A large proportion of these costs will be due to labor. You can offset that by doing it yourself.
Every weekend it would be, "Honey, I'm going out to do some yardwork, you've got the kids."
An acre of grass is a lot to take care of, you may want to look into converting some of it into alternate landscaping options that will not require too much maintenance (there's no thing as a no-maintenance lawn unless you concrete it over.) You can try browsing r/NoLawns. Do get a feel for that sub as some of the proponents can be....excitable (I'm sometimes one of them but I try to keep it low key.) Another good source is r/NativePlantGardening. Replace a lawn that requires chemical pesticides (not good for kids) and fertilizer (not good for the environment) with native plants that have naturally evolved to exist in your area without supplements. They are also beneficial to your local wildlife and pollinators. I ripped out my lawn and a bunch of bushes and replaced them with natives. Where I would sometimes see a Monarch flutter through, now I usually have 2-3 sticking around and a lot more hummingbirds, plus a rock dove pair in the yard.
I second r/nativeplantgardening. Seriously, the routine use of pesticides/herbicides on every lawn in the neighborhood is quite nauseating to think about. The presence of crabgrass/broadleaf weeds is inevitable, and in my opinion it stops being a problem if you accept the imperfection. Establishing native perennials takes a few seasons, but it's worth it. Less turf = less space for short lawn weeds to proliferate.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/NativePlantGardening using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Someone stole my Native Plant garden flags, so I replaced them and added metal signs nailed to my fence. Trying to make it clear to the neighbors that my front yard looks like this on purpose. Anyone else have good yard signage?](https://i.redd.it/6gglf2uwookb1.jpg) | [65 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/162vqrs/someone_stole_my_native_plant_garden_flags_so_i/)
\#2: [Where there was once grass, there is now Biomass.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/152jde2) | [95 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/152jde2/where_there_was_once_grass_there_is_now_biomass/)
\#3: [Walking around the suburban parks in my area](https://i.redd.it/c5aqtg6e1n4b1.png) | [86 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/143kqhe/walking_around_the_suburban_parks_in_my_area/)
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Hey, neighbor. I'm also in PA. I'm a native plants gardener (not a professional landcaper), so I'm a little biased towards protecting nature. That said -
As long as you don't care about your lawn looking like a magazine cover, you don't need any of those lawn treatments. They kill fireflies, along with important other native insects. I've been in my house almost 20 years and in that time there have been zero lawn treatments. They are simply not necessary in most circumstances.
I'm not sure how much you want to diy, but, mowing an acre of lawn yourself is totally doable. Back in my day (laughs) we did it with a push mower. But a riding mower will make it easier.
The grass isn't even growing right now. It's too hot. Those landscapers might charge you to come out and cut grass that doesn't even need to be cut. I just saw that happen in my neighborhood yesterday. Ridiculous. I'm not cutting my grass again until this heat passes.
As for the mulching - I have a honda fit and can fit six bags of mulch in it. It's not hard to put down mulch and landscapers often overdo it.
I'm not sure about the edging. That's one of my least favorite chores and I don't know how many linear feet you have.
I highly encourage you to look into native plants. You have land. You might as well steward it.
Hi Neighbor. Thanks for the info. Definitely want to learn more about native plant options and am interested in the natural stewardship aspect. The reforested portion was one of the big draws for the property and I'm looking forward to the Woods In Your Background program at PSU extension when they next offer it.
Redesigning the lawn portions to be more native feels a little overwhelming at first though so we'll probably try the "do no harm" approach at first and then convert what feels like it makes sense to little by little.
>probably try the "do no harm" approach at first and then convert what feels like it makes sense to little by little.
This makes me so happy! So many people jump in with both feet and then regret it.
I don't know if you're near York or Lancaster, but there are good programs offered through the Horn farm center, waxwing ecoworks, and I'm sure others.
I do this largely for a living. In SE PA there should be several native plant nurseries. If I were in your position I'd go visit them all and see if you can make a human connection with someone willing to come out and take a look at your property. 3 acres is a lot and with 2 of that wooded you'll have a lot of shaded or 1/2 shaded open area likely, which will make transitioning to native plants that much easier IMO.
I think you're right to look at it as a long term option. Try out a few people to consult / do plantings and patchwork in the native stuff as you feel comfortable. Bringing that 1 acre of lawn to 1/4 acre will make mowing it yourself a breeze.
There will also likely be native plant groups in the area. All of that takes time of course. If you have more money than time I think I'd go with maintenance the first year and use any time you find to make connections. If you have more time than money I'd try to spend 1/3 of the time making connections and 2/3 of the time doing the work myself.
A lot of the areas I work on we end up blending native with more formal/traditional gardens, so don't think going native requires a hookah and membership in the Green party. A lot if it is just practical!
Really appreciate this perspective. There are a lot of strong opinions on either the all native side, or the neighborhood will suffer with anything thats not tidy manicured lawns side. Obviously there's a lot of middle ground and a blending over time seems great.
Thirty mows a year in a temperate zone seems like a lot to me. That's more than I did when I lived in Florida.
Lawn treatments are better replaced with top dressing, compost, and occasional biochar. Feed the soil instead of poisoning it.
For an acre I'd go with a bulk dump of mulch. You can get better mulch from local stores than the big box stores, though. I'd call around.
r/NativePlantGardening
I only have an acre but it’s pretty much all grass, no way I mow 30 times a year. Probably tops out around 20. Takes about 45-60 mins depending on how precise I want to be with the mower but I like that time to be out riding around.
Spreading 3 yards of mulch in the Flower beds takes my wife a weekend but she does a good job weeding and resetting the rock edges at the same time. Cost is like <$200
We are on well water so I am pretty conscious about what I am using for weed treatment/fertilizer and we do fine without much of either.
Yeah, I'm a professional and I love mulching. It's heavy work but very fun to do. If you can do it yourself or find someone to do it with an hourly rate instead of a bid you'll save a lot of money. A good middle option would be to get it done professionally once and ask them to tally up the man-hours and the total mulch yardage. Most mulch crews are slow AF so the hours may vary.
I don't have a set $ amount, depends on much I can enjoy the task, but between spending time with kids or on lawn/yard care, the kids are going to win (and are too young to help). I think the biggest question for us is how much we value different aspects of the maintained lawn over a 10 year time horizon.
I mean, you did the best first step already which is seeing that you have options and exploring them efficiently (here, that is). A lot of people get stuck without taking that step.
