I got rid of Tru Green lawn care for my 4 student rentals, as they kept charging me for these expensive lawn treatments without first asking, and they could never consolidate my 4 rentals into a single account.

I’d like to keep the small front lawns at my rentals looking nice, and I’m wondering if I should add lawn care to my maintenance schedule and have my lawn cutting guy, spread fertilizer, weed killer, etc., or if I should find another lawn care service. What do you think?

If you think It best that me and my lawn guy do it ourselves, can you tell me what are the basics for keeping a lawn looking nice, as far as fertilizer, weed and pest control, and anything else?

Or should I eliminate the small lawns and do something else in the front of the house, like some ivy, stones and shrubs?

You can see the properties at brunswick student housing website.

Thanks. -Bill

I couldn't find the units online with the info provided. Unless you're renting top-tier Class A units, I wouldn't do anything more than mow and edging.

Definitely sub it out. But...given that you have four properties, I'd negotiate with them. At first don't tell them you have four...just get a price for one. Let's say it's $40/treatment. Then tell them you have four and ask for a quantity discount...ask for $35/property.

I should clarify that when I say "we" do things...we actually do most of it but we HIRE the tree limb cutting for anything that requires a ladder or large branches that may fall and injure/damage something.

Milorganite, at about half rate recommended, according to their schedule for your area. Milorganite can go on everything, so no worries about damaging other plants. Set the lawn mower to one of the higher settings on your mower. I use an Ego mower ( not self-propelled) to do my four properties, two one day, two the next. The Ego lifts in and out of the landlordmobile easily.

Watch youtube videos from Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia for trees, shrubs, grasses and forbs that will help you reduce mowing, provide habitat for native insects ( ummm...we SERIOUSLY need those,) and provide interesting low maintenance spaces for people too.

Did you say you have been hiring TWO "lawn guys", one to mow and the other to fertilize & kill weeds?!

Surely the mower could spread fertilizer if you want him to.

At my own house, it's overseeding as needed with fertilizer in the fall, crabgrass pre-emergent prevention with fertilizer in the early spring, and broad-leaf weed killer in later spring.

Oh, good way to decide what should be kept grass, what should be changed to shrubs, plants, mulch, pavers is to mow and to observe.

Observe how the tenants use the spaces. Do they walk on the sidewalks, or do they cut across lawn? ( Are paved surfaces where they make sense?) Do tenants have easy access to get in and out of their cars, are garbage and recycling cans easily accessible? Are there ugly views that could be blocked with some nice shrubs ? I am putting one more variety of lilac in my allee of lilacs between my last house and the neighboring house. Seems that house next door gets rather rowdy in the evenings, with lots of coming and going. So, extending the lilac bushes will provide some nice screening in a few short years.

Do you have time to DIY?

Do you want to DIY?

Between my 18th and my 21st birthdays, I managed to buy 6 (six) single family homes. I did not have the time to cut the lawns or service my two pools every week. I was too busy getting a college education, working full time and paying my bills.

A weekly gardening service ran me $35 a month and a pool service with chemicals ran me $40 per month. So that came to around $300 per month in those costs. That averages around $50 per month per home. Rents at the time were around $695 a month. Meaning the pool/yard ran 7% of the monthly rental.

I had discussions with other landlords at the time. They had their family, kids and others do the work to save on expenses.

I would agree with ' Don't do lawn care if you don't enjoy it.' For sure. A paid mow'n blow local will do as adequate a job as any landlord who doesn't enjoy yardwork. For me, its my favorite hobby, so, if I can spend time planning, designing, planting, caring for plants, and seeing the abundance of insects, and then birds which follow the installation of native plants, then , yippee! That's for me. My tenants do enjoy seeing the beautiful yard, and spend time out there, though, I'm sure they'd like me to be on the property a little less sometimes. I schedule a regular day at the beginning of the season, so I don't have to text them each week. Then I text again when I get there, and a short text when I'm done. Yep, some tenants seem to be annoyed by how often I am dinking around outside, but, as I get the properties sorted out, the time it takes is going down, AND a couple of tenants have mentioned how much their families and friends compliment them on the pretty spaces.

Sorry, I shouldn’t have used the word DIY. What I meant, was to figure out what was needed and hand off the fertilizing and weed killing to my lawn cutting guy.

I agree Busy, if you like to do it, then yippee! And I’ll bet your tenants don’t mind having you around. I’ll bet they appreciate how nice you keep everything :-) And great tips on designing and watching how people use the space. And cool on the Milorganite. “produced by treating sewage sludge by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District”. Thank you for all the information! Much appreciated!

And Robert J, that makes sense, to do the high value work, if you have the skills and leave the lawn care to someone else. I think SID said something along those lines, saying that lawncare is a low-value added task.

Ken, that is funny how that works. I will bear in mind.

Vee, always good to get a chance to keep an eye on things :-)

DJ, I have a guy doing the lawn, but I used to have one of those big companies with the big trucks that come and dump stuff on your lawn. Now I got rid of the big company and thinking I’m gona have my lawn guy do that too.

Thanks, Barb, for the input on not fertilizing. I’ve heard that a green lawn makes a green lake so it would be good if we can all tone that fertilizing down and just seed where necessary. I hope you are doing well.

Hoosier, I wish my tenants would take care of the lawn, but they’re students and many of them are waiting for their mom to come and wash their dishes :-) And awesome tip on the branch reminder. Thank you for that!! I’m going to be looking this weekend for them.

So, even with the lawn care guy doing the work, some of the observations still apply. I was watching a lawn care company do a neighboring property. There was a women my age supervising, and a young fella ( maybe 19 years) mowing. I noticed has was having to duck awkwardly around a couple of trees and bishes, so, I chatted with the supervisor. She hires kids who 'aren't on a good path' gives them mentoring, and teaches them how to mow. Great! Fabulous! I offered to trim the branches the tall young fella was having to duck under. A few snips from my trusty loppers, and it was easier to manipulate, and less likely to hit an eye! And I made a new friend.

There were also several holes in the neighbor's lawn, some from old tree stumps that rotted out. When I have extra soil, say from edging a walkway, I fill in those holes. Less likely for the hired guy to twist an ankle.

Busy,

Will you make a trip to Indiana for me?

I would gladly pay you to look at my lawn and help me get on the right path. You do so much more for your rentals than I seem to do for my residence.

If you go to the convention you will drive right by me... kind of.

Busy,

I'll buy you lunch. That should make it worth your while.

That or you can stop mid way to the convention and start designing my new lawn. I won't be there tho, so maybe that won't work out either.

Not expanding? Come on. After a short time you will have no more lawn work, or sealing in the attic work, or any of the other fun stuff you do.