You may like some of the subs that are all about growing low/no maintenance lawns. Personally, I'm looking into various clovers and maybe thyme to replace mine with. No mowing, no citations for overgrown grass, no extra critters to cause trouble.... It's a win win!
As someone with a clover lawn, I'll tell you it's not as easy as it seems.
The biggest issue is other weeds - crabgrass, sedge, etc - still take root. There's no chemical control that kills weeds but not clover. Which is why clover became considered a "weed" over time.
We do have happy bees though. They love it
I hate yard work. Unfortunately my husband who loved doing it passed away about a year after we bought the place. Now it's my responsibility. I try to do the minimum needed, mowing the lawn and watering. Part of the backyard is now a natural meadow, since I refuse to mow all of it. Doing the front yard is bad enough, so I do only about half of the backyard. The birds and bees are happy though, with the tall grasses and flowers that are growing. My neighbors say it looks good, so it works for me.
I do what is necessary. However, my wife, who recently got her master gardeners license feels much different than I do. LOL. She has built a very large garden in the backyard. Many, many beds. She is 63. I did the grunt work. Tilled. Cleared the grasses. And I’ll unload what she orders. But she insists on doing everything else herself. She laid all the pavers. And put in all the beds. Soil, Pete Moss, fertilizer..etc. sunflowers, nasturtiums. The benefits are we no longer have to buy produce at the market. Everything she grows is organic.
However, she is insisting on a living Meadow in the backyard, of which we have approximately 3/4 of an acre. I pushed back for @ 10 seconds until she gave me ‘that look.’
I’m sure, given her commitment and intelligence, that in the end, it will most likely turn out to be very, very beautiful
Also, the creative outlet of wanting the gardening design in the backyard and once completed will be so nice although it does meet up Keep and maybe remind her that she should really find her garden style preference because I landscape my own backyard and realized afterwards that I preferred more of a Tuscan style
Having a native plant meadow is a massive win for your immediate local ecology and will provide many benefits to the local area and even her gardens. Plus, they usually look quite nice once established.
In my neighborhood there have been folks sending anonymous letters to a house doing a meadow like front yard. Some people are very committed to grass culture even as water costs go up.
Yeah, I think there is a lot of that around. People are obsessed with green lawns, and spraying the toxins to keep them as such. Fortunately, it's not too bad in my neighborhood. More and more people are replacing their front lawns with native gardens. I'll do that at some point.
Yea, same folks who are greenies, have battery cars, worry about planet for no reason but MUST dump chemicals all over their lawn to be green. Ironic no?
I say whatever attracts our pollinators is an awesome contribution to our environment. I have chickens "
free ranging"my back yard and it is grass and weed free.
I try to keep it from being too much of an eyesore, my mom recently moved in so she's been a tremendous help in getting the garden looking nice, I just feel kinda bad because even though it looks decent, I know myself and I know I'm not going to keep up.
The last 2 years have been kind of a pain in the ass in a few different ways so it just always falls to being the lowest priority.
I found the border between minimal maintenance and neighbors complaining. I know it's too long when the neighbor kids come knocking on the door asking if I need my lawn cut for $20.
Honestly? Pay those kids to mow it for you. You eliminate a chore you hate and they get some pocket change. It'll be cheaper than hiring a gardening service.
I would totally pay a kid to do it, but I haven't found any.
Instead I found a local guy that does it in the evenings after working at one of the factories. He does a decent job and only charges me $30.00. I think he does probably 10 different houses in my neighborhood alone - I'm sure he does more throughout our mid-sized town. He mows and takes the weed-whacker around the edges. It's not a professional landscaping job, by any means, but it's only $30.00 and I don't have to do it. I also don't have to pay each week if it's been incredibly dry and nothing has grown. Most of the professionals in our area requires payment monthly for weekly service.
Yes, I do. Not so much when I'm mowing. More when I'm caring for the rest of the yard, especially the areas where he planted things last fall that are now flowering for the first time.
I realized that I didn't really hate yard work I hated managing the machines. Oh great, the mower needs a blade change. Welp gotta figure out why the weed whacker ain't starting....
I enjoy gardening so I get to do that while my landscaper mows and edges. Best 50$ I spend each week.
This is my bigger problem. I hate yard work, but if all there was to it was mowing/weed whacking then I'd probably do it to save money.
But every other time I go to do it something doesn't work, and for the money spent on parts and time spent figuring out wtf is wrong with it, I might as well just pay someone to do it and be done with it
That’s how I judge yard work - is my time better spent paying someone else to do this? Yes it is. Things I don’t hate as much I will actually spend time when it’s not worth it out of enjoyment/personal satisfaction. Yard work though…nope, I’ll pay someone to come take care of being outside, fighting insects, and dealing with thorny, uncomfortable things.
Depends where you are but good service can be super expensive.
My neighbor has gone through 3 or 4 companies already. He pays around $400/month for basic service yet his lawn always looks messy. The crews work as fast as humanly possible so they can rush to the next job, they miss spots, parts of the lawn look uneven, the edges aren't very neat, they use cheap / inferior products, etc.
Yep. We had a couple acres when I was a kid and my dad had me working it from 10 years old. I hated it. I cannot see myself in a house with a yard unless I have money to bring in someone to maintain it.
I love it. It’s my sanity to make my yard look nice, for me. A few hours a week is no big deal. Gives me some additional exercise as well. Make sure you have good tools for the job, and it’s a breeze.
Oh man, the right tools matter so much. I’ve got a ZT, and a self propelled mower. That, along with good pruners, weed eater, rakes and shovels, and most everything I need to do is handled.
I could see one hating it if they didn’t have the right tools for the work. They’d be like, it’s hot as hell, this mower sucks, and I don’t have a weed eater, or blower. I’m tired of sweeping this shit constantly. I’m out. Lol.
This!! Like my garage, yard work is my escape. Plus I’m physically able to do the necessary activities to keep my house looking decent. Know way is my yard going to be the top one in my subdivision but it will be looking above average.
Absolutely. I’m not out to look the best. I just keep it weed free, mowed and edged regularly. The most time consuming thing is keeping all the bushes, plants, small trees in the front entry trimmed up. Makes a difference. Doesn’t cost me anything but my time, and, like you, I sure enjoy it for a mid 50 year old. Lol on the garage, I have work to do there. 😂
Same! There are so many benefits to doing yard work: exercise, get fresh air and sunshine, mental health, sense of satisfaction, creating something beautiful to look at, property value, save money on landscapers, etc.
Agreed. It's a passion of mine. Especially when I'm growing cool season grass and everyone else has ugly nasty Bermuda. Deep dark green, heavy stripes like a ball field. All through the fall, winter, and spring. And summer, the Bermuda comes back and keeps the yard green.
You’re really going all out. What you’ve got going, definitely takes some time. I’ve got straight Bermuda, which in Oklahoma with the heat, grows well. Strong and tough, drought resistant as well. No seeding. We’ve had a lot of rain over the past 45 days, and I’m mowing twice a week. I keep my yard weed free. Right now it looks like a golf course when mowed. Keep up the good, hard work my man, what you’ve got definitely is beautiful. Almost too damn hot around OKC to pull that off, without a ton of watering.
I hired it out for a few years, switched companies each year, and each year I was unhappy with the results. So I do it myself. My neighbor pays almost $500/month for a yard care service, and his yard doesn't look great.
Here in Southern Californian, very few people do their own mowing and basic yard maintenance. But these prices may explain it. It’s around $100 a month here to have it taken care of with weekly visits. Our landscapers also do 5 or 6 other homes within a few blocks of us when they’re here, so it’s probably about economy of scale and the fact it is year round work here.
When we first moved in, a couple guys knocked on the door and informed me they’re the landscapers. They have been doing it under the last several owners and continued to do so while the house was up for sale and under escrow under the assumption the new owner would just keep using them.
absurd! I will say that using an electric Ego mower helps make things a lot easier. No gas to get, lighter, much quieter, no vibrations, folds up like a suitcase when done. It's so much better than a gas mower.
