Retirement Life!

[TOMCAT]

As I do not live in The Villages right now because I am still working. At times, when I have a day off from work, I find myself a little bored. My husband is retired and seems like he is always doing yard work. He likes to do it himself and not use landscapers. How much yard work is there to do in the Villages and how much do landscapers charge for a 2 bedroom villa?:shrug:

[CFrance]

As I do not live in The Villages right now because I am still working. At times, when I have a day off from work, I find myself a little bored. My husband is retired and seems like he is always doing yard work. He likes to do it himself and not use landscapers. How much yard work is there to do in the Villages and how much do landscapers charge for a 2 bedroom villa?:shrug:

To answer.. Does your husband like to do yard work, or is he frustrated because he has so much of it to do now? Landscaping prices are all over the place. If you don't give the landscapers a price range, they will come in high. We got estimates that varied wildly for the same thing till we started giving a price range.

You can landscape a villa so there is very little yard work.

[TOMCAT]

I think he is just frustrated to do it. Always complaining about his back but he is proud and likes to do it himself. When I was visiting, I did notice landscapers coming around. There wasn't too much property, so I think the charges could not be that high. Most likely, my husband will still do it in Fl also. He says there be only 1/3 of what he has to do now.

[billethkid]

"retirement life" is about lots more than yard work. I don't like it and have someone do it. Then I can choose to putter when and where and if I want.

"Retirement life" is all about making it what one wants both singly and together.
TV is a great place to open ones horizons of things to do as a participant or observer or both.

Court yard Villa yard work = a couple of hours out of an entire week!!!!!!!!!!!!

btk

[TOMCAT]

Hope to make yard work an hour a week. I like to have my house look nice, but do not want to spend every waking hour on it!

Can't wait until retirement!

[Cantwaittoarrive]

There is as little or as much yard work to do as he wants to do. If he needs more send him my way he can keep himself busy with my yard:) How much landscapers charge has to do with what do you want done? Also with a villa you can make it so that very little or no yard work needs to be done.

[Bavarian]

I think many of you miss the point. There are many people who find yard work an enjoyable hobby. Some like to Golf, others want to putter in their garden, trying new plants, trimming them when needed. Many of us would rather do such things ourselves. It is relaxing to run soil thru your fingers.

That said, the weather in Central Florida may severely limit what one can do as we get older. My Father kept his garden going in DE until he died at 76, he passed plants over the fence to two other retired gentleman, had a nice time, but when heat of day came, he went in the house and rested. He scheduled my parents trips to Germany to come home to DE in time to get his garden planted.

I have not had his skill, but I have tried. Installing underground sprinklers, making compost piles, etc. Will see what grows in The Villages. Would like to grow Kohlrabi, tomatoes, carrots, turnips, and Rutabaga. Here we just go to the Amish farms for vegetables and free range eggs.

[John_W]

We have a 2BR CYV, on an inside lot not a corner lot, it is normally $40 a month to cut, edge and blow off. During the nice weather they usually cut the grass once a week. They will come in as a 2 or 3 man crew and be gone in ten minutes. During the winter months when the grass is hardly growing they might come only once a month or even less. You still pay $40 a month all 12 months. I did my own yard with a push mower from Home Depot.

About half of the CYV's in our 88 unit villa community have had their grass removed and with the home's irrigation system the yard is almost maintenance free. If you want someone to pull the weeds and fertilize, companies will be that and anything else you want.

I had kept the 5 feet of grass next to the curb for almost 2 years, then recently I had it re-lanscaped and had the grass removed. I do my own fertilizing and weed pulling, so my front yard is almost nothing to do. The backyard I kept the small amount of grass in case we get a dog. I cut and edged the back yard today, took about 15 minutes.

Here is a photo from March, just after the yard was done. As you can see, there really isn't anything to maintain. The plants have really grown a lot since this photo.

http://imageshack.us/a/img708/8522/house21024x778.jpg


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[TOMCAT]

Beautiful landscaping, John W!

[patfla06]

Love the palm trees! Pretty house.

[asianthree]

patio villa lawn mow $35 to $45 a month

[Bogie Shooter]

I think many of you miss the point. There are many people who find yard work an enjoyable hobby. Some like to Golf, others want to putter in their garden, trying new plants, trimming them when needed. Many of us would rather do such things ourselves. It is relaxing to run soil thru your fingers.

That said, the weather in Central Florida may severely limit what one can do as we get older. My Father kept his garden going in DE until he died at 76, he passed plants over the fence to two other retired gentleman, had a nice time, but when heat of day came, he went in the house and rested. He scheduled my parents trips to Germany to come home to DE in time to get his garden planted.

I have not had his skill, but I have tried. Installing underground sprinklers, making compost piles, etc. Will see what grows in The Villages. Would like to grow Kohlrabi, tomatoes, carrots, turnips, and Rutabaga. Here we just go to the Amish farms for vegetables and free range eggs.

You plan to do this in your flower beds right? I have yet to see a vegetable garden in TV. BTW the Florida rats love to congregate near this kind of vegetation. They even like bird seed that drops from a feeder.

[DougB]

We have a two bedroom patio villa. Most of my neighbors pay 35-40 a month. I do my own yard work. Takes about 30 minutes to an hour a week depending on how much trimming I need to do.

[TOMCAT]

You plan to do this in your flower beds right? I have yet to see a vegetable garden in TV. BTW the Florida rats love to congregate near this kind of vegetation. They even like bird seed that drops from a feeder.

My husband might be the first to have a vegetable garden. Hopefully, there will be no rats! :eek:

[Bavarian]

You plan to do this in your flower beds right? I have yet to see a vegetable garden in TV. BTW the Florida rats love to congregate near this kind of vegetation. They even like bird seed that drops from a feeder.

I have seen in my DR catalog a raised bed for vegetables, looks like a feed through, or cradle. Optional greenhouse cover and/or netting.

I do not think the root crops will grow well in FL as MD is already too hot for them. A friend of ours original from WI gave up.

Seems like one can't even feed the birds. Our Villages house backs on a preserve so it could draw wild life. Here after a few peppers, rest went to the deer and rabbits. But is fun trying.

[justjim]

Sometimes I was bored BEFORE I retired but frankly never afterward. So much more you can do when you give up the 8 to 5 routine!

[CFrance]

You plan to do this in your flower beds right? I have yet to see a vegetable garden in TV. BTW the Florida rats love to congregate near this kind of vegetation. They even like bird seed that drops from a feeder.

I know of one vegetable garden here in TV.

Even up north bird feeders could draw rats. In our tiny borough in Pittsburgh, I was looking at these cute but large chipmunks out at the bird feeder. What cute ears! Boy are they big chipmunks. My husband took the binoculars and recognized them as rats.

We called the borough health department and said We have rats in our backyard, and they very snootily replied, "There are no rats in Churchill! Those are "****s" (a name I can't remember, which apparently is something you call rats when you don't want to admit you have rats). Nevertheless, they were out the next day with "****" poison and advised us to take down the bird feeder.

So we don't feed anything in TV, but I miss doing that.