Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

Or anything in between?

I think, the more land the better. I plan to eventually cover most of it in garden beds anyway. Plots that big don't deter me unless the taxes are nuts. But my husband is concerned about the upkeep of the lawn.

If anyone has that big of a plot, do you mow it yourself? Have a landscaper do it? Leave some of it "wild" with no grass to make the upkeep manageable?

Just wondering how cost prohibitive it would be to have a landscaper come to mow it, nothing else.

Message edited 6/25/2007 3:22:24 PM.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

well
when we buy our 5 acre plot in orange county we'll be mowing it ourselves....

Anthony's upstate house sits on about 3.5 acres and they do it themselves weekly or biweekly....

of course with a ride on type mower

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We have 1/2 acre and my husband mows it. But he's lucky because we have a rider mower.

I think if we got someone to mow it... it would be $75 each visit.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

my parents have 1/2 an acre and they have landscapers take care of the mowing and edging.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

I have almost an acre and we have landscapers mow and edge, although my husband loves to garden and wishes he could spend more time outside doing it himself.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

just over 1/2 acre. DH mows it. I kind of wish he had a ride on cause it can take him a while to mow it. The back comes in quick, but the front is slower (sod), so he can mow that less often. We are going to put some plant areas around the edge so he doesn't have to mow along the fence. That should save him some time.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

we have a half acre. We do not mow it. It would take forever and it grows like the amazon. Our landscaper charges $30 a week. Well worth it, imo (especially since brookhaven technically doesnt pick up grass clippings )

we do have a LOT of trees, but they are primarily on the perimiter of the property (we are cutting down any that arent).

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We have an acre.

DH used to mow the lawn with a tractor when we first moved into the home. I think it used to take 1-2 hours.

We now have landscapers for lawn maintenance, yard clean up and snow removal. I believe it's $65 a week for the lawn maintenance. The yard clean up is $400 (it's done in the Spring & Fall, so $800 a year.) Snow removal (plowing driveway and shoveling walkway) varies based on the contract you go with.

We use another service for weed control & fertilization. Again, the cost varies depending on your contract.

Then there's the irrigation.

Even with those services, having an acre is still time consuming, but that being said, DH and I still want more property. Property shrinkage has set in.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We will be on a 1/2 acre when we close next month.

DH plans to mow it himself, as long as we buy a self-propelled mower.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We have .75 acre. I mow or my landscaper brother does

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

My sisters have 3/4 of an acre and my best friend has about the same.

I know both of them (particuarly my friend) complain non stop. My nephew uses a push mower to mow my sister's lawn. The lawn is very open and maneuvering is not too much of a problem becuase there are not too many trees.

My friend has a lot of open space - but also has a number of trees, bamboo, ornamentals and flower beds. She uses a tractor to mow. But it is STILL such a nuisance that she actually hired a landscaper to do it last year (when she was pregnant)and will probably do the same this year. I know getting rid of grass clippings was one of the biggest reasons she hates mowing herself. It requires her to dump out at least 2 times during the mowing process.

And that's all I got to say about THAT!

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We have a 1/3 (yes I know it's smaller than 1/2), we mow it ourselves. We have a riding mower & a push mower.

I grew up on 3.5 acres - we always did it ourselves. Riding mower of course.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

DH mows it and it's a PITA time consuming project. I'm going to surprise him with a ride on tractor for Christmas this year!

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

dh mows it himself

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We have 1/2 acre and have a landscaper for the mowing and edging. They charge $40. We just don't have the time to do it ourselves. It's money well spent.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

we only have a little over a quater & our house takes up a big chunk of it...it is SMALL, I am making use of every sq ft.
I wish I would win the mega millions & buy all the houses that are around mine so I could have more land. I say go big!

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We have 3/4 acre and DH used to mow with a push mower himself. He would have gotten a riding mower, but we are on a steep hill so that is out.

It took him a good bit of time to do it, so I hired someone to mow - $35 each time.
we usually let it go 2 weeks especially in the heat of the summer when the grass (weeds really LOL) grows slower.

We do spring cleanup ourselves, since I have a lot of garden areas and we use no chemicals/fertilizers. So the $35 is Totally worth it!

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

1/2 acre but we have a big garden area with a waterfall in the backyard that has a few trees and mostly mulch right now... it was where the former owners had an inground pool.

DH does all of the landscaping but we hire landscapers for the big cleanups.

ETA: REgular mower, no ride on.

Message edited 6/26/2007 6:47:53 AM.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

I think I would actually be the one mowing. I pretty much consider the outside of the house my domain, being the garden freak and all. And if I convince DH to go bigger on the plot, I'm sure I'm going to have to make up for that.

Around $200. a month for lawn care is worth it to me, and I'm pretty sure my husband would agree. I honestly had no idea of the cost, so I feel a lot better.

And yes, irrigation is also something I forgot about. I would love to get in-lawn sprinklers with a timer (I have that now) and make the best of it with soaker hoses in the summer, etc.

I'm sure this will all add up over time and we'll have to feel it out as we go. I love the idea of a ride-on lawn mower if we do decide to do it ourselves. My landlord's landscapers are a bunch of idiots who damage something almost every week in the summer. I just don't know if I could trust a $40 a week landscaper to care about things like not running the mower into my daylilies.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

I think it depends in the area you live. We are closing on a house Thursday that is 1/2 acre and the landscaping is less that $30 a week in NJ. We were paying $30 a week for 70x100 here in Farmingdale. I can't imagine cutting anything more than 1/2 acre myself.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

we are on a full acre, but DH does the lawn himself...he is a landscaper

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We have 2.5 acres, but thankfully, most of it is wooded and DH only has to mow about 1 acre. We are currently saving for a ride-on mower -- he doesn't want to use landscapers.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We have a little more than a half acre. DH takes care of it all..lawn and landscaping. He always wanted a large lot but I think he's in over his head. But I don't think he'll ever give into paying someone else to take care of it all. He takes such pride in it.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

We're starting to look for houses now. It's very important to DH that we have a decent amount of land (he'd like at least an acre). He plans to mow it himself. He grew up on a huge amount of land, and he mowed the lawn on a regular basis.

Re: Anyone with a 1/2 acre or full acre?

Message edited 1/30/2009 10:41:29 PM.