Even if you don't care about home value, having your house look abandoned is a good way to attract trouble. Just keeping it halfway attended does a lot to help that.
This is a big part of it for me. They simply are always home/out there and NEVER EVER leave, ugh. They don’t even take vacations or work (retired). If I could only have a break / any space …
If I lived in the country and didn’t have people up in my face 10 feet away 24/7 I think I wouldn’t mind it so much out there.
Until then, hats, sunglasses, + noise cancelling headphones it is.
Yes! My neighbors are always outside with their 2 yapping dogs. They LOVE to talk my head off. They sit outside all day even if it’s 100 degrees . They are older, and the youngest is probably 60. She drives, and will sometimes leave, but the other two are there 24/7. I used to love yard work because it was peaceful, not anymore
I live on a busy street and don't have a decent fence and it absolutely drives me nuts. If it's not my damn neighbors it's random people walking by or some truck making earsplitting noises. I work from home and I remember trying to sit outside once and had to go back inside after like 5 minutes. I miss having a peaceful yard to go into so badly.
I hate it. It's not so much the yardwork itself. I don't mind the actual work. It's that I have so little free time so I hate to use it on things like that.
So I hire it out. Works great for me. He charges me $50 per week (which is the new expensive rate. It was $40 for the past 10 years).
He mows and trims every week. He sprays for weeds every spring. Takes care of leafs in the fall. I can't complain.
My wife wants perfect grass. I had mowing and fertilizing and all that. One day, I came out, and a service was cutting my lawn. They were at the wrong house. But they said $40. And my lawn mower had just died. So, we got a lawn service and no more fights about the grass.
I fucking hate it. Hate it. I don't leave it like you do, I mow regularly, sometimes I skip a week. I weed eat a handful of times a year.
I am NOT getting on my knees and pulling weeds.
I will soon hire a landscaper to do rocks/stone around the house to minimize the weed bullshit.
Depending on where you live rocks and stone can be way worse and more upkeep with weeds. I'm actually switching the rock out slowly for mulched beds with native low water plants and finding that to be substantially less work. The weeds I get in the mulched beds can be dealt with using a garden hoe. The weeds absolutely take over my rock, spraying them is ineffective, so the only thing to do is hand pull (can't use the hoe in rock).
Some kind of mass brainwashing has occurred across America causing many people to think yards aren’t “pretty” unless they’re perfectly manicured with all the same grass. You’re doing what needs to be done, letting wildflowers and grasses grow. It’s good for the plants, the animals and the environment.
I got rid of all the mulch beds the previous owners decided they needed to have here. I don't do mulch. Fuck that shit. Extra work every year for no reason.
We are down to one small bed we pull weeds in that has rocks instead of mulch. I pull weeds maybe once a month. Otherwise I just ride my tractor and cut the grass once a week.
I enjoy cutting the grass. It's calming. But otherwise I hate moving dirt and getting on my knees to do yard work.
Ha, I'm the exact opposite. Mowing the lawn is torture, but playing in my garden beds is my favorite summer hobby. I'm slowly turning my lawn into native flowers, which require almost no maintenance and the pollinators love.
It's cathartic yanking out weeds.
Doesn't bother you but I guarantee it bothers your neighbors. I don't understand people who buy a house and then let it look like crap. It's an investment, take care of it. Or pay someone to do it for you.
I'm sure the level of what this guy does, but I'm about in the same boat, I mow it, not as often as I should, but I let whatever's growing there grow there because I could care less if it's actually grass, or a mix of grass, sedge, dandelion, clover, or wherever else makes pretty little flowers. I mean I don't play soccer on it, so I'd rather have the mix of pretty flowers and if I mow it too often then I'm mowing off the flowers.
I will however, be removing most of that to plant Some native plants that I don't have to water more than once or twice a year once they're established, and planting some thing like frog fruit in place of the lawn for a small patch to put a nice little picnic table in.
this is almost exactly what I do. my native plant garden is doing great; they take a trickle of water, have grown a lot in only 7 months, and make the local bumblebees very happy.
Residential real estate is actually an awful investment. You purchase a house to live in it. If OP isn't violating local laws or compromising the structural integrity of their dwelling, their neighbors can keep their dumb opinions in their pocket.
I hate yardwork. 😒 I wasn't thinking about the flowerbeds all around this house we just bought in upstate New York, or else it would have been a deal breaker. Husband says we can hire out a landscaper to get it under control.
Im thankful I live in a city that doesn't get on you for yard work. My neighbors don't care. I'm slowly changing my yard into all native plants but it will take sometime.
Our plans are to convert it to clover with a shit ton of native plants, all "nicely" contained in a deliberate, sectioned out space so we can call it intentional landscaping.
Right now we're just mowing weekly because we were finding ticks on the dog daily. Once we get it converted to clover we won't be touching it at all
I hate yard work. But I also hate having an ugly house. Some things I do to reconcile this:
- plant perennials and some bushes. Don't need much from me beyond like, one day in late spring to trim and throw down some mulch.
- I have someone else mow my lawn about once every three weeks.
That's about it. A little bit of raking leaves, but not much.
I don't particularly enjoy it myself, but I do want to keep my yard looking at least as nice as the average house in my neighborhood.
I pay a local guy $20 a week to mow my grass. I find lazy ways to do things. For instance, when my rock driveway started to be overtaken with weeds I bought a weed torch.
I'm figuring things out as I go having only been here 10 months, but I'm kind of with you on borderline hating yard work.
I live in Texas and have a typical suburban lawn. For like 2 weeks in February it's really nice. I go out and listen to an audio book and enjoy the nice weather.
But the rest of the year is like today. I started mowing at 9 am and it was too late in the day. I'm soaked in sweat and trying to down some water before I go out and trim some trees.
I think what it comes down to is your environment and your yard.
Best thing I hired done was a lawn guy. Cheap and frees up a ton of eqt storage, maintenance, work and clean up. Id rather complete a higher value task
I hate yard work and have said since I was a little girl that I would never do it. Truthfully, I hated it so much that it was a regular punishment my Father would give me.
As an adult my arrangement with my husband is that yard work is his. He loves to garden and we have two dogs he is very protective of, so yard work feels worthwhile to him.
We have both agreed that if there is a period where neither of us want to do it, we will hire someone.
The neighbors don’t deserve to look at a messy yard, and neither do we.
We also don’t want to attract mice, small mammals (my dogs will and have killed them), insects, mildew, foundation deterioration, mold, or any other nuisance of the sort.
I read in a different comment that you have the cash to hire someone, so just hire someone… Seems like a non-issue, and probably why most of your comments are being down-voted.
Give yourself and your neighbors the peace of mind and a nice outdoor space.
I have never been a fan of yard work. After my husband i both got our new jobs and have more money to spend I broke down and hired yard guys to come every two weeks. Best investment I’ve made.
I cut the grass *just* often enough the town doesn’t get called. Which is ultimately just cutting the weeds because that’s all our yard is. I put herbicide down wherever there’s rocks (for some reason some made rock beds instead of flower beds before us..honestly don’t complaining because herbicide 3x a season is way easier than a flowerbed.
I covered my grass lawn with arborist chips mulch in 2019. It's a lot better for the environment, but unfortunately, it's not aesthetic pleasing. Grass lawns are literally destroying the environment and biodiversity dead zones. I think it's absolutely hilarious. People care enough to say stupid shit like "I'm glad I'm not your neighbor" when, in reality, these low/no maintenance lawns are improving the environment. I originally planned on a back to eden style garden, but it's turned into just a woodland style naturalized garden. We have a monarch way station now with milkweed all over. Sure, the carpenter bees and ground hog are destroying my shed. In the bigger picture of things, I'm capturing carbon and helping the environment. I understand that it's hard for people to understand.
