How much does lawn care cost? That's a question few home buyers
consider as carefully as they should when they first lay eyes on that gorgeous
spread of grass (which tends to look all the greener when you don't own
it). Still, once those weeds creep knee-high, you'll want to know: How deeply do you
need to dig in your pocketbook to trim things down to size?
Lawn
care expenses will depend, of course, on how much lawn you have, your
willingness to do some of the work yourself, and (let's be honest) just
how jealous you want your neighbors to be. But there are some general rules of
thumb to help you anticipate how much you'll have to spend—and how to
trim those costs.
How much it costs to mow your own lawn
At
the very least, your lawn needs to be mowed. If you choose to do it
yourself, you'll need a lawnmower, which can range in price from less than
$100 for a steel-blade push mower ($69.99 on Amazon for this snazzy green mower with a catcher) to $500 to $1,000 (or
more) for a gas-powered push mower or rider. You can also get a basic
smart lawn mower like the Robomow for $699, which uses GPS to mow the lawn by
itself—which sounds dreamy, although you'll have to set up perimeters (so it
won't mow your neighbor's lawn) and it might not do so well on tricky
landscapes containing rocks or depressions.
If you choose a gas model, you’ll also need to shell out for
fuel. According to the University of Vermont Extension Department of Plant and
Soil Services, each year a family with one-third of an acre of lawn will use an average of 5 gallons of gas for mowing and
trimming. With gas currently sitting at about $2.25, that's about
$11.25 per year on average.
How much it costs to hire a professional lawn
service
If
the thought of cutting your own grass makes you itchy, you’ll want to hire
someone to do it for you.
Ryan Farley,
co-founder of LawnStarter.com, says the average lawn mowing service runs
$30 to $45 per mow. That's based on the median lawn size in the U.S., which is
currently one-fifth of an acre and typically includes trimming, edging, and
blowing.
On
average, lawns need to be mowed once a week in the summer and every other
week in the spring and fall. So all told, that would amount to about $1,170 to
$1,755 a year. If your yard is overgrown, don't be surprised
if companies charge a “long grass fee” for the first mowing, which can
range from 50% to 100% more than the regular mowing price.
Other
additional mowing charges might apply in the fall for work associated with
removing leaves along with the lawn mowing, as the lawn care provider has to
spend more time and pay for dumping fees. Also, if you want your grass
clippings bagged, there will likely be a charge (typically an additional 15% of
the mowing cost).
Beyond
the cost, however, there are other intangible things to weigh when
considering whether to mow yourself or hire someone—namely, time. The
average homeowner doesn't have commercial-grade equipment, so what a lawn care
crew can do in 20 minutes will typically take an individual 1.5 to 2 hours. So
be sure to ask yourself if you'd rather spend your weekends on lawn care or
lounging.
How much it costs to water a lawn
Aside
from mowing, your lawn will also need watering. A general guideline is
1 inch of water per week for grass (whether that's from rain or you
watering it). Based on the national average cost of $1.50 for 1,000 gallons of
water, it will cost roughly $8.15 per watering session to provide one inch
of water to one-fifth of an acre.
Your
yard also will likely need some other services to keep it in top
shape. Farley offers the following guidelines for the services most
commonly needed to keep grass healthy (prices are based on the average
one-fifth of an acre):
- Lawn treatment, including fertilization
and weed and disease control: $70 per service, five to eight
times a year
- Aeration: $137 per service, once
a year
- Overseeding to fill in thinning turf:
$110 per service, once a year
- Grub treatment: $99 per service, as
needed
- Topdressing to improve soil health: $293
per service, once a year
Sure,
you can do so some research and try to do these things yourself in an
attempt to save a few bucks, but you'd better make sure you know what you're
doing.
“When
applying the wrong products—let's say, fertilizer not specific to the type of
grass you have, or an herbicide that's for the wrong weed—you run the risk of
doing more damage to your lawn than good,” warns Rachel Betterbid, a
marketing specialist at Tailor Made Lawns.
How to save on lawn care
To
save money, Farley suggests banding together with your neighbors to hire one
lawn care company.
“You
can often get a group discount since the lawn pro can save on drive time,” he
says. He also recommends that you make sure whoever you hire has
insurance. “It's not uncommon to have a mower kick up a rock and crack a
window, so you'll want to make sure you're not responsible for that cost.”
Other
ways to save include getting rid of grass all together and planting
drought-resistant shrubs and installing artificial grass or other low- or
no-maintenance alternatives.
The
worst thing you can do when it comes to your lawn is nothing.
"If you don't care for
your lawn, it will inevitably die and/or get overrun with weeds,” Farley says.
“Once that happens, you have to replace your lawn, which is extremely
expensive, usually a minimum of $2,000 for a fifth-of-an-acre lot. Caring for
your lawn requires either hard work on your part or paying for someone else to
do the hard work—there are no silver bullets.”
By Julie Ryan Evans – Realtor.com
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