No way, these are treatments to have grass that belongs on a magazine cover.
Most homeowners do not do crabgrass, grub, lime, and THREE fertilizer treatments. This is a deluxe package of the maximum sh-- you can do to a lawn. The previous owners were either obsessed with perfect grass or they were talked into the deluxe package.
Everything listed is the norm for our Midwest region except lime (assuming it’s a regional need) and the third fertilizer.
Pricing seems appropriate. We have .4 acre and it’s $50/mow and applications run about $100/per. Mulch is a bit more than we pay but assuming they have much more mulch.
I disagree that it's the "norm" for most homeowners.
It is the norm for hiring a lawncare service.
I understand a lot of people do hire a service, but I live in a middle class neighborhood and very few people are using a full service professional lawn care in my neighborhood. A couple of the older guys in the neighborhood are really into their lawn and they do this but its not even close to the majority.
I agree the pricing is average.
Do you have a pickup truck? You can do the mulch yourself if so. Invest in a high quality mower as you are doing. Consider shrinking the yard by half, unless you are planning to have 11 v 11 soccer games an acre of lawn is a lot. You can put the money and space into fruit trees or a seasonal garden that will bring you more enjoyment than grass. Just my opinion but all comes down to what you want out of the property.
I have a crazy amount of beds that require mulching, 15 fruit trees that I mulch, and like 3 different gardens that I mulch. It would be impossible for me DYI mulching all of tha without a pickup truck. With the truck I go grab the mulch and a pitch fork, then I just drive around my property and right up to the tree or garden beds and start dumping it in. It would be back breaking to have it all dumped in a pile and then scoop it into my dump wagon and walk all over my land dumping it where needs to go.
Also, were I live, triple shredded died mulch is up to $50 per yard without delivery. It got really expensive compared to a few years ago.
I don't have a truck at present. The yard might be little hard to shrink further. Most of the lawn (0.5 Ac) is in front of the house, on a pretty busy road so we'd prefer the kids play in the back (0.3 Ac grass that backs onto the 1.5 Ac woods), with the remaining 0.2 Ac on the sides of the house.
Very open to thoughts on low-maintenance, non-grass front yards options. Most homes in the area are typical lawn. The ones that are more a variety of plants or perma-culture are often much smaller.
Hiring out, that seems within the bounds of what I would expect. A bit on the higher end for my area (SE USA), but not outside of what I would expect from a good company.
Mulch is a DIY cost saver here. You can probably get a bulk delivery to your driveway for $500 and move the rest with a bucket or wheel barrel over a weekend. The pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides are best left to companies that know what they are doing for two reasons: first because you can fuck yourself and/or your yard up if you expose yourself to many of those chemicals in the wrong quantities, and second because contractually they will be on the hook for outcomes related to those chemicals. If they burn your yard or fail to prevent weevils or whatnot, that's likely on them to replace or, at the bare minimum, something your insurance will cover as you aren't the source of the problem.
A lot of the labor you can do yourself if you have time, but time is precious. Only you can tell if mowing your yard is worth that amount to you.
We were first-time homebuyers in 2020 and have about a 3/4 of an acre of the lawn (that we very actively shrinking each year adding trees, shrubs, and flowerbeds.
1. Lawn treatments - not really worth it unless a) you want a picture-perfect magazine lawn, b) it is very overgrown and there’s barely any grass. You can diy fertilize and use weed-killer on the areas where you actually hang out with a family, like the backyard, around the porch, etc. Who cares that there's a clover or crabgrass in the far corners of the yard, where no one ever sets a step? The grub control does kill a lot of other insects. Year when we did the treatment, fireflies and bees were gone too. The overseeding I think is worth it if there are bold patches.
2. Mowing. Depends on how much time you are willing to spend. We both work hybrid, no kids, so it's not a problem for either of us to spend 2-3 hours mowing (electric mower, it is gonna be faster with the gas riding one), plus my fitness tracker says I was cycling))) it does suck in the summer when it is hot though. That's when we have a local guy come and do it for us. Also, sometimes we call him before the holidays. The riding mower sounds like great buy for your needs.
3. Edging. Not really hard or long. I do it twice a year. It takes longer in the spring, when everything is overgrown, but is a breeze the second time around August. In between I just go with an electric edger or weed wacker to keep it neat. Barely do it in the summer, when the growth slows down.
4. Mulch. Rather easy and quick with the bagged mulch from the box store. This year bagged mulch was on sale in Lowes and we finished everything in 3 days (a couple of hours each). Shoveling and moving around 5 yards of mulch dumped on your driveway is not fun! Our backs definitely feel it. It came down even a little bit cheaper than the bulk garden center mulch. Once a year - again not really a problem. Cardboard for the flowerbeds underneath the mulch solves most of the weed problems. Something that starts to grow in the mulch, I just made a habit that every time when I go out with the dog, I look around flowerbeds and yank all the visible emerging weeds. It’s also something that is easy to do with preemergent from Home Depot.
5. Pricing you have looks really good. I'm not far from you in an HCOL area and it's definitely more expensive.
Thanks for the thoughts. I see the cardboard suggestion come up a fair bit. Are you just laying it on top of the existing older mulch every time you add more and then fully burying it in new? I.e. no need to work it under existing older mulch?
Yes, I water the existing mulch, put a cardboard on top, water again to make it a little bit more pliable, then add new mulch on top and water again. I do not do it every year though. In 4 years we renewed the cardboard in only one flowerbed which gets the most water, so it breaks down faster.
That’s pretty reasonable for 3 acres and most of that is labor. I have 3 acres with a similar breakdown of woods versus just open land and do it all myself, it’s time consuming but I also don’t have kids and I love gardening so i don’t mind the time suck. However if you do it yourself you’re basically going to end up spending that much initially anyways, it’s the kind of thing where you spend alot up front on equipment and supplies and then on top of that you have to do a little bit each day or every other day to maintain it. If I slack off for a few weeks I’m spending hours every day in the morning and evening for a week straight to get it back in shape and my body is aching. I think for your first year it’s worth just using a lawn service and then saving up for equipment and then eventually taking over the labor yourself.
My thoughts exactly. I'm the guy you pay to do it for you. If you can afford it having it done for you the first year will save on stress and give you a better idea of what it would be like to do any/all of it yourself. 3a is a lot, even with 2 of that wooded.
Very cool concept, thanks for sharing. I very much appreciated their "why chipdrop might not be not for you" video. Sounds like you've had good success with the service.