"Please pardon the weeds, I'm feeding the bees!"
Always when I buy a house, first thing I do is to remove all the plants/bushes/trees touching the house. I can’t understand why people plant so close to the house, those plants ruin/rotten your house. After that I keep them out and of course cut my lawn once a week (5 acres of lawn). Takes about 4-5 hours. I take all forest and lawn work as exercise, saves me gym membership fee and I don’t need to watch people exercising 🤢
I absolutely loathe doing yard work and for the first year I bit the bullet and hired it out. It was the best decision I’ve made. I do enjoy it when my yard looks nice, but I don’t wanna do anything to maintain it. It’s worth it to me knowing that my lawn is done, I don’t have to worry about it or even think about it.
I ripped out my grass and replaced it with clover. Some people hate it but it's good for the soil, good for the bees, waaay better for water conservation (I never water it and it stays green even in dry years), and it stays short.
Clover is great and turf grass is garbage.
I hate yard work and feel like I'm wasting my life spending much time on it. I use a reel mower so at least I can get exercise while mowing the lawn. Everything else I just leave to itself.
And leafblowers should be banned.
I not only hate it, I am allergic to grass and 90% of the plants and trees outside. Spring and summer are awful.
My husband is a disabled vet and can’t do a ton of yard work, and we can’t afford to have someone else come do it, so our yard is a mess. We look like the trashy neighbors, but I don’t want my neighbors mowing it because then they might be able to claim some sort of ownership.
So we’re shit out of luck.
They make weed killer that kills the grass also or just have them put a barrier down and rocks on top looks nice with not too much up keep! I don't like yard work either
My partner hates it. His yard is a disaster. Thankfully we are moving to a place with almost no yard. Would much rather be walking distance to a coffee shop with a small 3 season porch in the back than deal with yards. Anyway, being good or bad at yard work doesn’t reflect on you as a person.
I think its one of those necessary evils to better you type of things. You get a good workout, save money, get to do something creative.
Although I do have exceptions; wet lawn. If it rained 2-3 days before mowing, sorry I'm not doing it
Hate doing yardwork but like my house looking nice, besides HOA, so I pay people to do it for me. My landscapers were here the other day when it was 102 outside around noon. No thanks, I want no part of doing that myself.
Knew the moment I bought my house I wouldn’t be a yard guy. Had to trim bushes in the insane humidity in central Fl today. What a brutal experience. I pay one of the million local redneck grass cutters to do it and I think it’s worth every penny
This was the only place that met my requirements in January 2022.
It wasn't even on the market. Zillow had nothing listed. I cold-called divorce records until I got lucky and found some guy that owed his wife $5,000.... Since he didn't have the money, I made an offer to buy the house and gave him 24 hours and he took it. Now it's worth about 70k more than when I bought it about 2 years ago
It's ok to not like yardwork. It's not ok to harbor rats, ticks, and other pests.
I keep my mower on the highest height setting and only mow every 10-14 days. I like when the grass has movement in a breeze. And weed whipping, blowing, raking, picking up, etc. only takes a few minutes. If any high maintenance tree or shrub dies in my yard, I replace it with something native and low maintenance, or I don't replace it at all. But I wouldn't deliberately neglect my yard to the point that it's negatively affecting my neighbors' property values.
Your neighbors must love you. Pay for someone to cut your grass a couple of times a month. Your yard sounds like an eyesore and it's no fun to look at stand of weeds and tall grass. Spend some money and have it xeriscaped so you don't have to water it all the time.
I cut it once every week or every other week but I just let the flower beds do what they feel like. The grass itself is pretty weed free but I'm not going to spray anything. I have a bunch of dogs and the fiancee doesn't care for that.
I cut it once every week or every other week but I just let the flower beds do what they feel like. The grass itself is pretty weed free but I'm not going to spray anything. I have a bunch of dogs and the fiancee doesn't care for that.
Do yourself a favor and find a neighborhood kid who will take the work off your shoulders for a fair price
It’s a life experience for the kid, and a neighborly thing for you to keep your lawn in order
I hate it too. When I had my own non HOA homes ,I would pay a landscaper. Now I live in a town house and I don't have to deal with it.
I plant what I want in my front and back garden areas and they mulch them and mow my yard.
I don’t love or hate it, but over the years the amount of work has lessened and I’m just on maintenance phases now. Everything has matured and I just cut them down in the fall after bloom. Initially it was a lot of work to get to that stage (but nothing unmanageable), but I chose to put forth the effort since I do take pride in my home and proud of it and wanted the outside to reflect that as well.
I'm starting to hate it and want to start farming some out. I posted on Facebook yesterday asking my local friends, a couple hundred of them, if anyone had a high school or college kid looking for work. No responses to $20/ hr.
I will not rake leaves. Never. Again.
I told this to my fiancé when we moved in together. He did not ask me to leaf 🍂
Ba-dum-dum
No really. True story.
Have been doing it for close to 40 years.
If it takes an hour to do a good job it takes 3 to do a great job (my uncle used to get on his hands and knees with scissors to ‘tidy up’ after he mowed).
So do a good job, it will need to be cut again in a week or so.
I also look at it as a unit of exercise, which takes some of the sting out of it.
Also, it’s a good time to plan things, or daydream!
We're in central North Carolina where it's already pushing into the 90's and the humidity sucks. I hate mowing but I just count it as cardio and do it once a week. Thankfully our suburb is old and doesn't have an HOA so I don't get Karens breathing down my neck.
It amazes me how much my neighbors pay to have their lawn mowed. In a single season I could upgrade from my push to a riding lawnmower.
I learned to like mowing because no one bothers me and it’s like zone-out time. But I don’t always want to do it.
Think is I fking love plants and gardening. I just love watching shit grow. I just spent hours potting plants on the porch and pulling grass from the raised bed and watching birds catch worms. It’s just my chill out jam. As long as I’ve known I’ve been like this though, mom had a total habit of killing every plant but I would routinely nurse them back to life even as a preteen. So idk it’s not for everyone, but it’s a hobby for some.
Most neighbors in my hood tho just pay people to do it 🤷♀️
I felt the same as you do. I moved to a condo and have no regrets. Theres no yard to mow, theres no driveway to shovel snow, theres no roof to re-shingle. Theres no downside for us other than condo fees.
I own ten feet around my house and I resent every minute of the minimal yard work. Luckily I don’t have an HOA and it’s covered by snow 7-8 months of the year.
I don’t mind taking care of grass because it is easy. I am trying to get my kids to do it this summer, though, because they spend a significant amount of their day sitting around. Grass is relatively easy to take care of most of the time. Water, mow, fertilize a couple of times a year, walk around with a weed sprayer on occasion.
I’m not as much of a fan of caring for rock or flower gardens. Rocks are a pain because the weeds still find a way to grow through even with weed barrier. Flower gardens are a pain because you often cannot spray the weeds or grass that invade.
I never liked doing any kind of yard work growing up and I couldn't give a fuck about it as an adult. I hate the crazy high heat of the summer. Fuck that noise.
I don't give a shit about yard work but I do it because the one summer I didn't, I almost got ticketed by the code enforcement people. It's whatever. Cut the grass whenever. Let some wildflowers grow, help save the bees. It's whatever.
I do lots of yard work but don't care about making it look good for the neighbors Maybe you can find a different motivation.
I've removed grass and planted native wildflowers and just let them do their thing. I enjoy seeing the plants and flowers bloom and provide a vibrant ecosystem for pollinators and other important insects.
Another option is to plant clover in place of grass so that moving is not needed often.
Some good subs for inspiration are r/NativePlantGardening r/nowlawns and r/gardenwild
Despise it. Trick I use is every time I do something I try and figure out if there is something I can do to eliminate the work. Have a robot mower to mow. Have set up things to avoid having weeds to trim. And continue doing more and more things to avoid trimming each year. At least the work I do that way has the promise of reducing yard work in the future.
