How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

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readZinn
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 3:59 pm

How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by readZinn »

If you have a landscaper/gardner, how much do you pay per month?

I was quoted $75/month--includes mowing, edging, cleanup, re-seed/re-sod if needed, trimming/pruning all plants (except trees), weeding/weed treatment on lawn and flower beds. They would be coming each week. Location is Southern California. I agree there are a lot of variables: yard size, number of plants, etc. We have a fairly small property and maybe maybe 15 or so plants which would need to be trimmed. Just looking to get a range of values.

Thanks!
jebmke
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Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 2:44 pm
Location: Delmarva Peninsula

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by jebmke »

We have about 2 acres of grass. We pay by the cut. $55 per cut. This year he has been coming weekly. Should slow down now that the rain has stopped. Spring clean up and fall clean up (mainly leaves) are time and material - varies all over the map depending on what I ask them to do.

Trees are separate - we've removed about 50-60 mature trees over the last 7 years and more to go.
Stay hydrated; don't sweat the small stuff
jlawrence01
Posts: 1904
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2013 12:34 am
Location: Southern AZ

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by jlawrence01 »

We converted to a desert landscaping with NO lawn and the like. On average, we pay $100 a year to our local landscaper to maintain the work.

If we could just lose those !@#$$$% javalinas.
ralph124cf
Posts: 2985
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2014 11:41 am

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by ralph124cf »

Ten years ago I paid $50/mo. in LA for a small property for mow and blow, no plant trimming.

Now in Illinois I pay $35 per mow for a one acre property. Anything else is available, but at a negotiated price.

Ralph
Cindyjrn
Posts: 395
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2014 5:40 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by Cindyjrn »

readZinn wrote:If you have a landscaper/gardner, how much do you pay per month?

I was quoted $75/month--includes mowing, edging, cleanup, re-seed/re-sod if needed, trimming/pruning all plants (except trees), weeding/weed treatment on lawn and flower beds. They would be coming each week. Location is Southern California. I agree there are a lot of variables: yard size, number of plants, etc. We have a fairly small property and maybe maybe 15 or so plants which would need to be trimmed. Just looking to get a range of values.

Thanks!
They're going to tell you they do all that, but for $75/month, you're going to get mow and blow 99% of the time. Maybe if you call the owner every week and ask that they do this or do that, but if not, 15 minutes in and out. We paid $140/month until I fired our guys two months ago and started doing it myself. Looks much better now.
JohnF
Posts: 152
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 7:29 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by JohnF »

In my Atlanta upscale subdivision most come once per week needed or not and charge approximately $200/month for routine maintenance. Anything extra like reseeding, spreading pinestraw, etc. is an additional charge. Neighbor thinks it a bargain!
TradingPlaces
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Location: 30.286029, -97.530011

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by TradingPlaces »

$0.

Because the system won't let me post a message with 2 characters, I had to add a sentence here.
TradingPlaces
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Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by TradingPlaces »

JohnF wrote:In my Atlanta upscale subdivision most come once per week needed or not and charge approximately $200/month for routine maintenance. Anything extra like reseeding, spreading pinestraw, etc. is an additional charge. Neighbor thinks it a bargain!
Wow, a car payment. Holy buddha!
Gill
Posts: 8221
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:38 pm
Location: Florida

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by Gill »

$395 a month with complete weekly service on a large property with considerable landscaping in Southwest Florida.
Gill
Cost basis is redundant. One has a basis in an investment | One advises and gives advice | One should follow the principle of investing one's principal
rixer
Posts: 758
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:18 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by rixer »

$100 month for full service for front and back in N. Ca. They mow, blow, edge, manicure shrubs and the rose arbor, fertilize the lawn and keep weeds out of the planters. They do a great job and I don't have to tell them what to do as they keep on top of everything. Up until last year I've always done it myself but I've come to enjoy having yard care.
tim1999
Posts: 4203
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:16 am

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by tim1999 »

I do it myself. About $3 for a gallon of gasoline every month. ~$100 for mulch in the spring. Plus maybe once a year I have to buy a spool of line for the weed whacker, I forget what that costs.
Nowizard
Posts: 4827
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:33 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by Nowizard »

Wow! We live in a low-cost state, but my brother-in-law is charged $140 a month for weekly mowing and edging only. I do ours myself, but neighbors are charged $50+ per mowing for .75 acre lawns.

Tim
Lafder
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Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:56 pm
Location: East of the Rio Grande

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by Lafder »

I just signed up for 300$, or 150$ every 2 weeks for a landscaped half acre. It is more than I have ever paid. I used to just get someone besides me a few times a year for all day. So this is my experiment to see if the cost buys me peace of mind. Or is it a piece of mind !? It is a little less than I am paying to get my house cleaned every 2 weeks.
lafder
ClaycordJCA
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Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 11:19 pm
Location: SF Bay Area

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by ClaycordJCA »

$48.50 per week in the SF East Bay - Contra Costa County. Service is weekly except December to February when it is every other week. not that large of a lot, but nicely landscaped. Takes a crew of 2 about an hour.
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celia
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Location: SoCal

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by celia »

We pay nothing in SoCal ever since we removed the lawn and put in a drought tolerant garden. In fact, some cities and water departments around here PAY YOU instead!
http://socalwatersmart.com/?page_id=3268

Yes, there is an upfront cost, but very little time and water is used afterwards to maintain it.
A dollar in Roth is worth more than a dollar in a taxable account. A dollar in taxable is worth more than a dollar in a tax-deferred account.
HoopDiddyDiddy
Posts: 131
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:37 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by HoopDiddyDiddy »

$0

We have a very large, very high maintenance yard with tons of ornamental landscaping and I do it all myself while enjoying every second of it. Spring is six hours a day about four days a week, I taper down through the warmest months, then back to full steam putting things to bed in the fall.

