Do you do your own yard work?

[NsXMas]

I used to pay someone to come by once a week to do my yardwork back in Cali.

Now I've decided to do my own yard work. Especially since the last gardener decided to quit and start his own business serving commercial customers.

The temperature was only 100 degrees in the shade, so I got out my electric hedge trimmer, leaf blower, tree pruner, various branch cutters, etc, and spent 3 hours doing the back yard.

Lathered on SPF 45 sunblock, put on my golf wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, and managed to survie 3 hours outside.

When it is a bit shadier tonight, I work on the front yard.

Nothing like sweat to make you feel productive. Had to go inside every 45 minutes to cool down, wipe down the sweat, and drink a half gallon of ice water.

Finished up with a cold shower. So refreshing...

 

[4AU4LIFE]

I have always done all of my own yard work. It gives me a sense of accomplishment I spend a long time outside doing things and can look back and see the fruits of my labor. It is relaxing and rewarding at the same time.
As a matter of fact, 2 weeks ago I laid a pallet(185 chunks) of sod in my front yard to improve the looks of it. Then of course we go 2 consecutive weeks without a drop of rain here.
Am not looking forward to the water bill this month at all. But it will be worth it in the long run. Nothing better than a nicely manicured yard with beautiful green grass to look out on and admire.

 

[comquat1]

I also do all of my own yardwork, however I do my best to make my lawn as low maintenance as possible. My yard isn't that big, but I still went out and bought a riding mower this year just so that I could mow it in half the time. I like having a good looking yard as much as the next guy, but I hate putting in hours every weekend to maintain it. I'd rather be washing my nsx!

 

[steveny]

I do all my own yard work because anyone who I have ever paid to do it does a half-assed job. I am always working in the yard It is my passion. I spread chemicals to keep the yard looking as good as the golf course across the road. I have loads of flower beds and weed them all the time.
Last year I terraced off the yard in 3 sections with huge granite wall. My brother-in-law and myself did all the work. He owns a backhoe and bull dozer. As for the granite blocks there where 7 tractor trailer loads ~7500 blocks each weighing ~100 pounds and we moved and set them all by hand. UG! I will never do it again, although I save 35k in labor doing it myself.

 

[heySkippy]

Oh yeah, and we're deep in "twice a week" season now where if you wait a whole week between mowings, you've waited too long. I'm oldweakandpathetic and figure I need the exercise so I get out there and push my mower around and fire up the weed whip and pull the grass out of my planting beds and so on. I bitch about it but I really*do enjoy it.

When I'm done I like nothing better than to hose myself off real quick and then fall in the pool and float around for 15 or 30 minutes cooling off!

Oh, and the iPod. Wouldn't be the same without the iPod and some good full sized headphones.

 

[mikec]

I tried neighborhood kid.. (broke my equipment).

I won't afford a professional service.. (too cheap).

I mow three acres.

I used to use a cub cadet tractor with 60" mower. Best thing I did was trade it for an eXmark commercial mower. Cut the job down from 2 hours to 45 minutes.

The eXmark does about 2.5 acres.
A toro walk behind does about .5 around the house where I bag it.
Doing the lawn usualy takes about 2.5 hours a week.

I also wash and detail my own cars. Not that I'm that cheap, but no one will do as good a job as I do, and I genuinly love doing it.

 

[Da Hapa]

I do not do my own yardwork and haven't in a long time.

For one, I don't enjoy it. For two, my math tells me that my time is far more valuable to me than what I pay the gardener to come once a week ($80/month). He does good work, he's reliable, and I can spend my weekends doing what I want to do.

Am I lazy? Perhaps, but I honestly feel my time is too valuable to monkey around with mowing, edging, weeding, etc.

 

[peiserg]

i met an old dude today (85 yo) who was doing his own work...till he fell 16 feet off his ladder trimming his palm fronds, broke his neck and leg. We fixed his leg today. I think he'll hire someone from now on.

 

[Tom239]

Average rainfall here is less than 5" per year.
Lots of people in my neighborhood leave much
of the yard alone; sagebrush looks nice and
has a great scent. I do all the work that my
yard needs--which is to say, not very much.

 

[Cairo94507]

Sorry guys, here is where we part ways - I have had gardeners for the past 20 years and love it. Place looks nice, and the most important part.....it allows me to have some free time to relax; well worth the $135 per month.