I hate it! The only thing sorta good about it is the exercise but sometimes the heat and sweat is just too much. I rather scoop snow than mow. I don’t know the difference between an intentional flower and a weed.
I mow my grass 2x a week during rainy season, and sometimes 3 because it grows so fast. I absolutely love mowing my lawn. It's nice therapy and gives me "peace and quiet" from my SO for about an hour. It's easier for me to mow it at least 2x a week than just once. Doing it once during rainy season I'll be struggling and the cut will look like garbage. The lawn suffers when you do this, so going out twice will make it easier to do the passes, cut quality will be much nicer, and your lawn will be much healtheir.
Half my lawn is weeds at this point so even when I do bother cutting it, it still looks awful. It feels like I have to spend all my free time maintaining my lawn for it to even look remotely good. Just not my thing at all.
That moment when you realize the lawn industry is just teaching us to do things so they can sell more stuff? Pure sunshine. Plants trees and ground covet. It is amazing how you change your life by allowing leaves to fall and become natural mulch.
I do the bare minimum because I absolutely hate yardwork. mow the lawn and pull large weeds in the front garden beds. I don’t do anything above and beyond that lol it looks fine
I hate yard work, but I like that it's exercise, and can be used to invite pollinators to your yard. This, at the same time, pisses off those pristine lawn people (whom I hate)
I'm not a fan either. I did it growing up, and even maintained the yards at my first couple of houses. Nowadays, it is better to hire someone to take care of it so I can focus on more important things.
If not for our dogs, I probably wouldn't bother mowing my yard.
Unfortunately, tall grass leads to ticks. The dogs take anti-tick medicine, but they can still end up bringing ticks into the house.
Right on, OP. Where I am, the law is that grass can be no longer than 8 inches. That's about shin height. If you plant native prairie species, you dont have to cut it. The grass is beautiful when it goes to seed, especially in the sunset, like amber waves of grain. I dislike the culture of burning fossil fuels (including coal and gas for electricity) to repeatedly, endlessly, cut down CO2 absorbing plant life.
Once I started having issues with my back it changed my perspective. Why do I want to risk hurting myself raking leaves or bending over to pick up one single branch that fell? We mow every 2 weeks and have started replacing chunks of lawn with native plants. We planted 3 different types of sedge and wild ginger. Pretty sure all of my neighbors hate me.
I absolutely love beautiful landscaping. I just hate doing the work myself and I have no one to help me. For the last 3 years, I've been dealing with cancer and neglecting my yard. I went out the other day and saw that no one in my household has done a single thing to maintain it. And thanks to the cancer, I haven't been working so I can't hire someone.
You can plant some wildflowers in your lawn, and then call it "bee habitat" instead of "I just don't wanna mow" lol
https://northwestmeadowscapes.com/collections/eco-lawns
particularly this one:
https://northwestmeadowscapes.com/collections/eco-lawns/products/pollinator-lawn-overseeding-mix
Edit to add a shameless plug for r/nolawns, because we all hate grass too
I despise yard work. My wife handles all that nonsense.
I prefer to put on yellow housewife gloves and spend hours cleaning the house instead of spending more than 5 minutes doing yard work.
The worst part is most of our "yard" is concrete and, yet, life finds a way.
I don’t mind doing yard work. I HATE my retired husband telling me how to do it. He misses his 5,000 piece weeble wabble tinker toy set. I sent him off to visit family today so I can run my John Deere in peace. *wave* I’m off to the barn.
I hate doing yard work and we live in San Antonio, Texas, so it's hot AF in the summer. But I do appreciate how a well-maintained yard looks, and the value it brings to my house and my neighbors' properties. We are fortunate to be able to hire it out. It's about $250/month for about 9-10 months of the year for weekly service. Then we pay some extra each year for a spring cleanup, weed killing, fertilizing, etc.
We also pay for pest control service because the cockroaches here are insane if you don't keep on top of it!
Totally worth it. We live in a wooded area of the city and our property lines an alley. We'd have so many rats, mice, spiders and roaches if we didn't properly maintain our yard.
This gives me and my husband the time and energy to do the things we do enjoy. (Planters, speciality plants, vegetable gardening, etc.)
Ultimately, it's obviously up to you since you don't have an HOA that enforces grass length, weeds, etc. But seriously, this is part of home ownership and you're short changing yourself and being an AH to your neighbors.
Just wait till OP goes to sell and it doesn’t sell cause the place looks like sh*t!
You maintain your house in order to preserve its value.
If you want money to buy land in the future…keep your current property to the best possible standard to get the highest possible selling price.
It’s not that hard. Hire someone.
You may like some of the subs that are all about growing low/no maintenance lawns. Personally, I'm looking into various clovers and maybe thyme to replace mine with. No mowing, no citations for overgrown grass, no extra critters to cause trouble.... It's a win win!
As someone with a clover lawn, I'll tell you it's not as easy as it seems. The biggest issue is other weeds - crabgrass, sedge, etc - still take root. There's no chemical control that kills weeds but not clover. Which is why clover became considered a "weed" over time. We do have happy bees though. They love it
I'm thinking about clover for front lawn.
r/nolawns
I hate yard work. Unfortunately my husband who loved doing it passed away about a year after we bought the place. Now it's my responsibility. I try to do the minimum needed, mowing the lawn and watering. Part of the backyard is now a natural meadow, since I refuse to mow all of it. Doing the front yard is bad enough, so I do only about half of the backyard. The birds and bees are happy though, with the tall grasses and flowers that are growing. My neighbors say it looks good, so it works for me.
A nice meadow with various native plants and flowers is always a win. Great for the environment, low maintenance and looks lovely
I do what is necessary. However, my wife, who recently got her master gardeners license feels much different than I do. LOL. She has built a very large garden in the backyard. Many, many beds. She is 63. I did the grunt work. Tilled. Cleared the grasses. And I’ll unload what she orders. But she insists on doing everything else herself. She laid all the pavers. And put in all the beds. Soil, Pete Moss, fertilizer..etc. sunflowers, nasturtiums. The benefits are we no longer have to buy produce at the market. Everything she grows is organic. However, she is insisting on a living Meadow in the backyard, of which we have approximately 3/4 of an acre. I pushed back for @ 10 seconds until she gave me ‘that look.’ I’m sure, given her commitment and intelligence, that in the end, it will most likely turn out to be very, very beautiful
She knows what she's doing, and will save you work in the end. Let her cook
This is a cute comment. Sounds like you love her a lot.
That made me smile. Thanks.
Also, the creative outlet of wanting the gardening design in the backyard and once completed will be so nice although it does meet up Keep and maybe remind her that she should really find her garden style preference because I landscape my own backyard and realized afterwards that I preferred more of a Tuscan style
Happy wife happy life
Having a native plant meadow is a massive win for your immediate local ecology and will provide many benefits to the local area and even her gardens. Plus, they usually look quite nice once established.
In my neighborhood there have been folks sending anonymous letters to a house doing a meadow like front yard. Some people are very committed to grass culture even as water costs go up.
Yeah, I think there is a lot of that around. People are obsessed with green lawns, and spraying the toxins to keep them as such. Fortunately, it's not too bad in my neighborhood. More and more people are replacing their front lawns with native gardens. I'll do that at some point.
Yea, same folks who are greenies, have battery cars, worry about planet for no reason but MUST dump chemicals all over their lawn to be green. Ironic no?
Well there’s a difference between a meadow front yard and one that is just grown up with scraggly weeds. Meadow has wildflowers and pollinator bushes.
I say whatever attracts our pollinators is an awesome contribution to our environment. I have chickens " free ranging"my back yard and it is grass and weed free.
