It was a great way to relax when I was working and it's one of the best parts of being FIRED.

I've mowed yard several times this spring. It's very relaxing and one of the easiest things you can do to make the place look nice.

Perhaps you could rent or borrow a mower and see if you like it. If you hate it you might be ahead to pay the money to have someone else do it and you do something you enjoy. After all, isn't that what its all about?

DW and I are off to have some steamers for lunch at a little place on the Sound and then off to a nursery to pick up some plants. And then, it looks like maybe I should mow the yard!

 

[BUM]

I have an acre to mow. When travelling I would hire the landscaping service at about $20-25/visit. Sometimes, depending on rainfall, they would show up 3- 5 times a month. For that I got:

Fairly good cut. However they often went so fast the the grass got scalped on the turns.

The dope with the weed-wacker nearly killed a couple of expensive red maple ornamentals.

I figure I'm paying top dollar and deserve a top job... didn't get it. Now I mow it myself and enjoy it. I packed my big hearing protectors with a set of earbuds and now I enjoy DW's iPod while mowing. When I'm traveling, my SIL or neighbor cuts it for me. I don't care if they scalp.

Check that off the list! 8)

 

[W2R]

My 1600 square foot house stands on a 50x100 city lot. I mowed for the first couple of years, but the humidity in New Orleans really got to me.

A friend told me her husband would mow it for $20/mow, so I hired him. He was unreliable and not very good. I fired him (gently) in 2004.

At that point I hired Frank's yard man for $30/mow (probably the highest price around here for a city lot). He does a wonderful job and is there like clockwork. He is a deserving older man with a great attitude, whose home sat in 13 feet of water from Katrina for weeks. Even so, after the storm he was back mowing happily as soon as people were permitted back in the Parish. As if that wasn't enough, he gutted his home at night, repaired, and renovated it, all before most people were even back and before there was any electricity in that neighborhood. That impressed me a lot.

 

[Bikerdude]

I have 3 acres with about 3500 sq. ft. of lawn. No one can see the house or lawn from the street so some dry summer months I mow every 3 weeks. Now leaf season is another story. At some point as I age (if I stay in this home) I'll start to bid out services. First will be spring cleanup then fall leaf season and finally mowing.

I think condo maintenance fee's around here are $250/300 a month and up. So I think I can get pretty much all the regular stuff done for less.

 

[bssc]

DW does the mowing.

We had a yard service but they didn't do what we wanted them to. We stopped them when they pulled out a rosebush while weeding a flower bed.

 

[RedHawk]

During HS I cut people's lawns. Most lots were 1/4 acre and I charged $15/week which included mowing, edging, and trimming. I must have been cheap because most people paid me $20. I was happy because I figured that I had a $20/hr job in HS.

 

[pasttense]

Mowed the first two years after moving, then found a mowing service for under $16 a week, if I pay for the full season up front. Working twelve hour days, the LAST thing I want to do after w*rk is mow the lawn, especially if it's 110F outside...

"working twelve hour days" doesn't sound like Early Retired. Here in the midwest, grass doesn't grow very much in 110F temperatures (or somewhat less--I do very little mowing in July/August).

 

[HFWR]

"working twelve hour days" doesn't sound like Early Retired. Here in the midwest, grass doesn't grow very much in 110F temperatures (or somewhat less--I do very little mowing in July/August).

It's not...

Yet...

 

[tryan]

We pay $32 per cut for our 1 acre lot. Problem is they come weekly whether or not the lawn needs mowing. August here you might cut twice all month ... but he comes 5 times . He has labor to pay for ... .

At the lake I bought a $60 used mower that starts on the first pull .... even if I had to buy one every year that's OK. Not much to mow there.