How much do you pay for your lawn care? How often do they come?

It depends on the economy of the area that you will be doing your work. I used to charge on average, $80.00 per month per landscape, which averaged around 3,000 sq. ft. of turf area. I would spend about 1 hr. per visit once a week, mowing, edging, and blowing off the walks, porches, and driveway area. This came out to 4 hrs. total time on each property, which comes out to a $20.00 per hour charge rate. If they wanted me to spray for weeds in the beds or turf area, I would add on an additional charge to the monthly bill, of $2.00 per gallon of diluted chemical used(usually Roundup and Trimec) in that months time. I would keep track of this for each property so as to make sure I had record of the amount used. During the winter months, when the mowing had stopped, this monthly charge of $80.00 would include pruning of shrubs and some trees, but I would only spend that 1 hr. doing what I could in that time frame (by doing this you can have job security through the winter). And if it snowed, I would go to all my customers landscapes and remove snow from their walks and driveway, but only for an hr or so. You can usually accomplish this in an hour if you get on your horses. This keeps the customer very happy to have their walks clear from slippery conditions, especially the elderly homeowners. So, I pretty much would keep busy all year round with this work ethic. Try it out, and you can adjust the price according to the income of your particular area. You may charge less or you may charge more. Always have an invoice made up to give to the customer at the end of the month with any added expenses, so as not to "surprise" them with a larger bill than what they thought. Hope this answers your question.

**Billy Ray**