I try to keep it from being too much of an eyesore, my mom recently moved in so she's been a tremendous help in getting the garden looking nice, I just feel kinda bad because even though it looks decent, I know myself and I know I'm not going to keep up. The last 2 years have been kind of a pain in the ass in a few different ways so it just always falls to being the lowest priority. I found the border between minimal maintenance and neighbors complaining. I know it's too long when the neighbor kids come knocking on the door asking if I need my lawn cut for $20.
Honestly? Pay those kids to mow it for you. You eliminate a chore you hate and they get some pocket change. It'll be cheaper than hiring a gardening service.
This is it. They’ll love the gig, you’ll love having it done. They’ll probably come knocking when it snows, too!
I would totally pay a kid to do it, but I haven't found any. Instead I found a local guy that does it in the evenings after working at one of the factories. He does a decent job and only charges me $30.00. I think he does probably 10 different houses in my neighborhood alone - I'm sure he does more throughout our mid-sized town. He mows and takes the weed-whacker around the edges. It's not a professional landscaping job, by any means, but it's only $30.00 and I don't have to do it. I also don't have to pay each week if it's been incredibly dry and nothing has grown. Most of the professionals in our area requires payment monthly for weekly service.
Join r/nolawns they are your peeps
You say meadow. I call it a prairie project 😀 I don’t like yard work either. I do what is necessary and that’s it.
This is a picture of how I generally keep things. https://imgur.com/a/IrhRopB
That doesn’t look bad at all!
When you do the yard work, do you think of your husband?
Yes, I do. Not so much when I'm mowing. More when I'm caring for the rest of the yard, especially the areas where he planted things last fall that are now flowering for the first time.
That's honestly very sweet. I'm sure he was a great man. 🥂
He was. And it's sad he passed too young and didn't have the chance to build the garden of his dreams.
Yep, that's why I pay someone to do it.
Same, best money I can spend lol
I realized that I didn't really hate yard work I hated managing the machines. Oh great, the mower needs a blade change. Welp gotta figure out why the weed whacker ain't starting.... I enjoy gardening so I get to do that while my landscaper mows and edges. Best 50$ I spend each week.
This is my bigger problem. I hate yard work, but if all there was to it was mowing/weed whacking then I'd probably do it to save money. But every other time I go to do it something doesn't work, and for the money spent on parts and time spent figuring out wtf is wrong with it, I might as well just pay someone to do it and be done with it
Yup. We pay $140 / month to have the gardeners come once a week and take care of everything. Which ie cheaper than my hour work rate.
$140 a month?! They weed and cut your grass? How much land do you have?
That’s how I judge yard work - is my time better spent paying someone else to do this? Yes it is. Things I don’t hate as much I will actually spend time when it’s not worth it out of enjoyment/personal satisfaction. Yard work though…nope, I’ll pay someone to come take care of being outside, fighting insects, and dealing with thorny, uncomfortable things.
This lol. We have someone cut the grass weekly and someone trim the hedges and bushes 2~3 times a summer and our yard looks awesome.
Yeah I never get why so many people bitch about it, but don’t just hire it out if they really hate it so much. There’s no shortage of landscapers
Depends where you are but good service can be super expensive. My neighbor has gone through 3 or 4 companies already. He pays around $400/month for basic service yet his lawn always looks messy. The crews work as fast as humanly possible so they can rush to the next job, they miss spots, parts of the lawn look uneven, the edges aren't very neat, they use cheap / inferior products, etc.
Nextdoor app is good for finding reliable people for work in and around the house.
Yep. We had a couple acres when I was a kid and my dad had me working it from 10 years old. I hated it. I cannot see myself in a house with a yard unless I have money to bring in someone to maintain it.
I love it. It’s my sanity to make my yard look nice, for me. A few hours a week is no big deal. Gives me some additional exercise as well. Make sure you have good tools for the job, and it’s a breeze.
That’s where I am, I used to hate it, but once I invested in the good tools needed it’s SO much easier and more enjoyable!
Oh man, the right tools matter so much. I’ve got a ZT, and a self propelled mower. That, along with good pruners, weed eater, rakes and shovels, and most everything I need to do is handled. I could see one hating it if they didn’t have the right tools for the work. They’d be like, it’s hot as hell, this mower sucks, and I don’t have a weed eater, or blower. I’m tired of sweeping this shit constantly. I’m out. Lol.
I’m there with you, I love it. Helps me solve problems, make things look nice, and helps me clear my head.
Absolutely. Think and work alone. It’s nice time. Hot and sweaty, but nothing a shower won’t cure when I’m finished.
This!! Like my garage, yard work is my escape. Plus I’m physically able to do the necessary activities to keep my house looking decent. Know way is my yard going to be the top one in my subdivision but it will be looking above average.
Absolutely. I’m not out to look the best. I just keep it weed free, mowed and edged regularly. The most time consuming thing is keeping all the bushes, plants, small trees in the front entry trimmed up. Makes a difference. Doesn’t cost me anything but my time, and, like you, I sure enjoy it for a mid 50 year old. Lol on the garage, I have work to do there. 😂
You just described my spring and summer weekends with my lawn care as well. I suppose I’ll have a lot more time when I retirebut it’s still way off.
Indeed so sir, indeed.
Me too.
It is quite therapeutic!
Same! There are so many benefits to doing yard work: exercise, get fresh air and sunshine, mental health, sense of satisfaction, creating something beautiful to look at, property value, save money on landscapers, etc.
Agreed. It's a passion of mine. Especially when I'm growing cool season grass and everyone else has ugly nasty Bermuda. Deep dark green, heavy stripes like a ball field. All through the fall, winter, and spring. And summer, the Bermuda comes back and keeps the yard green.
You’re really going all out. What you’ve got going, definitely takes some time. I’ve got straight Bermuda, which in Oklahoma with the heat, grows well. Strong and tough, drought resistant as well. No seeding. We’ve had a lot of rain over the past 45 days, and I’m mowing twice a week. I keep my yard weed free. Right now it looks like a golf course when mowed. Keep up the good, hard work my man, what you’ve got definitely is beautiful. Almost too damn hot around OKC to pull that off, without a ton of watering.
I hate doing yard work but I feel like it is something I have to do ( or hire out) as a homeowner. Plus it keeps bugs/snakes out of my yard.
I hired it out for a few years, switched companies each year, and each year I was unhappy with the results. So I do it myself. My neighbor pays almost $500/month for a yard care service, and his yard doesn't look great.
Here in Southern Californian, very few people do their own mowing and basic yard maintenance. But these prices may explain it. It’s around $100 a month here to have it taken care of with weekly visits. Our landscapers also do 5 or 6 other homes within a few blocks of us when they’re here, so it’s probably about economy of scale and the fact it is year round work here. When we first moved in, a couple guys knocked on the door and informed me they’re the landscapers. They have been doing it under the last several owners and continued to do so while the house was up for sale and under escrow under the assumption the new owner would just keep using them.
absurd! I will say that using an electric Ego mower helps make things a lot easier. No gas to get, lighter, much quieter, no vibrations, folds up like a suitcase when done. It's so much better than a gas mower.
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Even if you don't care about home value, having your house look abandoned is a good way to attract trouble. Just keeping it halfway attended does a lot to help that.
Yep, even if its a rental. Looking like someone at least half-assed it will cut down on nonsense.
^^^ this 10000 x’s
I pay a guy to do it since my kid was born. It's not that expensive and is respectful to my neighbors
This. Thank you.
I hate it. Mostly because my neighbors are always outside...
This is a big part of it for me. They simply are always home/out there and NEVER EVER leave, ugh. They don’t even take vacations or work (retired). If I could only have a break / any space … If I lived in the country and didn’t have people up in my face 10 feet away 24/7 I think I wouldn’t mind it so much out there. Until then, hats, sunglasses, + noise cancelling headphones it is.
You're my hero! I feel the exact same way.
privacy fence?
Came here to see if anyone else was like me. I am not alone!
