Grass in the Street

[Pulpit46227]

Hey guys do any of you have problems with people not wanting grass in the street? I mean this time of year is the worst time with all the rain and quick growth.

I don't have a huge problem with this, but I just tell the few people that do complain that this time of year the grass in really thick and growing fast and there is just more grass to blow off of there walks...etc. :confused:

[sdwally]

In some areas it is a violation. In California it is against new Stormwater Regulation, and you can be fined. In other areas it is against local regulations.

[MikeLT1Z28]

one of my biggest pet peeves.. i hate driving around and seeing grass all over the street or the sidewalk. if an LCO leaves it, it looks very unprofessional IMHO. i just whip out the BR420 and blow it up off the street to the sidewalk, then to the yard.

[eslawns]

I don't think you can do much about getting it there, but it looks bad for you to leave it there. Use the blower.

[LawnLad]

Leave it to California to have yet another regulation. I love that state!

In our SOP's the crew is to blow off all the hard surfaces on the customer's property, including the an adjacent neighbor's hard surfaces (e.g. driveway along lawn area), the curb and street. In fact, blowing down the curb/gutter helps to make a property look neater than if it looks cluttered.

[mdb landscaping]

I hate it when another LCO doesnt blow off the adjacent properties, and the cars wind blows it into you lawn you maintain. Just blow the grass back into the lawn. it only takes a few seconds

[Wangel]

I know of at least one occurance where a vehicle tried to stop quickly on grass that was blown into the street, and the vehicle went into a spin and hit a telephone pole. The owners of the property and lawn company were sued. Putting grass out on the street is very dangerous and can cause accidents. If you don't believe me, try it yourself.

[Runner]

People NOT wanting it in the street? Who would possibly NOT want grass all down in their curb and out in the street in front of their property! Here's an idea; just blow it all into their beds. It's all organic!:rolleyes:

[PetalsandPines]

Of course it is easy to whip out the backpack and cleanup the street....However in this BASS ACKWARD city of ours, where we see a street cleaner once a year, we end up with the dilemna of having to clean other debris on a weekly basis such as sticks, helicopters (maples), cigarettes, wrappers etc etc.. That stinks , now we are doing even more work because you can't blow all that debris up on the lawn and "hide" it.

[SCAPEASAURUSREX]

have the same problem with all the other debris , like cigs, wrappers, cans, bottles, etc... I just blow it into a pile and drop it into the clients garbage pail or if they dont have one out , into a garbadge bucket I have in my trailer for my trash.... Same with grass too, just blow it into a pile and pick up ... only take s a few minutes and makes a big differeance in finished appearance..

[Mowingman]

It is against the law here to blow grass and leaves into the street. Besides, it looks like **** and I feel it is unprofessional. :)

[grassworks]

:) Small investment in a hand vacum ( echo ) has worked well for me when the debris would be an eyesore in the lawn.

[heygrassman]

one of my biggest pet peeves.. i hate driving around and seeing grass all over the street or the sidewalk. if an LCO leaves it, it looks very unprofessional IMHO.

Got to quote a job that will total $800 because the potential customer respected the care I took in edging and blowing off the walk, as well as blowing off the street.

It too is a pet peeve of mine. You can not get it all, but make an attempt.

[grassman69]

this is an extra ten minute task. attention to detail is important.
although I do not mow, I have 3 fertilizer crews producing and expect ALL hard surface to be blown free of granular and other debris. once or twice and most foriegn debris along roadway,
curbs and drains should easy to keep (especially on once a wk.
turnaround visits). I know no-one else in our area blows fert off
to clean up, and take alot of pride in our clean-up. how many other guys take the time to clean up fert debris after an app?
Grass is growing fast right now, and I sometimes laugh @ how homeowners who cut their own will leave clippings ALL over the place and even find ourselves cleaning up after them. LOL>:laugh: :laugh:

[green boy]

I to think it looks tacky to leave clippings in the street. Depending on the customer I either blow them back into the yard or use the vac. :blob4:

[jeffex]

Now THAT is the definition of a scrub. Someone who leaves grass in the street. If your mowing with the discharge chute in the direction of the street or into mulched beds your a good candidate for the scrub police. Even when we stripe a lawn we make 2 passes with the chute away from the hardscape or mulch beds before we start to stripe. You just have to double back on the second pass so grass discharge is minimal. I have a lawn where another lco cuts on either side of me and he leaves grass in the street . His customers asked me for a price and I told them maybe next yr I'm booked up then I blew the grass off for them.
Cultivating future customers one lawn at a time.