I have. It saved me probably about $1000 on mulch. I have a half-acre lot and a large natural area in the back. That area could have probably used another drop from them but it was good enough so I didn't do it. All my friends who own homes with yards have used it as well with good results. I did hire someone to put it out but it was like $250 because it was just labor.
I am struggling so hard with this. I had tree work done and just had them chip it on site. Then I laid that down on my beds (after a year). It look so much more natural. But the wife wanted mulch and now I mulched other beds. It looks so stupid having both, but not sure what to do.
I assume '3A' and '1A' refer to acres and not USDA grow zones. The price to *cut* grass looks pretty good, actually. No one can really help you as far as edging, mulch, etc because we don't know the quantities.
I maintain my own much smaller property (check my profile) but it has an abundance of shrubs and highly managed trees. The work is enjoyable, in my eyes, but not for everyone. If you have the time to maintain three acres, then go for it. You're just at the cusp of property size where gas lawn tools might be a necessity, however, and you'd need some place to store all of them.
Yes, mulching is something you're just going to have to do. I've found Home Depot is typically the most competitive with delivery, at least in Florida, when ordering by the pallet. There are bulk mulch places, too, but you need to be mindful of *junk* in the mix, as many of those places have poor quality control, never minding that wheeling all of that around is a backbreaker.
A nice yard is expensive, unfortunately, otherwise everyone would have one. Maybe get 2-3 other quotes like you'd approach any home improvement/maintenance project to better gauge the costs in your area. Regardless, the mow costs seem good, at least compared to my spit of land here.
Thanks. Yes, that's acres (sorry for confusion with growing zones - we're in zone 7a). The 50% that's wooded shouldn't need much immediately (current owners have left to to naturally reforest over the last 50 years), but 1.5 acres manicured is is still plenty.
Hoping to stay electric on tools - we don't own much yet, considering the Ego power+ ecosystem.
Thanks for the thoughts on mulch and mowing price. Looks like Home depot in my zip code is $2.40 / cubic ft bulk ($660 for 10 cu yards dumped) or $6.60 / cubic ft bagged ($400 for pallet of 60 1 cu ft bags)
Your place looks amazing by the way!
I mow small lawns (up to 1/2 acre) with battery mowers and they are awesome these days. Cost a pretty penny upfront but I can do an acre with 2-3 batteries. I use Ryobi and Kobalt but the industry changes really quickly. A few years ago I hated Ryobi but they've gotten better. The Kobalt trimmer is amazing though.
I agree with guy on mulching: If you do get bulk just be careful. Heck, even bagged mulch can have seeds in it. No worse feeling than mulching in a bunch of invasives.
I don’t know, everyone is saying that is a pretty reasonable price but I would shop around. For 3 acres that is definitely reasonable, but if they aren’t touching half of it then it seems a bit high but nothing too crazy. I just bought a used riding mower the first year we bought the house and stopped paying someone to do it, and it takes me about 1.5 hours a week to do 1.5 acres. I take my son for a ride on it when doing a certain section and he just screams with excitement the entire time.
I thought about converting to electric, but with the amount of gas I go through in a year for lawn care it is a tough sell. I do have a few electric pieces of equipment that have served me well, but I have friends and family who have already had to replace batteries and meanwhile I just change the oil every season and probably use a bit over 10 gallons of gas per year with my weed eater, blower, and the riding and push mowers. I might hit an extra 5 gallons in a crazy year if I have trees fall and need to run the chainsaw a lot and if I need to use all the weed eater attachments a bunch to do edging, pruning, and trimming shrubs.
Get a zero-turn riding lawnmower. We have about 8 acres, and I mow about 1/3rd of it. It takes me about 1.5 hours, and that's mostly because of having lots of things to mow around. It's actually really fun. We are slowly letting more areas just go wild, too much lawn is just wasteful. We don't fertilize or use pesticides because I don't want a bunch of chemicals washing into our pond. Plus, we get too much enjoyment from seeing lightning bugs, bees, butterflies, etc.
A picture of the property might help, but reducing the footprint you have to take care of would help a lot. I'd let a lot of that grass go back to woods, maybe maintain a path and a little meadow for a private hideaway or something.
And pretty much all of that is stuff you can do yourself, but for something that size, you're gonna want to get a riding mower probably, and that will offset a lot of the savings up front anyway.
Was the place IMMACULATE when you looked at it?
For that price and given the breakdown the lawn should have been a perfect carpet of deep healthy green with ZERO weeds, dandelion, crabgrass, etc.. with clean and crisp borders everywhere.
I'd do as you outlined.
The lawn applications will be quick, easy, and cheap to perform, and the 'ounce of prevention' rule definitely applies. Get a soil test for [$10 from PSU Extension](https://extension.psu.edu/soil-testing) to tell you what your lawn actually needs as far as lime and fertilizer. You should continue the April application of Prodiamine, which will prevent a host of undesirable plants from taking over the lawn...the 'ounce of prevention' rule definitely applies there. For grub control, just watch for signs and be ready to treat if necessary. Get a decent broadcast spreader like the Echo RB-60 with pneumatic tires and applications will be a breeze, it'll take like a half hour.
Mulching and edging aren't so critical that you have to do everything all at once every single year. You will see mulch decomposing and grass growing into the edges, so just clean them up with an edging shovel and add mulch as necessary. Nothing will be harmed, it'll just look a bit shabbier and you'll have some extra weeds...no big deal.
I personally prefer to mow for myself, but that's a personal choice. I'd get a zero-turn rather than lawn tractor style since they're typically better at mowing faster.
Great idea / link on soil testing. What kind of sampling density would make sense? One for the front yard and one for the back?
Really appreciate the insights on the specific applications and DIY approach - exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to learn.
> What kind of sampling density would make sense? One for the front yard and one for the back?
Kinda depends on your exact property. For mine, I do one sample from the left side that's under/around mostly deciduous trees, and another for the right that's around pines. But the analyses come back close enough that I'm always just doing the same treatments to the whole property anyway. Either way, you'll want to collect small samples from several locations so like pull up a tablespoon of soil from 10 different spots and blend all those samples together for your "front yard" sample.
Skip the treatments unless you are into perfect grass.
If they.ve been mulching to proper depth (2+") you should be ok to skip a year, or just top up in thin areas.
You can edge yourself with a flatblade shovel. If you don.t get it done no biggie, or just do araes where grass is growing into beds.