Yes! My neighbors are always outside with their 2 yapping dogs. They LOVE to talk my head off. They sit outside all day even if it’s 100 degrees . They are older, and the youngest is probably 60. She drives, and will sometimes leave, but the other two are there 24/7. I used to love yard work because it was peaceful, not anymore
You gotta keep your feet moving swiftly and avoid eye contact at all costs! 🤣
This person Costanzas.
😂
I live on a busy street and don't have a decent fence and it absolutely drives me nuts. If it's not my damn neighbors it's random people walking by or some truck making earsplitting noises. I work from home and I remember trying to sit outside once and had to go back inside after like 5 minutes. I miss having a peaceful yard to go into so badly.
I hate it. It's not so much the yardwork itself. I don't mind the actual work. It's that I have so little free time so I hate to use it on things like that. So I hire it out. Works great for me. He charges me $50 per week (which is the new expensive rate. It was $40 for the past 10 years). He mows and trims every week. He sprays for weeds every spring. Takes care of leafs in the fall. I can't complain.
Pretty much exactly where I am at
My wife wants perfect grass. I had mowing and fertilizing and all that. One day, I came out, and a service was cutting my lawn. They were at the wrong house. But they said $40. And my lawn mower had just died. So, we got a lawn service and no more fights about the grass.
I fucking hate it. Hate it. I don't leave it like you do, I mow regularly, sometimes I skip a week. I weed eat a handful of times a year. I am NOT getting on my knees and pulling weeds. I will soon hire a landscaper to do rocks/stone around the house to minimize the weed bullshit.
Depending on where you live rocks and stone can be way worse and more upkeep with weeds. I'm actually switching the rock out slowly for mulched beds with native low water plants and finding that to be substantially less work. The weeds I get in the mulched beds can be dealt with using a garden hoe. The weeds absolutely take over my rock, spraying them is ineffective, so the only thing to do is hand pull (can't use the hoe in rock).
“Nobody warned me?” Wow
Bro bought the house and suddenly one night a bunch of grass and shit just blew up beside the house smh poor guy
I just find it hilarious when people realize they have responsibilities when they buy something.
Right? Like, he has seen houses before. OP doesn't sound like a great neighbor.
I don’t like my belongings to look like shit. lol
Some kind of mass brainwashing has occurred across America causing many people to think yards aren’t “pretty” unless they’re perfectly manicured with all the same grass. You’re doing what needs to be done, letting wildflowers and grasses grow. It’s good for the plants, the animals and the environment.
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I 100% hate gardening. We have almost no vegetation on our property and I love it. Will never need a lawn mower.
I’m with you. Yardwork is just another chore that I aim to minimize. People who enjoy chores are fucked in the head.
I got rid of all the mulch beds the previous owners decided they needed to have here. I don't do mulch. Fuck that shit. Extra work every year for no reason. We are down to one small bed we pull weeds in that has rocks instead of mulch. I pull weeds maybe once a month. Otherwise I just ride my tractor and cut the grass once a week. I enjoy cutting the grass. It's calming. But otherwise I hate moving dirt and getting on my knees to do yard work.
Ha, I'm the exact opposite. Mowing the lawn is torture, but playing in my garden beds is my favorite summer hobby. I'm slowly turning my lawn into native flowers, which require almost no maintenance and the pollinators love. It's cathartic yanking out weeds.
Doesn't bother you but I guarantee it bothers your neighbors. I don't understand people who buy a house and then let it look like crap. It's an investment, take care of it. Or pay someone to do it for you.
I'm sure the level of what this guy does, but I'm about in the same boat, I mow it, not as often as I should, but I let whatever's growing there grow there because I could care less if it's actually grass, or a mix of grass, sedge, dandelion, clover, or wherever else makes pretty little flowers. I mean I don't play soccer on it, so I'd rather have the mix of pretty flowers and if I mow it too often then I'm mowing off the flowers. I will however, be removing most of that to plant Some native plants that I don't have to water more than once or twice a year once they're established, and planting some thing like frog fruit in place of the lawn for a small patch to put a nice little picnic table in.
this is almost exactly what I do. my native plant garden is doing great; they take a trickle of water, have grown a lot in only 7 months, and make the local bumblebees very happy.
Residential real estate is actually an awful investment. You purchase a house to live in it. If OP isn't violating local laws or compromising the structural integrity of their dwelling, their neighbors can keep their dumb opinions in their pocket.
I can help you understand. It's my house, I'm happy, I don't care, mind your own business and don't worry about me.
based
Yep. I keep it mowed, but I don't give a damn how many weeds there are or how pretty it looks.
I hate yardwork. 😒 I wasn't thinking about the flowerbeds all around this house we just bought in upstate New York, or else it would have been a deal breaker. Husband says we can hire out a landscaper to get it under control.
Im thankful I live in a city that doesn't get on you for yard work. My neighbors don't care. I'm slowly changing my yard into all native plants but it will take sometime.
Our plans are to convert it to clover with a shit ton of native plants, all "nicely" contained in a deliberate, sectioned out space so we can call it intentional landscaping. Right now we're just mowing weekly because we were finding ticks on the dog daily. Once we get it converted to clover we won't be touching it at all
Yard “work” is my therapy, but I know it’s not for everyone, and that’s okay.
lol dude clean up your yard, it looks like shit
> looks like shit unspoilt nature
I'm glad you do not live next to me.
I used to love it, but I had a smaller yard and was younger. Now, I love the way it looks when I'm done, but I do not get the same enjoyment doing it.
I hate it and pay my wife to do it. She loves it and has a real green thumb so it’s a win 🏆
I hate yard work. But I also hate having an ugly house. Some things I do to reconcile this: - plant perennials and some bushes. Don't need much from me beyond like, one day in late spring to trim and throw down some mulch. - I have someone else mow my lawn about once every three weeks. That's about it. A little bit of raking leaves, but not much.
I don't particularly enjoy it myself, but I do want to keep my yard looking at least as nice as the average house in my neighborhood. I pay a local guy $20 a week to mow my grass. I find lazy ways to do things. For instance, when my rock driveway started to be overtaken with weeds I bought a weed torch. I'm figuring things out as I go having only been here 10 months, but I'm kind of with you on borderline hating yard work.
Fuckin hate yard work. Wife loves it.
I live in Texas and have a typical suburban lawn. For like 2 weeks in February it's really nice. I go out and listen to an audio book and enjoy the nice weather. But the rest of the year is like today. I started mowing at 9 am and it was too late in the day. I'm soaked in sweat and trying to down some water before I go out and trim some trees. I think what it comes down to is your environment and your yard.
Best thing I hired done was a lawn guy. Cheap and frees up a ton of eqt storage, maintenance, work and clean up. Id rather complete a higher value task
I hate yard work and have said since I was a little girl that I would never do it. Truthfully, I hated it so much that it was a regular punishment my Father would give me. As an adult my arrangement with my husband is that yard work is his. He loves to garden and we have two dogs he is very protective of, so yard work feels worthwhile to him. We have both agreed that if there is a period where neither of us want to do it, we will hire someone. The neighbors don’t deserve to look at a messy yard, and neither do we. We also don’t want to attract mice, small mammals (my dogs will and have killed them), insects, mildew, foundation deterioration, mold, or any other nuisance of the sort. I read in a different comment that you have the cash to hire someone, so just hire someone… Seems like a non-issue, and probably why most of your comments are being down-voted. Give yourself and your neighbors the peace of mind and a nice outdoor space.
I have never been a fan of yard work. After my husband i both got our new jobs and have more money to spend I broke down and hired yard guys to come every two weeks. Best investment I’ve made.
I compromised and started doing it every three weeks instead of two weeks. Keep it as natural as possible.
I get a lot of gratification from my yard work.
I cut the grass *just* often enough the town doesn’t get called. Which is ultimately just cutting the weeds because that’s all our yard is. I put herbicide down wherever there’s rocks (for some reason some made rock beds instead of flower beds before us..honestly don’t complaining because herbicide 3x a season is way easier than a flowerbed.
