our yard is over-run by weeds. it's a pretty big yard. the options are as follows:
1) pay a company to come out and perform maintenance over the growing season--fertilizing, weed killing, aerating the lawn, seeding as necessary--for what works out to about $600 a year (if we do the aeration etc.; it's $54 per visit if we just do the 7 maintenance visits)
2) spend some fraction of that money to try and do it ourselves. of course, i have no idea what fraction of that price that will be, and whether it will be a savings worth the hassle. nor do i know if the pro's have access to materials that your average hardware/garden store does not carry. every easily available weed killing product out there has reviews that give me pause.
3) not care about the state of the yard. i would normally lean towards this but it really is a disaster zone. and the weeds are not attractive weeds.
4) pay a company for as long as it takes to get the lawn back in shape and then pay attention to maintaining it ourselves. of course, we've not done a good job of that for the last two years, and there are now fewer hours in the day than there were before (also applies to option 2).
thoughts?
yard care
Started by mongo_jones, Jul 23 2009 02:11 AM
42 replies to this topic
#1
mongo_jones
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 02:11 AM
purdah nahin jab koi khuda se, bandon se purdah karna kya?
~shaqeel badayuni
if it takes us seven years to prepare for a madness, how long shall it take us to run naked into the marketplace?
~yoruba proverb
facts are meaningless. you could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!
~homer simpson
maybe it wasn't the best wording.
~nathan
#2
yvonne johnson
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 02:21 AM
Don't dogs eat absolutely anything?
Even cats eat grass/weeds before sicking it up. Jeez.
Even cats eat grass/weeds before sicking it up. Jeez.
It was not a new dish, as I recognised my tooth marks. Wilfrid
#3
mongo_jones
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 02:29 AM
our dogs prefer to eat their own poop.
purdah nahin jab koi khuda se, bandon se purdah karna kya?
~shaqeel badayuni
if it takes us seven years to prepare for a madness, how long shall it take us to run naked into the marketplace?
~yoruba proverb
facts are meaningless. you could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!
~homer simpson
maybe it wasn't the best wording.
~nathan
#4
yvonne johnson
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 02:35 AM
You and poop.
Out of curiosity, is it possible to infect one-dog-self from this practice?
Silly q or not: Do humans infect themselves or only from others?
Out of curiosity, is it possible to infect one-dog-self from this practice?
Silly q or not: Do humans infect themselves or only from others?
It was not a new dish, as I recognised my tooth marks. Wilfrid
#5
Evelyn
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 03:19 AM
Look at it this way. The cost is less than $2.00 a day to have a yard well-kept by someone else. Cough up the cash, it is worth it. At some point in the future, if you feel comfortable with doing the upkeep (or training the wee one to take over as part of his chores 
), then you can stop the yard service.
), then you can stop the yard service.
#6
Wilfrid1
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 03:20 AM
QUOTE(yvonne johnson @ Jul 22 2009, 10:35 PM) 
Silly q or not: Do humans infect themselves or only from others?
No, you can't infect yourself.
Elect-a-lujah
***Every Monday***At the Sign of the Pink Pig.
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***Every Monday***At the Sign of the Pink Pig.
If the author could go around the place hitting random readers with a rubber hammer, the Pink Pig would still be worth a visit.
#7
ghostrider
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 03:39 AM
5) Ignore it. People are way too hung up on their lawns. Weeds are beautiful & natural. Weeds need love too. Give 'em a little trim once in a while & enjoy them for what they are.
It's all in the mind.
It's all in the mind.
It was hard to avoid the feeling that somebody, somewhere, was missing the point. I couldn't even be sure that it wasn't me. - Douglas Adams
Please come visit my rock concert blog: Tantalized.
Please come visit my rock concert blog: Tantalized.
#8
mongo_jones
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 03:43 AM
QUOTE(mongo_jones @ Jul 22 2009, 09:11 PM)
3) not care about the state of the yard. i would normally lean towards this but it really is a disaster zone. and the weeds are not attractive weeds.
