maintenance standards

[lawnboy82]

ok, now i am not sure if this has already been brought up in prior threads. however i am just wondering what is a standard lawn cutting in your neighborhoods? quality wise. if you are all into striping, or bagging, um... diagonal mowing, or switching patterns every week. edging all gardens, trimming that funky stuff by the curb, trimming the weeds in the driveways, spraying, etc... blowing off lawns, whatever it is that you can think of.

[jones]

Cut, don't miss any spots.
Trim, don't miss any spots.
Blow, don't miss any spots.
Don't worry about anything else.

[GreenQuest Lawn]

Mow: (nice patterns)Of course lawns are either double cut or blown (if needed)

Trim:(no shorter than it has been mowed).

Edge: every other week(with an edger no trimmer edges here)

Blow: of all walks, drives, ect

Weeds in curbs and cracks are sprayed and or knocked down

Weeding: landscape areas



There are, of course, many other services but not done on a weekly basis.

[Guido]

Lawn Maintenance -

Mow, trim, edge pavements, blow and go

if you maintain the landscape also (hope you get paid for it) you have to add in pruning, mulching, weeding, plant replacement, etc.

I rather keep weekly lawn maintenance simple and get paid seperately for the other odds and ends.

You can make a good profitable maintenance contract if your also taking care of the landscapes though.

[Guido]

Whats all this about the troubles of striping?? It doesn't take any extra time, in fact I don't know how NOT to stripe if I wanted to. Alternating patterns is healthy for the grass and the ground (by not causing large ruts week after week)

The only way I've seen a mower NOT stripe is if they go in a large box all int he same direction (which I think looks like crap anyway)

[Richard Martin]

The standard lawn in my area is 1/4 to 1/2 acre. They look like crap, have serious weeds and get cut once every 2 to 4 weeks at 1 inch. Long rows of huge clumps are not uncommon to see. Most of them have heavy trimming to be done and as a result it doesn't get done very often.

The lawns I do are the same size with a few at 1 acre+. Of my 40 customers only 3 have serious weeds. They like it this way and the DC cuts them fine so I take their money. All but 4 of them are cut on the same day every week at 2-3/4 inches. All yards are trimmed weekly, walks and beds blown off and walks edged where applicable. All gardening (pulling weeds, trimming back branches etc.) are done by a couple of women who run a company called Maids In The Garden. I give them all of my gardening work and they send me grass jobs.

[John DiMartino]

Most lawns in my are are around 1/2- 1 acre,and mowed just like Richard said,scalped into the dirt,and all full of clumps.Circled mowed too.Lately these homeowners have been letting the grass get 8"-10" tall then they blow the clippings into the street purposely and leave them there,Im talking enough wet clumps to bale 10 bales of hay here.One of my neighbors was blowing all her clippings with a hand held electric blower in the street.If a motorcycle went by there and had to stop,he would've went down.I only do a few lawns with the Dixie,but they are big ones,I keep the at 3 1/2" now,but will go about 3" in the spring and fall,with a last cut at 2 1/2-2 3/4" usually.