skipping the "spring cleanup"?

For those of you with a landscaping service --has anyone ever skipped their landscaper's spring cleanup and just started with weekly service? How bad would that be? Are landscapers ok with that? I feel like I could manage that part...

I do all of my own yard work so I can't answer whether the landscapers would be ok with that. Of course they'd like to make money, but...should be YOUR choice, no? If you're in Maplewood, the DPW has Spring Rake out dates beginng April 10th depending on the section of town you're in. 5 weekly pick-ups scheduled. After that, you pay...

http://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/index.aspx?NID=613

You are hiring them to do your bidding. If they don't want to do the work you specify, they can decline.

I have thought about doing the "cleanup" myself... I get hit for a lot of $$ for what seems like just a raking and some de-thatching, along with picking up winter debris. Has always seemed like if you take some time to DIY and let the landscaper run around with the mow & blow first couple regular visits, you end up in pretty much the same place except with more $$ in your pocket. Besides, early spring is like the only time I feel like doing anything like that. Will wait to see my contract before deciding...

I have this idea that there might be three or four other people in the same boat, and we could share the work at each of our houses. Somehow working in somebody else's yard seems so much less onerous than doing it all myself.

We used to have a landscaper and only contracted for weekly mowing. We did our own 'cleanup'.

May as well skip it. The entire town is going to be a total mess once the blower ban takes effect.

quercus said:

May as well skip it. The entire town is going to be a total mess once the blower ban takes effect.

That's ridiculous! We never had blowers until just a few years ago and the town was not a mess. It's just a little more or different work to clean up what needs to be cleaned up, but there is WAY more blowing going on than is needed to achieve a good result. (We probably wouldn't even be discussing this if landscapers hadn't gone overboard with all the blowing these last few years.)

I usually spring clean my own garden. I begin by removing the dead plants that remained over the winter and put them in a compost pile or if you don’t have any you could just dig them back to the soil. If you have plants like buddleia or lavender in your garden then you would need to cut back each spring because they only bloom on new branches. Dig and turn the soil to a depth of 3 to 4 inches to aerate the soil. You could use a spade or a garden fork for that. Finally, cover the bed with the new mulch. If you have a storage shed in your garden it would be a good idea to organize that too. Spring will mean a busy time in the garden so it's better to have all your gardening tools handy.

I don't think the landscapers went "overboard" on blowing. I've lived in this town for 20 years and they've always used blowers upon cleanup. This is the price you pay for living in the suburbs and want a well manicured lawn. I personally do my own landscaping, and will not be effected, but the uproar of some people and the new ban has me puzzled. No other towns in the entire state other than Maplewood, Morristown, Montclair, Pepack/Gladstone seem to have a problem?

I doesn't hurt to call and ask.  If your current landscaper, assuming you have one, won't do it, there may be others out there who would.  If this is what you want, it is worth a try.

I'm not saying that blowers shouldn't be used at all for Spring Cleanup.  I was remarking on the blower situation in general.  It's the weekly blowing all summer long that's most ridiculous.  Isn't the ban timed to be after Spring Cleanup anyway?

Honestly, "Spring Cleanup" is one reason we got rid of a landscaper service we used to use.  They charged WAY more for it than for weekly mowing and didn't spend proportionately more time on our yard.  (Maybe 4-5 times the cost for twice the amount of time.)  Also, they once chopped down a seedling tree next to our house that probably needed to be (re)moved, but that was not their decision to make.

This is exactly what the problem is. That isn't what lawn services do as part of their spring cleanup. They come by, pick up all the branches and leaves that are left over and then they leave a bill for $350 in your mailbox. You may not even know if they came if it wasn't for the bill.

Our guy manages to have amnesia when we tell him to stop coming, so he ended up surprising us this spring. We just got home one day and there was a bill in the box. It looked a little like something had happened, but it wasn't like were suddenly inspired to feature our home on the cover of South Orange Beautiful magazine.

We also had trouble with the guy trying to reduce the number of cuts for our grass to two a month. They try to argue that it's 'harder' to do the mowing if you only do it every other week.

On top of that, we constantly caught them using blowers earlier in the morning than is legal, and they had a tendency to blow things into our neighbors driveway. Even after asking them to stop doing both of these things they didn't substantially modify their behavior.

I get that running a small business like this is not easy. I have done independent consulting in the past, so I have at least some perspective on what it's like to run a small service like this. And maybe we'd forgive one or two of these things, but all of this together is just too much. (It's the coming too early and not respecting our neighbors that is the worst to us.)

AND believe it or not, this is a service that was recommended to us! We're currently looking for a replacement, but at some point I'll just bite the bullet and pick up a mower. We were hoping to avoid cluttering up our garage and not having to add another 'chore', but at some point dealing with these companies becomes a bigger chore!

stephenhes said:

I usually spring clean my own garden. I begin by removing the dead plants that remained over the winter and put them in a compost pile or if you don’t have any you could just dig them back to the soil. If you have plants like buddleia or lavender in your garden then you would need to cut back each spring because they only bloom on new branches. Dig and turn the soil to a depth of 3 to 4 inches to aerate the soil. You could use a spade or a garden fork for that. Finally, cover the bed with the new mulch. If you have a storage shed in your garden it would be a good idea to organize that too. Spring will mean a busy time in the garden so it's better to have all your gardening tools handy.

If I had instructed my guy not to do the cleanup, I would not be paying that bill.

Absolutely skip it.   I am doing that this year too.    Our landscaper sent a contract with options this year and you check off what you want.

Is it necessary to rake in addition to blowing? does it serve a purpose?

Anthony's Landscaping let's you order a la cart. I think they'll come look at your yard and give you an itemized estimate and you can choose what they do based on what you want and can afford. I occasionally have them just do my fall clean up if I feel lazy and want it done properly (they get all the leaves out of the sunken windows, which somehow takes me forever and I hate it.)

My current system is completely patched together: one person just mows the lawn, then another weeds and mulches the flower beds. I don't let anyone touch the shrubs, because I enjoy pruning them myself. If I need the meditative effects, I'll spend an afternoon pulling up dandelions.

Do it however you want. 

Got rid of my lawn company back in 2008 at the beginning of the great recession. Invested about $350 in an electric mower, blower, trimmer and extension cords, and have not looked back since. Gets me out of the house for exercise on the weekend and allows me to cleanup on my own schedule. 

jersey_boy said:

My current system is completely patched together: one person just mows the lawn, then another weeds and mulches the flower beds.  

Who do you have mulch the beds if I may ask... We're planning on doing a big mulching but need to establish some beds that have been neglected and are wondering if it might not be worth it to have someone do it for us. Since it's a smaller job, we've been hearing that not many people would take it on...

I've always felt the "spring clean up" by a landscaper is a waste of money.

I'd love that name & number too!

lolapants said:

jersey_boy said:

My current system is completely patched together: one person just mows the lawn, then another weeds and mulches the flower beds.  

Who do you have mulch the beds if I may ask... We're planning on doing a big mulching but need to establish some beds that have been neglected and are wondering if it might not be worth it to have someone do it for us. Since it's a smaller job, we've been hearing that not many people would take it on...

The Gardening Fairies. Elizabeth Payne. 815-342-0249. She manages the garden beds and also a few urns I have around. She also designed a shade garden for the shady side of our house.