Lawn mowing - went DIY
 

Got 1/3 acre. Last time I mowed I brought it down a notch. Took me 3 hours with a Honda self propelled, I had it. Zoysia ain’t Kentucky blue. Now, a guy comes once every Monday, like clockwork, and for 65 bucks a month spares my knees, feet and overall well being and happiness [emoji3]


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Are you for hire? We have free beer tomorrow!

It's very important to have a sharp blade on your lawnmower or else the blades of grass will be knock or torn off instead of a clean cut. I sharpen mine every 5 or 6 grass cuttings and doubt that the lawn services ever do.

I've DIY'd it all of my life and have no desire to turn the care of my yard over to anyone else. To tell the truth, when I get off work, it's stress relief to me to work out in my lawn.

I see all the other neighbors in the loop I live in change lawn services it seems like every couple of months and they're never satisfied with the results.

I would like to buy something EZ to use like an electric mower. Just moved into a CYV - husband died a few weeks ago - so I need something simple - without a pull cord.
Any recommendations for electric ?

Perhaps obvious
 

You state your lot is 200x80 so 16,000 sq foot. Of course you need to subtract the footprint of you home and any planting beds.

It is important not only to decide what mower to purchase but perhaps more important to know how much fertilizer etc is needed for each section of your lawn.

Close enough is fine. A free form rectangle just firgure it as a rectangle ame for triangle,circle etc.

My lawn is 5000 sq foot. For a spreader I use one of those
Green Scotts hand crank Whirleybird spreaders. It works fine. It is inexpensive and it takes up no valueable storage space.

I also cut and trim my grass, but looking for someone to do it when we go on vacation. Having trouble getting anyone to reply to emails or phone calls. Any suggestions?

I have a gas cart and bought a gas self propelled Toro mower. It is a "Smart Stow" model the stores upright and only takes up 2 sq ft of storage space. As far as keeping a gas container in the garage, I purchased a $4 siphon from Harbor freight and fill my mower from my cart's gas tank...that way I don;t have to push it to the gas station. :)

Have the EGO 56V self-propelled model with powerload sting trimmer and blower. self-propel easy adjustable from stupid slow to fast walk with slide switch. i can mow the lawn twice on single charge and it has headlights if you want to mow at night. It really is near zero effort. carrying the 7.5ah battery to and from the charger is the hardest part :)

All the neighbors pay $1400 per year to lawn "care" companies and their lawns look awful.

Fert and Pest is easier than mowing. Use BiFen XTS and one gallon sprayer...less than a buck per gallon. 15-0-15 + Iron Fert.

I'm the OP. As mentioned I bought Ryobi 40v lawn care equip at HD. Have mowed, edged, trimmed 3 times since firing Deans. As some have mentioned here - our lawn has never looked better. ALWAYS had issues with the superfast cut of their riding mower, and uneven trimming - either scalped or not even. Their goal always seemed to be 'git 'er done'. I do think that their mowing equip brought in weed seeds or such too.

Their pest/lawn fert service was OK - just OK. We have one 15 sq ft area in our front lawn that developed small weeds a couple months ago and choked out much of the grass. I complained to them, they came out again to treat and will be out again next week. After that - Deans will be fired for that duty too.

Our outlay -standard size Designer lot was $50/mo mowing $80 fert et al every 2 mos. So annual was just over $1K. My reasoning for DIY; a bit of exercise, satisfaction of DIY, better result, save some $$$ as well. The equip takes up very little room in the garage, mower stows folded/upright. And the stuff should last longer than I will....