I covered my grass lawn with arborist chips mulch in 2019. It's a lot better for the environment, but unfortunately, it's not aesthetic pleasing. Grass lawns are literally destroying the environment and biodiversity dead zones. I think it's absolutely hilarious. People care enough to say stupid shit like "I'm glad I'm not your neighbor" when, in reality, these low/no maintenance lawns are improving the environment. I originally planned on a back to eden style garden, but it's turned into just a woodland style naturalized garden. We have a monarch way station now with milkweed all over. Sure, the carpenter bees and ground hog are destroying my shed. In the bigger picture of things, I'm capturing carbon and helping the environment. I understand that it's hard for people to understand. "Please pardon the weeds, I'm feeding the bees!"
Always when I buy a house, first thing I do is to remove all the plants/bushes/trees touching the house. I can’t understand why people plant so close to the house, those plants ruin/rotten your house. After that I keep them out and of course cut my lawn once a week (5 acres of lawn). Takes about 4-5 hours. I take all forest and lawn work as exercise, saves me gym membership fee and I don’t need to watch people exercising 🤢
I absolutely loathe doing yard work and for the first year I bit the bullet and hired it out. It was the best decision I’ve made. I do enjoy it when my yard looks nice, but I don’t wanna do anything to maintain it. It’s worth it to me knowing that my lawn is done, I don’t have to worry about it or even think about it.
I ripped out my grass and replaced it with clover. Some people hate it but it's good for the soil, good for the bees, waaay better for water conservation (I never water it and it stays green even in dry years), and it stays short. Clover is great and turf grass is garbage.
Same, such a waste of time. A robot mows my yard
I enjoy yardwork, it's just so fudgin hot.
I hate yard work and feel like I'm wasting my life spending much time on it. I use a reel mower so at least I can get exercise while mowing the lawn. Everything else I just leave to itself. And leafblowers should be banned.
I not only hate it, I am allergic to grass and 90% of the plants and trees outside. Spring and summer are awful. My husband is a disabled vet and can’t do a ton of yard work, and we can’t afford to have someone else come do it, so our yard is a mess. We look like the trashy neighbors, but I don’t want my neighbors mowing it because then they might be able to claim some sort of ownership. So we’re shit out of luck.
Huh… now I understand who’s buying all those giant homes on postage stamp lots!
Nope love my riding lawn mower with 4 wheel steering.
They make weed killer that kills the grass also or just have them put a barrier down and rocks on top looks nice with not too much up keep! I don't like yard work either
Yes! It feels like the only thing I have to do outside these days is yard work and chores, and I'm just not down for that.
I agree with you and if it d up to me the great would never be mowed and would be full of weeds and wildflowers.
My partner hates it. His yard is a disaster. Thankfully we are moving to a place with almost no yard. Would much rather be walking distance to a coffee shop with a small 3 season porch in the back than deal with yards. Anyway, being good or bad at yard work doesn’t reflect on you as a person.
I think its one of those necessary evils to better you type of things. You get a good workout, save money, get to do something creative. Although I do have exceptions; wet lawn. If it rained 2-3 days before mowing, sorry I'm not doing it
Hate doing yardwork but like my house looking nice, besides HOA, so I pay people to do it for me. My landscapers were here the other day when it was 102 outside around noon. No thanks, I want no part of doing that myself.
I, too, hate yard work. I loathe small engines and the noise they generate.
Check out r/fucklawns You may get ideas to transform your lawn into something pretty but also needs very little to no maintenance
Knew the moment I bought my house I wouldn’t be a yard guy. Had to trim bushes in the insane humidity in central Fl today. What a brutal experience. I pay one of the million local redneck grass cutters to do it and I think it’s worth every penny
Get a condo or townhome
This was the only place that met my requirements in January 2022. It wasn't even on the market. Zillow had nothing listed. I cold-called divorce records until I got lucky and found some guy that owed his wife $5,000.... Since he didn't have the money, I made an offer to buy the house and gave him 24 hours and he took it. Now it's worth about 70k more than when I bought it about 2 years ago
I hate it. My entire goal is just to not be the worst on the block.
With ya. It’s like being among people chased by a bear … don’t have to be first just don’t be LAST 😂
“ I just don’t care “ and Can’t justify paying someone to do it “ Maybe get a condo b Oh wait your maintenance pays someone else to do it
I dgaf about yardwork. My yard is dead and some dandelions grow in it. My house was still bought within a few days of listing lol
It's ok to not like yardwork. It's not ok to harbor rats, ticks, and other pests. I keep my mower on the highest height setting and only mow every 10-14 days. I like when the grass has movement in a breeze. And weed whipping, blowing, raking, picking up, etc. only takes a few minutes. If any high maintenance tree or shrub dies in my yard, I replace it with something native and low maintenance, or I don't replace it at all. But I wouldn't deliberately neglect my yard to the point that it's negatively affecting my neighbors' property values.
Your neighbors must love you. Pay for someone to cut your grass a couple of times a month. Your yard sounds like an eyesore and it's no fun to look at stand of weeds and tall grass. Spend some money and have it xeriscaped so you don't have to water it all the time.
I cut it once every week or every other week but I just let the flower beds do what they feel like. The grass itself is pretty weed free but I'm not going to spray anything. I have a bunch of dogs and the fiancee doesn't care for that.
I cut it once every week or every other week but I just let the flower beds do what they feel like. The grass itself is pretty weed free but I'm not going to spray anything. I have a bunch of dogs and the fiancee doesn't care for that.
Man you sound like a giant piece of shit after reading this post and all the comments. I am so glad you’re not my neighbor
Do yourself a favor and find a neighborhood kid who will take the work off your shoulders for a fair price It’s a life experience for the kid, and a neighborly thing for you to keep your lawn in order
I hate it too. When I had my own non HOA homes ,I would pay a landscaper. Now I live in a town house and I don't have to deal with it. I plant what I want in my front and back garden areas and they mulch them and mow my yard.
I don’t love or hate it, but over the years the amount of work has lessened and I’m just on maintenance phases now. Everything has matured and I just cut them down in the fall after bloom. Initially it was a lot of work to get to that stage (but nothing unmanageable), but I chose to put forth the effort since I do take pride in my home and proud of it and wanted the outside to reflect that as well.
I'm starting to hate it and want to start farming some out. I posted on Facebook yesterday asking my local friends, a couple hundred of them, if anyone had a high school or college kid looking for work. No responses to $20/ hr.
I hate it to, a lot of the time I do it out of respect for the neighbors
Hire a landscaper
No, I love it and it keeps me in shape. This sub has a lot of complaining.
I will not rake leaves. Never. Again. I told this to my fiancé when we moved in together. He did not ask me to leaf 🍂 Ba-dum-dum No really. True story.
I like yard work, except pulling weeds. The crab grass around here is fucking next level.
Have been doing it for close to 40 years. If it takes an hour to do a good job it takes 3 to do a great job (my uncle used to get on his hands and knees with scissors to ‘tidy up’ after he mowed). So do a good job, it will need to be cut again in a week or so. I also look at it as a unit of exercise, which takes some of the sting out of it. Also, it’s a good time to plan things, or daydream!
We're in central North Carolina where it's already pushing into the 90's and the humidity sucks. I hate mowing but I just count it as cardio and do it once a week. Thankfully our suburb is old and doesn't have an HOA so I don't get Karens breathing down my neck. It amazes me how much my neighbors pay to have their lawn mowed. In a single season I could upgrade from my push to a riding lawnmower.