 

[queenlives]

my wife and i take care of our 17 fruit trees, *many* plants/shrubs, 2 ponds and accompanying lawns. we could hire the same crew the rest of our neighbors use but, truth be told, we enjoy the work and in turn, really appreciate what comes from our yards. after taking our pick of the fruit and using in our jams, jellies and liquers we make for friends and family, we donate to the remaining fruit to homeless shelters... most years we donate ~1,500 lbs of fruit.

rather than viewing it as cutting into our free time, we simply view it as another use of our free time.

hal
(btw, i've lived in tampa <not far from bodypainter> and have had to cut st. augustine grass 2x a week during the summer... if i would have had the $'s back then, there would have been a paid maint crew in my life

 

[steveny]

Sorry guys, here is where we part ways - I have had gardeners for the past 20 years and love it. Place looks nice, and the most important part.....it allows me to have some free time to relax; well worth the $135 per month.

I do not do my own yardwork and haven't in a long time.

For one, I don't enjoy it. For two, my math tells me that my time is far more valuable to me than what I pay the gardener to come once a week ($80/month). He does good work, he's reliable, and I can spend my weekends doing what I want to do.

Am I lazy? Perhaps, but I honestly feel my time is too valuable to monkey around with mowing, edging, weeding, etc.

The joys of living in California where cheap labor is everywhere. Around here you wont get a landscaper for less than 35 bucks an hour and half the time the guy won't even show up. ...and you have to just deal with it because there aren't 50 other people waiting to take his place.

 

[NsXMas]

i met an old dude today (85 yo) who was doing his own work...till he fell 16 feet off his ladder trimming his palm fronds, broke his neck and leg. We fixed his leg today. I think he'll hire someone from now on.

Wow. Another professional tree trimmer died yesterday while hoisted up on a palm tree trying to cut the leaves. Somehow the brach fell on him as he was looking up, snapped his nech or something.

I would love to have a gardener do my yard, but I've had such poor response from gardeners that I've given up. I called a dozen (no kidding) gardeners last year, and two called me back after 3 or 4 calls / messages.

One promised to show up, never did. The other one showed up one time and did a great job. I called that gardener again a month later, and got a response 6 weeks later.

I finally found a decent gardener, but he wouldn't trim the leaves on my big tall tree. I could trim my bushes very easily, but needed a gardener to trim my trees, especially the tall branches. After the gardener decided to serve other customers, I said to hell with it and started doing my own yard work.

Quality yardwork service is hard to find in AZ. In Cali I could call two gardeners and they both would show up in an hour and be competing for my business. In AZ I can't pay a gardener to show up and do the job I want consistently.

 

[NeoNSX]

Only takes me a couple of minutes to mow the lawns (grass).

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Seriously though, working the yard is good exercise and de-stresser. And like 92NSX pointed out, it gives a sense of accomplishment when it's finally (and i can go do something more fun )

 

[mickeylex]

The previous owner of our house used to do the yard work before we bought the house. Since he was 91 years old, I figured I could do the yard work too (being less than 1/3 his age at the time). So, on I went, doing my own yardwork for the last four years - that was until two weeks ago.

We hired a landscape company to start doing our yard. We have lots of lawn and bushes, trees, flowers, etc. I'm not doing my own yard work again. The additional free time my wife and I got back is well worth the money ($90/mo for once per week mowing, edge, trim bushes, fertilize, kill weeds, etc). I wish I would have done it sooner. Now, Sunday afternoons are for movies instead of mowing :smile:

 

[druby]

I do my own yard work. My house is on about 7/10 acre and between the house and pool I can get what grass is left with my riding John Deere in less than 40 minutes. Edge about once every two weeks add another 15 minutes. Not to bad, I work on my tan and sweat of a few pounds at the same time. :biggrin:

 

[CKS Papa]

My wife would not let me touch our yard. I did do my own yard work on the previous house and took me a whole day on a weekend. The current house has twice the yard work and would probably take me the whole weekend to do a good job. Our gardeners (3 or 4 of them) would do the job in less than an hour. We pay $100/month and I am glad that my wife will not let me mess up our yard.

 

[zahntech]

I just finished building my yard :stone retianing wall,backfill,topsoil,sod,1200sqft deck,playset,45 misc shurbs,33 arbivida trees,fence,crushed rock paths.....man I'm getting tired just thinking about it....my wife didn't help at all cuz she is worthless at such things...man I need a beer....................

 

[nsxlover]

I would much rather ride my motorcycle or enjoy my pool than do yard work. I have just over an acre and at $40 to have it cut once a week is worth it to me. It used to take me about 1.5 hours, that is $25/hr to relax and enjoy the small amount of free time I get is worth it to me.