QUOTE(ghostrider @ Jul 22 2009, 10:39 PM)
5) Ignore it. People are way too hung up on their lawns. Weeds are beautiful & natural. Weeds need love too. Give 'em a little trim once in a while & enjoy them for what they are.
It's all in the mind.
It's all in the mind.
purdah nahin jab koi khuda se, bandon se purdah karna kya?
~shaqeel badayuni
if it takes us seven years to prepare for a madness, how long shall it take us to run naked into the marketplace?
~yoruba proverb
facts are meaningless. you could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!
~homer simpson
maybe it wasn't the best wording.
~nathan
#9
ghostrider
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 04:33 AM
QUOTE(mongo_jones @ Jul 22 2009, 11:43 PM)
QUOTE(mongo_jones @ Jul 22 2009, 09:11 PM)
3) not care about the state of the yard. i would normally lean towards this but it really is a disaster zone. and the weeds are not attractive weeds.
QUOTE(ghostrider @ Jul 22 2009, 10:39 PM)
5) Ignore it. People are way too hung up on their lawns. Weeds are beautiful & natural. Weeds need love too. Give 'em a little trim once in a while & enjoy them for what they are.
It's all in the mind.
It's all in the mind.
Sentences that aren't properly capitalized just don't stay in my mind very long.
It was hard to avoid the feeling that somebody, somewhere, was missing the point. I couldn't even be sure that it wasn't me. - Douglas Adams
Please come visit my rock concert blog: Tantalized.
Please come visit my rock concert blog: Tantalized.
#10
hollywood
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 07:30 AM
Isn't there going to be some hard freeze that kills off all these godforsaken weeds?
I'd give it all up, for just a little bit more.
Monty Burns
Monty Burns
#11
Rail Paul
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 11:24 AM
Cut the lawn as short as you can.
Put down a weed barrier fabric.
Have several loads of colored stones delivered and dumped in your driveway
Arrange the stones on the former lawn in any pattern you wish, including swirls
Ignore for 20 years.
Put down a weed barrier fabric.
Have several loads of colored stones delivered and dumped in your driveway
Arrange the stones on the former lawn in any pattern you wish, including swirls
Ignore for 20 years.
"Peter Kiewit looked for three things in hiring people. He looked for integrity, intelligence and energy. And he said if a person didn’t have the first…that the latter two would kill him. Because if they don’t have integrity, you want ‘em dumb and lazy. You don’t want ‘em smart and energetic.”
Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett
#12
SLBunge
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 11:49 AM
I spend money on all sorts of things that many people find frivolous but for some reason I don't think I could ever bring myself to pay for a professional lawn service.
I wouldn't have a problem paying a neighborhood teenager to mow the lawn but I have a laughably small amount of actual grass.
I wouldn't have a problem paying a neighborhood teenager to mow the lawn but I have a laughably small amount of actual grass.
Suffocating under a pile of cheese curds.
#13
GG Mora
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 12:03 PM
Really? You would pay money to dump a bunch of chemicals on your yard just to achieve some bourgeois ideal of a perfect lawn? Serious? What's next, plastic surgery for your laugh lines?
#14
GG Mora
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 02:26 PM
Oh, and by the way.
Go ahead and pay somebody to cut it. No harm or shame in that. Dig out some of the worst-offending weeds by their roots. Some of them may pull out easily. Work to get the weeds out before they go to seed (this is nigh on impossible with dandelions, however...learn to appreciate your spring lawn aflame in blazing yellow flowers). Use the sunniest parts of your lawn to plant more edible things. Plant a small orchard to supply your jam-making efforts.
Go ahead and pay somebody to cut it. No harm or shame in that. Dig out some of the worst-offending weeds by their roots. Some of them may pull out easily. Work to get the weeds out before they go to seed (this is nigh on impossible with dandelions, however...learn to appreciate your spring lawn aflame in blazing yellow flowers). Use the sunniest parts of your lawn to plant more edible things. Plant a small orchard to supply your jam-making efforts.
#15
fentona
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Posted 23 July 2009 - 02:42 PM
Don't you have a goat? A goat will eat all your weeds for you. Then, when the weeds are gone, feed it leftover tin cans.
Andrew Fenton
