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Lawn mowing
We are planning to update our garden and looking for lawn mowing professionals. But my sister wants to do this on her own. I am in a thought of hiring professionals at [Link](Mouse over link to see full location). Please help what to do.
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I am always of the thought that if there is something you can do to save money by either doing it yourself or a family member doing it free then i see no reason why not. Theres so much crap we have to spend way too much money on in this world that is you can save a few bucks then im all for it.
you might consider buying a lawn mower used from on craigslist if you dont have one already and you have a significant amount of grass or land to cover. it will pay its self off later and will come in handy if you know others that need/want to use it, you can charge people you know a few bucks to rent it out. ; )
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I am a gardener and love it. I owned a house and only had enough spare time to keep the front yard beautiful while the backyard went to hell. It depends on what we are talking about here. The planning and design of the yard, putting in ones own labor to put it all in and then allowing a lawn mowing/gardening co. to help you keep it up, or whether you are talking about letting the company suggest and /or decide what is best for the space. iF YOU or sis are knowledgeable as to what type of soil certain plants need and the amount of sun or lack of it they need and have the time to put into designing and putting it all in, then there's no reason why sis can't do it for you. If she's offering to maintain your yard after the update or you are supposed to, it depends on whether you have the time. If not, its best to have the professionals come in and help keep things looking clean and neat. If just one person doing it, there's not enough time barely for 1 person to keep a yard looking at neat as the one in the ad you attached. Mine was a 20ft by 35 ft front yard and I barely could handle that. Never had time for the backyard.
If your sister loves gardening and has proved with her own yard that she's pretty good at coming up with a nice design, I see no harm in it if you'd like the look she'd be going for. But she is going to have to spend a lot of time at it.
Here are some things to think about:
Most home owners don't own all the needed garden tools or have them maintained well enough to do the job. I did buy quite a lot of inexpensive garden tools. I did all my own pruning. If you are picky about having neatly shaped bushes and hedges, in sunshine, they grow quickly and become scraggly looking quickly. I did not have the electric hedge trimmer, Should have. I had manual pruners to save money and my hands paid for it. there are few as fancy as they seem that are both comfortable for your grip and stay sharp long enough or don't fall apart.
Weeding--It doesnt matter if you start out with no weeds, they will come by airborn seeds like dandelions or even from birds that transport seeds to your yard. I had many a new plant show up in my yard that I had never planted. To keep the edges of the grass area looking neat and not growing into the planting borders, it takes many hours of weeding and retrimming the lawn edges once a week during fastest summer growth times.
If the existing lawn has dandelions and is patchy it will need work. Many people today are concerned about weed killers and that type of poison in their lawns and with water, going into the water system. If you are into natural alternatives to pesticides, you will need to keep in mind that many gardening companies do not have any knowledge of this. You would have to find someone with that expertease instead to help you keep up the lawn once designed if this is very environmentally important to you.
If you have very specific idea's of what you like or want in flowers, shrubbery, stepping stones, arbors, etc... keep in mind that you as the customer buying your own plants will pay the market rate at a nursery while a gardening company gets to purchase bulk at wholesale with their business license. So on plants alone, the cost is higher purchasing them yourself usually unless you can find a place that will allow you to purchase wholesale.
Also, a gardening company can come in and look at the grounds and may have suggestions for the garden and lawn that you nor your sister would have come up with but improve the look and may not cost much more.
Do you want any seating areas, hidden nooks, founntain, small pond, waterfall for the soothing sound of water. Do you want to draw birds to the yard if a bird watcher? A water source is important then, birdhouses too. Are there lots of young children involved who need their own play spot and/0r would be rough on certain types of plantings and beds if they wandered in.
One thing you might consider is just having company representatives sit with you after having seen your lawn and garden, give them the ideas in your head and ask they what they suggest. get a price for just the makeover and get one for the makeover design part and the maintainence after. If you intend to design and do all the work yourself, then just call them over after for an estimate of what it will cost for them to keep up what you and sis put in.
I've watched many garden makeover shows and can tell you that I never could have come up with as good a plan as the professionals did, and this despite my love of gardening and choosing things for my yard, etc.
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