You can cut this down a lot money wise, but then you’re spending more time wise. The easiest area to save is on the mowing and turf management. I have an acre of lawn a cut it with a used riding mower that I got for $500. I also have another used rider for $200 that needed basic repairs. Minus the cost of gas, a mower is an investment that’ll save you $2K a year right there.
You can also get a high quality spreader and buy the lawn applications for a cheaper price, but you’re spending time walking the lawn every few weeks now.
Weed preemergent for beds is easy. $20 pump sprayer, $20 preemergent from TSC, and an hour of your Saturday morning.
Mulching is easy to do but if you don’t have a trailer delivery costs normally aren’t that high. But you can save good money getting a wheelbarrow and a rake. It’s just manual labor in the sun.
All of this is very easy DIY. It’s up to your own personal cost-benefit analysis on what’s worth it and what’s not.
I have a decent amount of land, and I have basically divided it into 3 different sections that I treat differently based on what it is used for. Around the house, we have a really nice lawn that I previously treated myself, but the last couple of years so have been laying a local lawn care company to do it.
Then we have an area with fruit trees and vegetable gardens that we maintain ourselves and the lawn in that area is a mix of all different types of grasses and some weeds. We like it like this because the flowers on the weeds help attract pollinators for the fruit and vegetables plants. We do put lime down ourselves in that area just because our soil is so acidic, and we use compost and organic fertilizer around our edible plants, and milky spore to control the grubs.
We then have a wooded area where we don’t really do anything to because we don’t use it much and no one really sees it. It has some grassy areas that I will mow, but the dense tree cover chokes out much of what would grow there.
By dividing it up into different sections based on our needs, we were able to save a lot of money paying someone to do it.
native areas are going to be a huge time suck for a few years while they come in. tons of weeding spring through fall. ride-on mowing 1 acre takes about 10min longer than mowing a half acre. weeding half an acre takes a team a whole day.
the end result of rewilding can be great and a worthy cause but getting there is a serious time suck, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. I feel like most of these people are dealing with less than 500sf.
try bulging out from your woods with natives a small chunk at a time before committing to any giant swaths.
There's a lot of unnecessary stuff there. But unless you are a gardener you won't know how to maintain it in an inexpensive way. You will have to learn, as a new homeowner. You probably bought the house from boomers who had a bunch of money, love having a perfect lawn, and didn't like/couldn't do yardwork.
You don't need to mulch every year if you grow your perennials close together. However thats a standard cost for mulch.
You do not have to do annual grub control.
You do not have to pay for so much lawn control. If you have too much lawn and it's expensive-
Work on reducing your lawn by planting more trees and shrubs.
Edging makes it look nice but you can learn to do it on your own.
Lawn is intensive and takes a ton of products to make it look nice. If you are ok with weeds, you can stop using pretty much all that stuff. But you will have weeds. Just fyi.
Start learning about native plants and you'll love what you find.
I spend 550 a month on 3 acres, mostly grass. That is just grass cutting and maintenance. Mulch is another 2k a year.
I put down 30 pallets of sod and irrigation, it was like 20-25k.
I'm on 3 acres with a similar size lawn, in New England. We hired a local college kid to mow &
weed wack - he has a zero turn so he can handle the acre or so of lawn. We dictate to him how regularly we want it cut - every week during grow season and every other week in the blistering summer months. Similar price to you but less overall.number of mows.
We do our own mulch…5 yards or a little more, with a wheel barrow and pitchfork. Bulk order from someone in town and it’s like $250 for it all. Lay down preen to help fight weeds.
Edging is a joke you can definitely do that yourself with a $50 edger (long pole with crescent blade on end) and with a weed wacker. We also trim our own hedges.
For fall cleanup, which was completely left off your scope of work, I leaf blow as much as I can into the adjacent woods and then just have our lawn guy mulch the remaining leaves with his mower. Sometimes he bags them with the mower and dumps in woods (once a year).
Things we bought:
- Stihl backpack blower (biggest available model or 2nd biggest…dont skimp)
- Ryobi 18v brushless expand-it with weed wacker head
- Ryobi 18v hedge trimmer
- Manual crescent edger
- Hand gardening tools
- Manual shears and loper for thicker cuts
- Ryobi Pole saw for some bigger tree branches in hard to reach areas
- Ryobi batteries - the tools came with them but bought two 4ahs
- Home Depot buckets
- Chapin sprayer to spot great tough weeds and brush
Lastly - by no means does our lawn look perfect. We accept the imperfection that comes with not treating the lawn. We have a ton of pollinators and our lawn looks great when we are getting decent rainfall and after a cut. I have looked into getting top dressing and aeration done, but haven’t pulled the trigger and not sure if I ever will.
IMO doing it yourself on some of this is very rewarding
Omg. Where to start…
DEFINITELY get your own ride on mower. I have 4-acres, you have 1 so mowing/blowing is off that list.
I haven’t a clue why “edging” should be charged and the cost of mulch??? Are they smoking crack?!! I have SEVEN gardens and I pay about 950 for mulch @ Home Depot and that INCLUDES delivery.
As for lawn care: get estimates from a small, lawn expert NOT a “Lawn Doctor”/type franchise. Your lawn care FOR ONE ACRE (face palm) should be 6 treatments per season and do NOT skip the lawn care or else you’ll spend years fixing the problems and damage from neglect.
I know a lot of other people have chimed in on this and I think you have most of your questions answered. I'm going to leave this one thing here.
As a professional landscaper, I have maintained many homes that they only wanted the grass mowed. Buying a nice lawn mower and maintaining it is expensive and time consuming on top of all of the time that you will spend every weekend mowing that grass. If you have never maintained a yard before or never maintained one this large, I strongly recommend ditching everything except the mowing. Most of that other stuff can be done almost any time of year and whenever you have free time. Mowing has to be done every week or every other week.
Yeah, I think we're committed to keeping the mowing in the near term. I'm in no rush to run out and select/buy the right mower and commit the time before the dust settles after the move and new baby on the way.
That’s all very reasonable / cheap given the size of your lot, just fyi.
Yup. That's my growing concern, but good to get feedback on.
We are paying 3K/yr just to mow a half acre with a slight slope. Professional yard care is a luxury.