This is why I retired early!!
FIRE_in_CT
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 4:45 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by FIRE_in_CT »

We pay $16k per year to maintain 2 landscaped acres

It is full service including treatment to keep the lawn perfectly manicured and green

Location is lower Fairfield Co, CT
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Rob54keep
Posts: 439
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:06 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by Rob54keep »

Now that I am retired, I pay $40 for the edging & weed wacking of the front yard (I cut the grass). Before I retired, I was paying $100/month for complete cut, trim and edge.
Rattlesnake
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 3:43 pm
Location: Michigan

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by Rattlesnake »

$35 for weekly mowing and edging only for about 1/3 acre in Mid-Michigan. Spring cleanup is usually $35 included in the 1st mow of the year...
9th Infantry Division LRRP (Ranger) | 1968-69
easye418
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2015 8:04 am

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by easye418 »

$0.

Does it look as good as the pros? No.
Do I care? Not really.

Small lawn, takes about 1 hour to mow,edge,weed whack, blow. I'd rather have the two cases of beer each week for doing the work myself.
caderader
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:35 am

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by caderader »

Pay? For landscaping? 6 acre yard big garden multiple flower beds, I'm not paying somebody to do what I can do in a few hours after work and early Saturday mornings but I do live in alabama.
AWH_CPA
Posts: 247
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 5:44 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by AWH_CPA »

$150 per month for every week service. Some days it's just blowing and mowing. Once a month they do a bigger cleanup with trimming etc.

Originally got the service for tax season since I was working about 85 to 90 hours a week. It was so convenient i never went back to doing it myself. Sold my mower at the last garage sale.
sesq
Posts: 587
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:24 am

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by sesq »

$40 a mow. I should cancel since I am past my busy spring but I do like the service. We usually hire out the mulch work and there is usually some side project lumped in with that in the spring so it winds up being about $800. I run the sprinklers in the summer and that adds $80/mo to the water bill. Plus to open / close the sprinklers its $100 a pop.

My wife does the weeding and the fall / spring cutbacks. I hate yardwork (though until this year I would mow).

1/3 acre in PA, a lot of planting beds in a yard designed by a landscape architect. It does look very nice.
Mudpuppy
Posts: 7409
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2011 2:26 am
Location: Sunny California

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by Mudpuppy »

celia wrote:We pay nothing in SoCal ever since we removed the lawn and put in a drought tolerant garden. In fact, some cities and water departments around here PAY YOU instead!
http://socalwatersmart.com/?page_id=3268

Yes, there is an upfront cost, but very little time and water is used afterwards to maintain it.
Just an FYI, MWD discontinued the lawn replacement rebate program last month because all of the rebates were claimed. Some of the water districts still have their own rebate programs, but it's not as widespread as the MWD program. Here's the LA Times article on the discontinuation of the program:

http://www.latimes.com/local/california ... story.html
profnot
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat May 02, 2015 2:37 am

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by profnot »

Demographics play a huge part in how much yard work people charge.

I live in a beach town. 70% of residences are summer vacation homes.

So grass cutters and yard workers can charge a premium. $50 an hour is the going rate here, even for just mowing grass.

I hate grass. I don't know why people plant it, water it, and support it. Drought-tolerant ground cover with a drip system is the only way to go IMHO.

I heard on NPR the other day that the cost of lawn grass is America's most costly crop - higher than corn or wheat. Nuts.
ShiftF5
Posts: 751
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:59 pm

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by ShiftF5 »

Cherokee8215 wrote:I do it myself. About $3 for a gallon of gasoline every month. ~$100 for mulch in the spring. Plus maybe once a year I have to buy a spool of line for the weed whacker, I forget what that costs.
Same for me. DIY.

I enjoy puttering in the yard, mowing, trimming, planting, transplanting...

Last week I bought a long handle ax and chopped a pretty large old tree stump out of the backyard.

I find the time outside quite refreshing while I'm able to do it.
DFrank
Posts: 474
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 10:44 pm
Location: North Idaho

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by DFrank »

$175/month in SoCal for weekly service. We have a little over an acre. Our gardener uses his judgement about what needs to be done. He always mows the lawn and blows the patio, driveway and walkways. Some weeks that's all he does, other weeks he may be trimming shrubbery or removing weeds in the part of the property that are planted with fruit trees.

When I retire next year and move to our 20 acre property in north Idaho I plan to do all the landscaping work myself. There's about 1 acre of lawn there.
Dave
Saving$
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Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by Saving$ »

Wow. These are good data points. I can add a few.
1. $140/month year round for every other week service, including mowing, trimming pruning anything under 10', raking leaves, etc. on a 1/5 acre lot from a company with insurance and their own equipment who removes all their clippings and trimmings and are totally dependable. Includes everything except any chemical application.
2. $25/mow and a bit of misc (edging, trimming, picking up twigs - not all, usually just one) on a 1/5 acre lot for a 15 year old hardworking nice kid who is the son of a friend who uses equipment and fuel I provide, and occasionally some food I provide. In the fall and winter its $15/hour to rake leaves as long as he does not have too much homework over the weekend.
3. $40/mow and blow or $50/mow, blow, edge and trim per visit from a neighborhood company with their own equipment but no insurance.

Best deals are 1 and 2.
wander
Posts: 4419
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 9:10 am

Re: How much do you pay for monthly landscaping?

Post by wander »

Zero $.
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