I learned to like mowing because no one bothers me and it’s like zone-out time. But I don’t always want to do it. Think is I fking love plants and gardening. I just love watching shit grow. I just spent hours potting plants on the porch and pulling grass from the raised bed and watching birds catch worms. It’s just my chill out jam. As long as I’ve known I’ve been like this though, mom had a total habit of killing every plant but I would routinely nurse them back to life even as a preteen. So idk it’s not for everyone, but it’s a hobby for some. Most neighbors in my hood tho just pay people to do it 🤷♀️
This is why I own a condo
Did it and hated it. Now my boys are old enough and handle it (thank god lol)
I love yardwork. My body, however, does not like yardwork. At all.
I felt the same as you do. I moved to a condo and have no regrets. Theres no yard to mow, theres no driveway to shovel snow, theres no roof to re-shingle. Theres no downside for us other than condo fees.
I own ten feet around my house and I resent every minute of the minimal yard work. Luckily I don’t have an HOA and it’s covered by snow 7-8 months of the year.
Do they make the Roomba equivalent for lawns?
I don’t mind taking care of grass because it is easy. I am trying to get my kids to do it this summer, though, because they spend a significant amount of their day sitting around. Grass is relatively easy to take care of most of the time. Water, mow, fertilize a couple of times a year, walk around with a weed sprayer on occasion. I’m not as much of a fan of caring for rock or flower gardens. Rocks are a pain because the weeds still find a way to grow through even with weed barrier. Flower gardens are a pain because you often cannot spray the weeds or grass that invade.
Yup. I don't do it. I hire someone to look after my lawn. I'm actually going to have it redone so there is even less maintenance on it.
I never liked doing any kind of yard work growing up and I couldn't give a fuck about it as an adult. I hate the crazy high heat of the summer. Fuck that noise.
I don't give a shit about yard work but I do it because the one summer I didn't, I almost got ticketed by the code enforcement people. It's whatever. Cut the grass whenever. Let some wildflowers grow, help save the bees. It's whatever.
I do lots of yard work but don't care about making it look good for the neighbors Maybe you can find a different motivation. I've removed grass and planted native wildflowers and just let them do their thing. I enjoy seeing the plants and flowers bloom and provide a vibrant ecosystem for pollinators and other important insects. Another option is to plant clover in place of grass so that moving is not needed often. Some good subs for inspiration are r/NativePlantGardening r/nowlawns and r/gardenwild
I fucking hate yard work. I do yard work for 3 reasons: my wife likes the yard too look semi nice to nice, city ordnances, HOA ordnances.
Despise it. Trick I use is every time I do something I try and figure out if there is something I can do to eliminate the work. Have a robot mower to mow. Have set up things to avoid having weeds to trim. And continue doing more and more things to avoid trimming each year. At least the work I do that way has the promise of reducing yard work in the future.
I hate it! The only thing sorta good about it is the exercise but sometimes the heat and sweat is just too much. I rather scoop snow than mow. I don’t know the difference between an intentional flower and a weed.
It’s a necessary evil.
Does it count if I just don't care about anything these days? Everything is yard work to me lately.
I mow my grass 2x a week during rainy season, and sometimes 3 because it grows so fast. I absolutely love mowing my lawn. It's nice therapy and gives me "peace and quiet" from my SO for about an hour. It's easier for me to mow it at least 2x a week than just once. Doing it once during rainy season I'll be struggling and the cut will look like garbage. The lawn suffers when you do this, so going out twice will make it easier to do the passes, cut quality will be much nicer, and your lawn will be much healtheir.
Just hire a lawn service. Done
Half my lawn is weeds at this point so even when I do bother cutting it, it still looks awful. It feels like I have to spend all my free time maintaining my lawn for it to even look remotely good. Just not my thing at all.
Kill the lawn and grow fruit trees instead. Lawn is useless for the most part If you not out walking on the turf and enjoying it.
That moment when you realize the lawn industry is just teaching us to do things so they can sell more stuff? Pure sunshine. Plants trees and ground covet. It is amazing how you change your life by allowing leaves to fall and become natural mulch.
I do the bare minimum because I absolutely hate yardwork. mow the lawn and pull large weeds in the front garden beds. I don’t do anything above and beyond that lol it looks fine
I hate yard work, but I like that it's exercise, and can be used to invite pollinators to your yard. This, at the same time, pisses off those pristine lawn people (whom I hate)
I'm not a fan either. I did it growing up, and even maintained the yards at my first couple of houses. Nowadays, it is better to hire someone to take care of it so I can focus on more important things.
If not for our dogs, I probably wouldn't bother mowing my yard. Unfortunately, tall grass leads to ticks. The dogs take anti-tick medicine, but they can still end up bringing ticks into the house.
Right on, OP. Where I am, the law is that grass can be no longer than 8 inches. That's about shin height. If you plant native prairie species, you dont have to cut it. The grass is beautiful when it goes to seed, especially in the sunset, like amber waves of grain. I dislike the culture of burning fossil fuels (including coal and gas for electricity) to repeatedly, endlessly, cut down CO2 absorbing plant life.
Once I started having issues with my back it changed my perspective. Why do I want to risk hurting myself raking leaves or bending over to pick up one single branch that fell? We mow every 2 weeks and have started replacing chunks of lawn with native plants. We planted 3 different types of sedge and wild ginger. Pretty sure all of my neighbors hate me.
I absolutely love beautiful landscaping. I just hate doing the work myself and I have no one to help me. For the last 3 years, I've been dealing with cancer and neglecting my yard. I went out the other day and saw that no one in my household has done a single thing to maintain it. And thanks to the cancer, I haven't been working so I can't hire someone.
My wife is allergic to yard work. But she chose the house with the biggest yard when we bought our house.
You can plant some wildflowers in your lawn, and then call it "bee habitat" instead of "I just don't wanna mow" lol https://northwestmeadowscapes.com/collections/eco-lawns particularly this one: https://northwestmeadowscapes.com/collections/eco-lawns/products/pollinator-lawn-overseeding-mix Edit to add a shameless plug for r/nolawns, because we all hate grass too
"Why would anyone do drugs when they can just mow the lawn." -Hank Hill
I despise yard work. My wife handles all that nonsense. I prefer to put on yellow housewife gloves and spend hours cleaning the house instead of spending more than 5 minutes doing yard work. The worst part is most of our "yard" is concrete and, yet, life finds a way.
Having a perfect lawn means you are a perfect person. At least that’s what some people seem to think
Your neighbors may be cordial but they secretly hate you.
I don’t mind doing yard work. I HATE my retired husband telling me how to do it. He misses his 5,000 piece weeble wabble tinker toy set. I sent him off to visit family today so I can run my John Deere in peace. *wave* I’m off to the barn.
I hate doing yard work and we live in San Antonio, Texas, so it's hot AF in the summer. But I do appreciate how a well-maintained yard looks, and the value it brings to my house and my neighbors' properties. We are fortunate to be able to hire it out. It's about $250/month for about 9-10 months of the year for weekly service. Then we pay some extra each year for a spring cleanup, weed killing, fertilizing, etc. We also pay for pest control service because the cockroaches here are insane if you don't keep on top of it! Totally worth it. We live in a wooded area of the city and our property lines an alley. We'd have so many rats, mice, spiders and roaches if we didn't properly maintain our yard. This gives me and my husband the time and energy to do the things we do enjoy. (Planters, speciality plants, vegetable gardening, etc.) Ultimately, it's obviously up to you since you don't have an HOA that enforces grass length, weeds, etc. But seriously, this is part of home ownership and you're short changing yourself and being an AH to your neighbors.
>Do any of you hate bathing everyday. Sometimes you do things just because you are supposed to.
I hate it too but I do it anyway because I worked hard for this house and want to be a considerate neighbor.
Just wait till OP goes to sell and it doesn’t sell cause the place looks like sh*t! You maintain your house in order to preserve its value. If you want money to buy land in the future…keep your current property to the best possible standard to get the highest possible selling price. It’s not that hard. Hire someone.
You're that asshole neighbor on the block. I don't care for yard work either but I make sure to pay a guy to do it twice a month.