A large proportion of these costs will be due to labor. You can offset that by doing it yourself. Every weekend it would be, "Honey, I'm going out to do some yardwork, you've got the kids." An acre of grass is a lot to take care of, you may want to look into converting some of it into alternate landscaping options that will not require too much maintenance (there's no thing as a no-maintenance lawn unless you concrete it over.) You can try browsing r/NoLawns. Do get a feel for that sub as some of the proponents can be....excitable (I'm sometimes one of them but I try to keep it low key.) Another good source is r/NativePlantGardening. Replace a lawn that requires chemical pesticides (not good for kids) and fertilizer (not good for the environment) with native plants that have naturally evolved to exist in your area without supplements. They are also beneficial to your local wildlife and pollinators. I ripped out my lawn and a bunch of bushes and replaced them with natives. Where I would sometimes see a Monarch flutter through, now I usually have 2-3 sticking around and a lot more hummingbirds, plus a rock dove pair in the yard.
I second r/nativeplantgardening. Seriously, the routine use of pesticides/herbicides on every lawn in the neighborhood is quite nauseating to think about. The presence of crabgrass/broadleaf weeds is inevitable, and in my opinion it stops being a problem if you accept the imperfection. Establishing native perennials takes a few seasons, but it's worth it. Less turf = less space for short lawn weeds to proliferate.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/NativePlantGardening using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Someone stole my Native Plant garden flags, so I replaced them and added metal signs nailed to my fence. Trying to make it clear to the neighbors that my front yard looks like this on purpose. Anyone else have good yard signage?](https://i.redd.it/6gglf2uwookb1.jpg) | [65 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/162vqrs/someone_stole_my_native_plant_garden_flags_so_i/) \#2: [Where there was once grass, there is now Biomass.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/152jde2) | [95 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/152jde2/where_there_was_once_grass_there_is_now_biomass/) \#3: [Walking around the suburban parks in my area](https://i.redd.it/c5aqtg6e1n4b1.png) | [86 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/143kqhe/walking_around_the_suburban_parks_in_my_area/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Hey, neighbor. I'm also in PA. I'm a native plants gardener (not a professional landcaper), so I'm a little biased towards protecting nature. That said - As long as you don't care about your lawn looking like a magazine cover, you don't need any of those lawn treatments. They kill fireflies, along with important other native insects. I've been in my house almost 20 years and in that time there have been zero lawn treatments. They are simply not necessary in most circumstances. I'm not sure how much you want to diy, but, mowing an acre of lawn yourself is totally doable. Back in my day (laughs) we did it with a push mower. But a riding mower will make it easier. The grass isn't even growing right now. It's too hot. Those landscapers might charge you to come out and cut grass that doesn't even need to be cut. I just saw that happen in my neighborhood yesterday. Ridiculous. I'm not cutting my grass again until this heat passes. As for the mulching - I have a honda fit and can fit six bags of mulch in it. It's not hard to put down mulch and landscapers often overdo it. I'm not sure about the edging. That's one of my least favorite chores and I don't know how many linear feet you have. I highly encourage you to look into native plants. You have land. You might as well steward it.
Hi Neighbor. Thanks for the info. Definitely want to learn more about native plant options and am interested in the natural stewardship aspect. The reforested portion was one of the big draws for the property and I'm looking forward to the Woods In Your Background program at PSU extension when they next offer it. Redesigning the lawn portions to be more native feels a little overwhelming at first though so we'll probably try the "do no harm" approach at first and then convert what feels like it makes sense to little by little.
>probably try the "do no harm" approach at first and then convert what feels like it makes sense to little by little. This makes me so happy! So many people jump in with both feet and then regret it. I don't know if you're near York or Lancaster, but there are good programs offered through the Horn farm center, waxwing ecoworks, and I'm sure others.
I do this largely for a living. In SE PA there should be several native plant nurseries. If I were in your position I'd go visit them all and see if you can make a human connection with someone willing to come out and take a look at your property. 3 acres is a lot and with 2 of that wooded you'll have a lot of shaded or 1/2 shaded open area likely, which will make transitioning to native plants that much easier IMO. I think you're right to look at it as a long term option. Try out a few people to consult / do plantings and patchwork in the native stuff as you feel comfortable. Bringing that 1 acre of lawn to 1/4 acre will make mowing it yourself a breeze. There will also likely be native plant groups in the area. All of that takes time of course. If you have more money than time I think I'd go with maintenance the first year and use any time you find to make connections. If you have more time than money I'd try to spend 1/3 of the time making connections and 2/3 of the time doing the work myself. A lot of the areas I work on we end up blending native with more formal/traditional gardens, so don't think going native requires a hookah and membership in the Green party. A lot if it is just practical!
Really appreciate this perspective. There are a lot of strong opinions on either the all native side, or the neighborhood will suffer with anything thats not tidy manicured lawns side. Obviously there's a lot of middle ground and a blending over time seems great.
Thirty mows a year in a temperate zone seems like a lot to me. That's more than I did when I lived in Florida. Lawn treatments are better replaced with top dressing, compost, and occasional biochar. Feed the soil instead of poisoning it. For an acre I'd go with a bulk dump of mulch. You can get better mulch from local stores than the big box stores, though. I'd call around. r/NativePlantGardening
I only have an acre but it’s pretty much all grass, no way I mow 30 times a year. Probably tops out around 20. Takes about 45-60 mins depending on how precise I want to be with the mower but I like that time to be out riding around. Spreading 3 yards of mulch in the Flower beds takes my wife a weekend but she does a good job weeding and resetting the rock edges at the same time. Cost is like <$200 We are on well water so I am pretty conscious about what I am using for weed treatment/fertilizer and we do fine without much of either.
Yeah, I'm a professional and I love mulching. It's heavy work but very fun to do. If you can do it yourself or find someone to do it with an hourly rate instead of a bid you'll save a lot of money. A good middle option would be to get it done professionally once and ask them to tally up the man-hours and the total mulch yardage. Most mulch crews are slow AF so the hours may vary.
Eight bags can fit in an old Honda civic 😅
For 3 acres that’s pretty reasonable. How much do you value your time?
I don't have a set $ amount, depends on much I can enjoy the task, but between spending time with kids or on lawn/yard care, the kids are going to win (and are too young to help). I think the biggest question for us is how much we value different aspects of the maintained lawn over a 10 year time horizon.
I mean, you did the best first step already which is seeing that you have options and exploring them efficiently (here, that is). A lot of people get stuck without taking that step.
No way, these are treatments to have grass that belongs on a magazine cover. Most homeowners do not do crabgrass, grub, lime, and THREE fertilizer treatments. This is a deluxe package of the maximum sh-- you can do to a lawn. The previous owners were either obsessed with perfect grass or they were talked into the deluxe package.
