After years of living in a shoebox condo unit, moving in your dream house with a nice view of a garden is an unforgettable life milestone. You’ll be thrilled to finally have an abundance of space and a chance to discover whether or not you have a green thumb. You can start planning for a vegetable garden or flowerbeds for prize-winning blooms. You can entertain the idea of a glasshouse for tropical plants or fruit-bearing trees. It can even make you believe you can do everything all on your own.
Hold your horses. With more space comes more responsibilities. With more amenities comes more expenses. Your plot of land can be hilly, large, and take a lot of work to maintain. Caring for a small yard can be a different experience. Often, it requires less effort than taking care of hectares of manicured space in an exclusive subdivision a few minutes away from the city center. Whether you have a courtyard with stunning Ecuadorian roses as a part of your house or your office headquarters have an exclusive park for employees, landscape maintenance and yard work can take up a lot of time and resources. So before searching for “yard workers for hire near me”, look at this article and it can help you make an efficient decision whether to hire yard workers or not.
Top reasons to hire professionals for landscaping and lawn services:
Landscape maintenance is more than just watering the plants, pruning, trimming hedges and yard cleanup. It can be a big responsibility. It can be overwhelming if you have a spacious lawn and live in a place were maintaining it by yourself is unheard of. Here are top reasons people have for hiring service providers:
- Achieve the look you want for your lawn.
If you feel that a certain aesthetic would elevate the overall look of your residential space or is essential to make a name for your business, it is advisable to rely on the knowledge and expertise of professionals. A trial-and-error method can be time-consuming and pointless if you will not be able to do the labor necessary in the long run.
- Time saver and cost-efficient
For busy people who are juggling a lot of personal and professional roles, chances are, there is no available time to regularly maintain the house or office landscape. You cannot prioritize yard work if you are always on the go and in between flights. You can still outsource much needed labor without breaking the bank. It does not need to be an unaffordable luxury.
- Varying plant care needs depending on climate.
If you are a budding horticulturist and gardening enthusiast, you might find joy in owning exotic and uncommon plants in your yard or in curating certain flowers in your garden. These will need expert attention especially if you opt for expensive plants not typically found in your region. Climate and temperature changes can have a drastic effect on plants.
- Readily available lawn equipment
Would you rather buy pricey equipment you will use only a handful of times a year? Do you want to invest in bulky gadgets that are complicated and difficult to use? Is your lawn mower under repair and fall is just around the corner? If you are not really keen on making your front yard look world class and you just want basic maintenance, hiring others to trim bushes is often more cost-effective.
- Going on a long vacation
Overgrown gardens and unkempt yards are telltale signs that the space has been unoccupied for quite some time. Reduce the risks of burglary by booking a regular yard cleanup service.
If you find yourself relating to any of the reasons mentioned above, our recommendation is to start searching for “yard workers for hire near me” as soon as possible so you can plan strategically and weigh in on the costs. It is always best to know what to expect especially if you think you need to come up with a year-long plan. On the average, landscape workers often charge per hour for yard work services. Rates will vary depending on location, complexity of work to be done and how big your space is.
How much do most lawn mowing companies charge?
Before committing to a service provider, you need to identify the cost and whether your budget can accommodate high end services or is limited to low end services. Asking around for quotations can help you identify which landscaping companies can offer you the best value for your money. Ask for their hourly rate and specific expertise, if any.
You also need to identify the number of employees and lawn care workers you will hire. There is nothing more frustrating than finding out you do not have enough hands to complete the project or carry out your design. The timeline for the activities will depend on the season when you want to start your maintenance project. Another consideration is the services you must avail of and whether basic yard cleanup will suffice.
Mowing typically costs $30 – $70 per hour or $50 – $190 total per service. Usually, it costs between $50 and $190 for an average of $120. The average cost per square foot for basic care (which typically includes mowing and trimming the edges of a lawn) is between $0.01 and $0.06, with the average lawn care service costing between $30 and $70 per hour.
Remember though that the cost of services can still vary depending on the company you hire, the size of your space, and the type of services you need. You can also try to negotiate a customized package or an all-in-one deal with service providers. Perhaps you have other household maintenance needs they can help with like moving and relocation or house renovation and painting.
It is always best to get an on-site estimate from a professional for accurate pricing.
Other factors you need to think of:
- Types of grass
You have to be familiar with what grows in your lawn or garden because different variants grow at different rates. This detail can affect your budget. Trimming and cutting Bermudagrass and St. Augustine grass can shoot up cost to $280 to $400.
- Frequency of mowing
Do you need to frequently hire for yard work and cleanup? Availing a package plan might be more economical in the long run especially if you need the services often.
- Related services
Your budget will also change if you want to avail of the following related services:
- Leaf removal
- Aeration
- Dethatching
- Seeding
- Hydroseeding
- Fertilization
- Weed control.
- Pest control
What month should you not mow your lawn?
It depends on the type of grass and where you live. The right time to stop mowing is when it stops growing. You may still need to run the mower to mulch leaves until as late as December.
Some follow No Mow May. With summer a few days away, dormant grass starts to shoot up in earnest and mowing traditionally gets under way. Others stop mowing in November and some will stop in December.
Gardeners and gardening enthusiasts advise not continuing if frost is due within 24 hours of mowing. Be careful with turns during winter as this can-do damage.
You can check the factors below to know when it’s time to put the mower in storage and advise the workers to come back another time.
- Soil Temperature
Grass grows swifter in autumn but cool-season variants won’t go dormant until the soil temperature reaches 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Warm-season variants will go dormant closer to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also check soil temperatures online. Generally, the cutoff point comes when temperatures drop below 50°F during the day. Remember that the soil should be firm and not soft.
- Many leaves are falling
Look out for signs of season change. When half the leaves have fallen and gathered under the trees, grass growth has slowed significantly.
- Frost
This is the best indicator of when grass is done growing and you can stop cutting. Although you also must determine if you have cool-season variants which might continue growing. It’s always best to keep an eye on your lawn to know the best approach.
Is lawn mowing worth the money?
Your lawn reflects you, not unlike the way you dress or the way you carry yourself in public. While one has to be invited inside your house to see your tastes in interiors and furnishings, it is the first thing that greets neighbors, guests or even random people passing by your property.
When you are on a budget, it would be easy to forego what is usually thought of as an aesthetic part of home maintenance and sometimes, as an activity done to keep up with the Joneses. However, we cannot ignore the fact that your lawn can say a lot about you. If it is well-kept, it can communicate how you can stay on top of things and manage your household no matter how many roles you need to juggle or how jampacked your days are. A patchy lawn can be mistaken for a disorganized house where the owner does not care much about appearances nor the welfare of the community. It can be especially stressful if your neighborhood puts a premium on making sure their picture is perfect and uniform.
It can be good for your personal peace knowing everything is in tip top shape and your family can enjoy breakfast overlooking this orderly sea of green. In addition to this, a well-maintained lawn is also good for the environment. It helps reduce noise, giving your home a peaceful atmosphere and improves the air quality near your home by filtering out carbon dioxide and pollutants that travel with the wind.
So, have that lawn in shape and check out the Community Labor Partnership by calling (888) 314-5128.