[David Haggerty]

I'll blow grass clear across a rural road!.:D

I only have four customers in town, and only three of them have sidewalks.
But I keep those clean. Both the Streets and the walks.

Dave

[ADMowing]

We clear off all hardscape also each time we mow -- and the neighbors' too if we get grass on their sidewalk etc.... Instead of the neighbor going to our customer and saying, "Hey, your lawn people got grass all over my sidewalk!," they say, "Hey, who does your lawn -- they are neat and courteous. We'd like to have them too."

In mobile home parks, you can clearly tell which lawns we do and what lawns the park or homeowners do. They don't bother to invest in a blower. If the lawn is next to ours, we periodically edge and blower it off just for our customers' sake. We actually have another lco that comes into one park and does not edge, misses mowing spots in customers yard and doesn't blow off the street. VERY unprofessional! But customer is too cheap to hire us. Get this -- the other lawn service only charges $2 less/month than us!!!

[Craig Turf Management]

It pisses me off to see a "professional" laen care company blowing grass into the street. Grass clippings find their way into the storm drains, then into the creeks. This increases biochemical oxygen demand of the stream, depleting the oxygen level. This kills fish! I love fish! Grass clipping also contain pesticides in most cases. Don't want that in my water, do you?
Always blow the clippings back onto the lawn.
Bill Craig!

[Got Grass?]

Blow it off...
Yeah, this time of year we run over grass on drives/walks and it sticks really sticks &/or turns everything green. On a lot of props I've had to bring out a stiff broom or kick it off (what the blower cant get)...

I've seen a lot of people blowing it into the street, one company I worked for actually told us to. Looks really bad. the last you can do is blow it to the curb... If its bad I blow into a pile along the curb, grab the snow shovel and toss onto the truck.

PetalsandPines, Gotta love working in the city. E. Amherst sends a street cleaner down once a week in the summer for all the picky rich people.

[tim cooper]

As for me, the first thing I do pulling up to a yard is look for a storm drain. If not one there, break out the blower, blow into a pile and pick it up. Like someone before said, it only takes a few minutes and makes yard look "purty":blush:

[marcie]

never ever leave grass on walks or driveways that's part of the professional look that we all want our clients to buy into

the kid down the street ....... doesn't really care

but as a professional you should care what that the property you just finished has "curb appeal"

[Bob Minney]

If there is a lot of debris on the walks/gutter I just run over it with the billy goat vac.-takes 2 minutes and no worry abot whats being blown back on the lawn.

[maple city]

We always have blown off all the walks, driveway, and blown the grass in the street back up into the yard since day one. It is professional and it is a good customer service. My husband mows, and I weedeat and blow. We are almost always done at the same time. If he happens to get done mowing first, he grabs the blower.

We mow one area where garbage in the street is a huge problem. We keep a scoop shovel in the bed of the truck and scoop up whatever is in front of the property we mowed (within reason) we take the garbage with us. It takes about 30 seconds, and believe me people notice this. (If someone is paying 30-40 dollars to have their yard look nice, why leave a pop can sitting in the gutter out front?)

If you get grass clippings on the lady's door mat, you make sure it gets shaken off before you leave.

If the storm drain is full of leaves or trash, I always take care of that, too.

This is customer service and this is what keeps them coming back to you year after year.

[Brickman]

I once got FIRED because I didn't blow the grass INTO the street. Blew the clippings back into the lawn. The woman was a major PITA and fired me cause she didn't want the clippings in her grass, like I had put Round UP in her grass.
One thing about this area is we get so much wind that some days you don't even have to blow at all. And if you tried there is only ONE way that the clippings will go and that is with the wind, no matter how much you might try to blow them where you want them.

[yardmonkey]

Interesting that the word "broom" does not appear in this thread. I have always suspected that most LCOs would not be caught dead using a broom. Of course it is ridiculous to leave grass in the street. I'm always amazed when I see the street covered with grass. Usually it can be blown back into the yard where it will disappear. Sometimes there is too much of it or its lots of thick stuff from edging or other debris that has accumulated in the street. Using a broom, you can sweep it into a pile and then scoop it up and into your truck, trailer, trash bag, whatever. Doing a neglected yard for the first time, I may be using a shovel to scrape up piles of dirt and gravel. To me its just part of the job to leave the curb clean, whatever it takes.