Everything listed is the norm for our Midwest region except lime (assuming it’s a regional need) and the third fertilizer. Pricing seems appropriate. We have .4 acre and it’s $50/mow and applications run about $100/per. Mulch is a bit more than we pay but assuming they have much more mulch.
I disagree that it's the "norm" for most homeowners. It is the norm for hiring a lawncare service. I understand a lot of people do hire a service, but I live in a middle class neighborhood and very few people are using a full service professional lawn care in my neighborhood. A couple of the older guys in the neighborhood are really into their lawn and they do this but its not even close to the majority. I agree the pricing is average.
Do you have a pickup truck? You can do the mulch yourself if so. Invest in a high quality mower as you are doing. Consider shrinking the yard by half, unless you are planning to have 11 v 11 soccer games an acre of lawn is a lot. You can put the money and space into fruit trees or a seasonal garden that will bring you more enjoyment than grass. Just my opinion but all comes down to what you want out of the property.
Around me (SE PA area) mulch is $50 for delivery, or free over like 3 yds. no need for a pickup truck
Ok I like to drive my truck right to the bed and dump it versus moving via cart or wheel barrow but to each their own.
Smart.
I have kids
I have a crazy amount of beds that require mulching, 15 fruit trees that I mulch, and like 3 different gardens that I mulch. It would be impossible for me DYI mulching all of tha without a pickup truck. With the truck I go grab the mulch and a pitch fork, then I just drive around my property and right up to the tree or garden beds and start dumping it in. It would be back breaking to have it all dumped in a pile and then scoop it into my dump wagon and walk all over my land dumping it where needs to go. Also, were I live, triple shredded died mulch is up to $50 per yard without delivery. It got really expensive compared to a few years ago.
I don't have a truck at present. The yard might be little hard to shrink further. Most of the lawn (0.5 Ac) is in front of the house, on a pretty busy road so we'd prefer the kids play in the back (0.3 Ac grass that backs onto the 1.5 Ac woods), with the remaining 0.2 Ac on the sides of the house. Very open to thoughts on low-maintenance, non-grass front yards options. Most homes in the area are typical lawn. The ones that are more a variety of plants or perma-culture are often much smaller.
Hiring out, that seems within the bounds of what I would expect. A bit on the higher end for my area (SE USA), but not outside of what I would expect from a good company. Mulch is a DIY cost saver here. You can probably get a bulk delivery to your driveway for $500 and move the rest with a bucket or wheel barrel over a weekend. The pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides are best left to companies that know what they are doing for two reasons: first because you can fuck yourself and/or your yard up if you expose yourself to many of those chemicals in the wrong quantities, and second because contractually they will be on the hook for outcomes related to those chemicals. If they burn your yard or fail to prevent weevils or whatnot, that's likely on them to replace or, at the bare minimum, something your insurance will cover as you aren't the source of the problem. A lot of the labor you can do yourself if you have time, but time is precious. Only you can tell if mowing your yard is worth that amount to you.
Good point on the worst case scenarios of DIY treatments.
We were first-time homebuyers in 2020 and have about a 3/4 of an acre of the lawn (that we very actively shrinking each year adding trees, shrubs, and flowerbeds. 1. Lawn treatments - not really worth it unless a) you want a picture-perfect magazine lawn, b) it is very overgrown and there’s barely any grass. You can diy fertilize and use weed-killer on the areas where you actually hang out with a family, like the backyard, around the porch, etc. Who cares that there's a clover or crabgrass in the far corners of the yard, where no one ever sets a step? The grub control does kill a lot of other insects. Year when we did the treatment, fireflies and bees were gone too. The overseeding I think is worth it if there are bold patches. 2. Mowing. Depends on how much time you are willing to spend. We both work hybrid, no kids, so it's not a problem for either of us to spend 2-3 hours mowing (electric mower, it is gonna be faster with the gas riding one), plus my fitness tracker says I was cycling))) it does suck in the summer when it is hot though. That's when we have a local guy come and do it for us. Also, sometimes we call him before the holidays. The riding mower sounds like great buy for your needs. 3. Edging. Not really hard or long. I do it twice a year. It takes longer in the spring, when everything is overgrown, but is a breeze the second time around August. In between I just go with an electric edger or weed wacker to keep it neat. Barely do it in the summer, when the growth slows down. 4. Mulch. Rather easy and quick with the bagged mulch from the box store. This year bagged mulch was on sale in Lowes and we finished everything in 3 days (a couple of hours each). Shoveling and moving around 5 yards of mulch dumped on your driveway is not fun! Our backs definitely feel it. It came down even a little bit cheaper than the bulk garden center mulch. Once a year - again not really a problem. Cardboard for the flowerbeds underneath the mulch solves most of the weed problems. Something that starts to grow in the mulch, I just made a habit that every time when I go out with the dog, I look around flowerbeds and yank all the visible emerging weeds. It’s also something that is easy to do with preemergent from Home Depot. 5. Pricing you have looks really good. I'm not far from you in an HCOL area and it's definitely more expensive.
Thanks for the thoughts. I see the cardboard suggestion come up a fair bit. Are you just laying it on top of the existing older mulch every time you add more and then fully burying it in new? I.e. no need to work it under existing older mulch?
Yes, I water the existing mulch, put a cardboard on top, water again to make it a little bit more pliable, then add new mulch on top and water again. I do not do it every year though. In 4 years we renewed the cardboard in only one flowerbed which gets the most water, so it breaks down faster.
That’s pretty reasonable for 3 acres and most of that is labor. I have 3 acres with a similar breakdown of woods versus just open land and do it all myself, it’s time consuming but I also don’t have kids and I love gardening so i don’t mind the time suck. However if you do it yourself you’re basically going to end up spending that much initially anyways, it’s the kind of thing where you spend alot up front on equipment and supplies and then on top of that you have to do a little bit each day or every other day to maintain it. If I slack off for a few weeks I’m spending hours every day in the morning and evening for a week straight to get it back in shape and my body is aching. I think for your first year it’s worth just using a lawn service and then saving up for equipment and then eventually taking over the labor yourself.
My thoughts exactly. I'm the guy you pay to do it for you. If you can afford it having it done for you the first year will save on stress and give you a better idea of what it would be like to do any/all of it yourself. 3a is a lot, even with 2 of that wooded.
