Bush Trimming

Here's the other side.

Originally posted by Phishook
Sir, now you have from a few of us. But why take my word for it? I'm just a Boy on the computer. Go take some Horticulture classes, or get a book and read it and see for your self.

Then you could offer your customers a better service and explain the benefits.

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Why the hostility? I wasn't insulting you, I meant "Boy" as in "Man, Dude, etc", not in a mean way. I just said I never heard of that, nor have I ever seen it done, bushes cut wider on the bottom than on the top. And I'm not quite sure how I'd cut bushes wider on the bottom than the top when they were growing much wider on top than on the bottom to begin with. They were only about 18 inches to 2 feet wide on the bottom, 3 to 4 feet wide on top. I wouldn't think that would be good for the bushes. Even going horizontal would have left the top area mostly bald and sparse. They were seriously overgrown, as you can see, over my head in height. If anyone could provide a picture of this technique, I'd be greatful.

I'm probably going to charge her $100 for that, the 3 hours includes mowing time. I have more bushes to trim for her in her yard, I was just doing that hedgerow for her because of the city's complaint. The rest won't be as difficult. As I have said before, stuff like this I try to get $30 to $40 /hour, and usually give the hourly rate rather than a total in estimate.

When I do disposal like for a bush trimming, edging, etc, I don't take the yard waste for dumping. Here they have yard waste pickup with the trash, in brown recycle bags. Since the city picks that up for free, and charges me to go to the dump, I bag the yard waste and leave it for the client. Never had a problem with it. Once I did a dethatching and had 46 bags of dead grass I pulled out of the lawn. Trash picked them all up without blinking. Of course, I charge for the bagging time and cost of bags.

Originally posted by Rustic Goat
In the 'before' pictures, where is the area that customer was supposedly cited for because of sidewalk blockage?

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You can't really tell from the picture, but the bushes were poking out into the sidewalk a bit. I didn't think they were that bad as an obstruction, either, but the city thought otherwise.

I have really been paying attention to bushes around town because of this thread, and I swear I've seen nothing wider at the bottom than the top, other than trees. In fact, I saw another LCO today trimming bushes, and he was cutting everything off the bottom areas to about a foot up the bush, with the top part of the bush MUCH wider. I can understand the theory, but it just doesn't seem natural to me.

As I said before, those bushes were much smaller at the bottom than the top, and to make the bottom part wider would have really taken a lot outta the bushes.

Maple City, $50 for 1 hour is good. It took me 3 hours, with a mowing that I was already getting paid for, so more like 2 1/2 hours to trim. $100 for 2 1/2 hours is $40 an hour, which is right where I like to be with my hourly rates, more or less.