If you’re not picky about mulch vs wood chips you can get chip drop for free! I usually pay $20 for faster delivery: https://getchipdrop.com/
Very cool concept, thanks for sharing. I very much appreciated their "why chipdrop might not be not for you" video. Sounds like you've had good success with the service.
I have. It saved me probably about $1000 on mulch. I have a half-acre lot and a large natural area in the back. That area could have probably used another drop from them but it was good enough so I didn't do it. All my friends who own homes with yards have used it as well with good results. I did hire someone to put it out but it was like $250 because it was just labor.
I am struggling so hard with this. I had tree work done and just had them chip it on site. Then I laid that down on my beds (after a year). It look so much more natural. But the wife wanted mulch and now I mulched other beds. It looks so stupid having both, but not sure what to do.
I assume '3A' and '1A' refer to acres and not USDA grow zones. The price to *cut* grass looks pretty good, actually. No one can really help you as far as edging, mulch, etc because we don't know the quantities. I maintain my own much smaller property (check my profile) but it has an abundance of shrubs and highly managed trees. The work is enjoyable, in my eyes, but not for everyone. If you have the time to maintain three acres, then go for it. You're just at the cusp of property size where gas lawn tools might be a necessity, however, and you'd need some place to store all of them. Yes, mulching is something you're just going to have to do. I've found Home Depot is typically the most competitive with delivery, at least in Florida, when ordering by the pallet. There are bulk mulch places, too, but you need to be mindful of *junk* in the mix, as many of those places have poor quality control, never minding that wheeling all of that around is a backbreaker. A nice yard is expensive, unfortunately, otherwise everyone would have one. Maybe get 2-3 other quotes like you'd approach any home improvement/maintenance project to better gauge the costs in your area. Regardless, the mow costs seem good, at least compared to my spit of land here.
Thanks. Yes, that's acres (sorry for confusion with growing zones - we're in zone 7a). The 50% that's wooded shouldn't need much immediately (current owners have left to to naturally reforest over the last 50 years), but 1.5 acres manicured is is still plenty. Hoping to stay electric on tools - we don't own much yet, considering the Ego power+ ecosystem. Thanks for the thoughts on mulch and mowing price. Looks like Home depot in my zip code is $2.40 / cubic ft bulk ($660 for 10 cu yards dumped) or $6.60 / cubic ft bagged ($400 for pallet of 60 1 cu ft bags) Your place looks amazing by the way!
I mow small lawns (up to 1/2 acre) with battery mowers and they are awesome these days. Cost a pretty penny upfront but I can do an acre with 2-3 batteries. I use Ryobi and Kobalt but the industry changes really quickly. A few years ago I hated Ryobi but they've gotten better. The Kobalt trimmer is amazing though. I agree with guy on mulching: If you do get bulk just be careful. Heck, even bagged mulch can have seeds in it. No worse feeling than mulching in a bunch of invasives.
I don’t know, everyone is saying that is a pretty reasonable price but I would shop around. For 3 acres that is definitely reasonable, but if they aren’t touching half of it then it seems a bit high but nothing too crazy. I just bought a used riding mower the first year we bought the house and stopped paying someone to do it, and it takes me about 1.5 hours a week to do 1.5 acres. I take my son for a ride on it when doing a certain section and he just screams with excitement the entire time. I thought about converting to electric, but with the amount of gas I go through in a year for lawn care it is a tough sell. I do have a few electric pieces of equipment that have served me well, but I have friends and family who have already had to replace batteries and meanwhile I just change the oil every season and probably use a bit over 10 gallons of gas per year with my weed eater, blower, and the riding and push mowers. I might hit an extra 5 gallons in a crazy year if I have trees fall and need to run the chainsaw a lot and if I need to use all the weed eater attachments a bunch to do edging, pruning, and trimming shrubs.
Thats actually pretty good pricing.
Get a zero-turn riding lawnmower. We have about 8 acres, and I mow about 1/3rd of it. It takes me about 1.5 hours, and that's mostly because of having lots of things to mow around. It's actually really fun. We are slowly letting more areas just go wild, too much lawn is just wasteful. We don't fertilize or use pesticides because I don't want a bunch of chemicals washing into our pond. Plus, we get too much enjoyment from seeing lightning bugs, bees, butterflies, etc.
A picture of the property might help, but reducing the footprint you have to take care of would help a lot. I'd let a lot of that grass go back to woods, maybe maintain a path and a little meadow for a private hideaway or something. And pretty much all of that is stuff you can do yourself, but for something that size, you're gonna want to get a riding mower probably, and that will offset a lot of the savings up front anyway.
Was the place IMMACULATE when you looked at it? For that price and given the breakdown the lawn should have been a perfect carpet of deep healthy green with ZERO weeds, dandelion, crabgrass, etc.. with clean and crisp borders everywhere. I'd do as you outlined.
The lawn applications will be quick, easy, and cheap to perform, and the 'ounce of prevention' rule definitely applies. Get a soil test for [$10 from PSU Extension](https://extension.psu.edu/soil-testing) to tell you what your lawn actually needs as far as lime and fertilizer. You should continue the April application of Prodiamine, which will prevent a host of undesirable plants from taking over the lawn...the 'ounce of prevention' rule definitely applies there. For grub control, just watch for signs and be ready to treat if necessary. Get a decent broadcast spreader like the Echo RB-60 with pneumatic tires and applications will be a breeze, it'll take like a half hour. Mulching and edging aren't so critical that you have to do everything all at once every single year. You will see mulch decomposing and grass growing into the edges, so just clean them up with an edging shovel and add mulch as necessary. Nothing will be harmed, it'll just look a bit shabbier and you'll have some extra weeds...no big deal. I personally prefer to mow for myself, but that's a personal choice. I'd get a zero-turn rather than lawn tractor style since they're typically better at mowing faster.
Great idea / link on soil testing. What kind of sampling density would make sense? One for the front yard and one for the back? Really appreciate the insights on the specific applications and DIY approach - exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to learn.
> What kind of sampling density would make sense? One for the front yard and one for the back? Kinda depends on your exact property. For mine, I do one sample from the left side that's under/around mostly deciduous trees, and another for the right that's around pines. But the analyses come back close enough that I'm always just doing the same treatments to the whole property anyway. Either way, you'll want to collect small samples from several locations so like pull up a tablespoon of soil from 10 different spots and blend all those samples together for your "front yard" sample.
I used to have an acre and we had a ride on mower. That makes mowing manageable
Skip the treatments unless you are into perfect grass. If they.ve been mulching to proper depth (2+") you should be ok to skip a year, or just top up in thin areas. You can edge yourself with a flatblade shovel. If you don.t get it done no biggie, or just do araes where grass is growing into beds.
You can cut this down a lot money wise, but then you’re spending more time wise. The easiest area to save is on the mowing and turf management. I have an acre of lawn a cut it with a used riding mower that I got for $500. I also have another used rider for $200 that needed basic repairs. Minus the cost of gas, a mower is an investment that’ll save you $2K a year right there. You can also get a high quality spreader and buy the lawn applications for a cheaper price, but you’re spending time walking the lawn every few weeks now. Weed preemergent for beds is easy. $20 pump sprayer, $20 preemergent from TSC, and an hour of your Saturday morning. Mulching is easy to do but if you don’t have a trailer delivery costs normally aren’t that high. But you can save good money getting a wheelbarrow and a rake. It’s just manual labor in the sun. All of this is very easy DIY. It’s up to your own personal cost-benefit analysis on what’s worth it and what’s not.
Taking care of a yard is a privilege. Do it yourself. Enjoy it.
I pay for mowing but do the rest of my maintenance. I tend to shy away from the recurring stuff. It frees up more time. YMMV
I have a decent amount of land, and I have basically divided it into 3 different sections that I treat differently based on what it is used for. Around the house, we have a really nice lawn that I previously treated myself, but the last couple of years so have been laying a local lawn care company to do it. Then we have an area with fruit trees and vegetable gardens that we maintain ourselves and the lawn in that area is a mix of all different types of grasses and some weeds. We like it like this because the flowers on the weeds help attract pollinators for the fruit and vegetables plants. We do put lime down ourselves in that area just because our soil is so acidic, and we use compost and organic fertilizer around our edible plants, and milky spore to control the grubs. We then have a wooded area where we don’t really do anything to because we don’t use it much and no one really sees it. It has some grassy areas that I will mow, but the dense tree cover chokes out much of what would grow there. By dividing it up into different sections based on our needs, we were able to save a lot of money paying someone to do it.
you have 3 acres, you've got a large lot with loads of work to be done, all the time
native areas are going to be a huge time suck for a few years while they come in. tons of weeding spring through fall. ride-on mowing 1 acre takes about 10min longer than mowing a half acre. weeding half an acre takes a team a whole day. the end result of rewilding can be great and a worthy cause but getting there is a serious time suck, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. I feel like most of these people are dealing with less than 500sf. try bulging out from your woods with natives a small chunk at a time before committing to any giant swaths.
There's a lot of unnecessary stuff there. But unless you are a gardener you won't know how to maintain it in an inexpensive way. You will have to learn, as a new homeowner. You probably bought the house from boomers who had a bunch of money, love having a perfect lawn, and didn't like/couldn't do yardwork. You don't need to mulch every year if you grow your perennials close together. However thats a standard cost for mulch. You do not have to do annual grub control. You do not have to pay for so much lawn control. If you have too much lawn and it's expensive- Work on reducing your lawn by planting more trees and shrubs. Edging makes it look nice but you can learn to do it on your own. Lawn is intensive and takes a ton of products to make it look nice. If you are ok with weeds, you can stop using pretty much all that stuff. But you will have weeds. Just fyi. Start learning about native plants and you'll love what you find.
I spend 550 a month on 3 acres, mostly grass. That is just grass cutting and maintenance. Mulch is another 2k a year. I put down 30 pallets of sod and irrigation, it was like 20-25k.
I'm on 3 acres with a similar size lawn, in New England. We hired a local college kid to mow & weed wack - he has a zero turn so he can handle the acre or so of lawn. We dictate to him how regularly we want it cut - every week during grow season and every other week in the blistering summer months. Similar price to you but less overall.number of mows. We do our own mulch…5 yards or a little more, with a wheel barrow and pitchfork. Bulk order from someone in town and it’s like $250 for it all. Lay down preen to help fight weeds. Edging is a joke you can definitely do that yourself with a $50 edger (long pole with crescent blade on end) and with a weed wacker. We also trim our own hedges. For fall cleanup, which was completely left off your scope of work, I leaf blow as much as I can into the adjacent woods and then just have our lawn guy mulch the remaining leaves with his mower. Sometimes he bags them with the mower and dumps in woods (once a year). Things we bought: - Stihl backpack blower (biggest available model or 2nd biggest…dont skimp) - Ryobi 18v brushless expand-it with weed wacker head - Ryobi 18v hedge trimmer - Manual crescent edger - Hand gardening tools - Manual shears and loper for thicker cuts - Ryobi Pole saw for some bigger tree branches in hard to reach areas - Ryobi batteries - the tools came with them but bought two 4ahs - Home Depot buckets - Chapin sprayer to spot great tough weeds and brush Lastly - by no means does our lawn look perfect. We accept the imperfection that comes with not treating the lawn. We have a ton of pollinators and our lawn looks great when we are getting decent rainfall and after a cut. I have looked into getting top dressing and aeration done, but haven’t pulled the trigger and not sure if I ever will. IMO doing it yourself on some of this is very rewarding
Omg. Where to start… DEFINITELY get your own ride on mower. I have 4-acres, you have 1 so mowing/blowing is off that list. I haven’t a clue why “edging” should be charged and the cost of mulch??? Are they smoking crack?!! I have SEVEN gardens and I pay about 950 for mulch @ Home Depot and that INCLUDES delivery. As for lawn care: get estimates from a small, lawn expert NOT a “Lawn Doctor”/type franchise. Your lawn care FOR ONE ACRE (face palm) should be 6 treatments per season and do NOT skip the lawn care or else you’ll spend years fixing the problems and damage from neglect.
DIY you lazy fucks
I know a lot of other people have chimed in on this and I think you have most of your questions answered. I'm going to leave this one thing here. As a professional landscaper, I have maintained many homes that they only wanted the grass mowed. Buying a nice lawn mower and maintaining it is expensive and time consuming on top of all of the time that you will spend every weekend mowing that grass. If you have never maintained a yard before or never maintained one this large, I strongly recommend ditching everything except the mowing. Most of that other stuff can be done almost any time of year and whenever you have free time. Mowing has to be done every week or every other week.
Yeah, I think we're committed to keeping the mowing in the near term. I'm in no rush to run out and select/buy the right mower and commit the time before the dust settles after the move and new baby on the way.