Yard Work-ETA

I do the most of it. We have a parking strip, full front garden-- mixed cottage garden with veggies and some grass paths, a side yard which is mostly grass and native plants, and the back yard which has bulbs, herbs, two kinds of berry bushes and more grass.

I hate grass. If I had a million dollars, I wouldn't go on vacation or buy a new house. I would have the grass removed. Hate.It. !!!

My husband deals with some of the grass with the mower/weed whacker. He's the guy who prunes the high spots on the trees or puts the bird block over the cherry tree. Much of the paths and right around the plants, I use a sickle. I like fussing over some of the plants, pruning... love my flowers, so it's worth it. I have shasta daisies, huge drifts of pink alstromeria, wallflower and some poppies all in bloom right now....it's lovely. Later this summer I'll have my sunflowers, more poppies, zinnias and a second round of alstromeria and hydrangea. My son helps M. do some of the seed planting and loves to dig in any patch of available dirt. I maintain it as best I can so it looks presentable, and then prioritize according to what's looking worst at the moment. For example, my ferns didn't get trimmed last year, but you can't really tell--- the big weeds growing in the chard or around the new zinnias or sunflowers? They get my first attention. Also, whatever makes it hard for people to pass by or get out of their cars also gets prioritized above the invasive native in the side yard. It's good to learn what to ignore...!

We live in a 2 bed apt with a balcony. We have a total of 4 potted plants. I water them on occassion by taking some water out of the fishtank and giving it to the plants. So per week, our "yard" maintenance is like 0.5 minutes.

1/2 acre. Half planted in natives - low maintenance, low water, half in lawn and ornamentals.

I do most of the work. My sons help mow and weed, about an hour a week. I spend one or two afternoons a week in the yard, trimming, weeding, rearranging and planting but why....

J. put my flowers in last week. Deer resistant everything. It looked beautiful and lasted 2 days. Bambi wins again. Back to basic greens.

We have close to half an acre. A good third of it is "natural," that is, trees and native ground cover that we pretty much leave alone.
The rest is deck, patio, two lawns and some landscaped areas. We have a garden service that comes in once a week, they do your basic mow and blow, and some trimming.
I have potted plants and flowers by the front door and on the deck and patio. I take care of those. My husband feeds the lawns and maintains the irrigation system, and sometimes he does some trimming and edging. He also maintains the deck.
The kids used to help in the yard a lot when they were little but now that they are teens they are SO not into it anymore! Sometimes we will have them do some clean up, weed pulling, trimming, etc. when they are looking to earn extra money :)

We have a small front yard, and a bigger back yard.

My Guy usually mows the front, the kids sometimes do the back.

We're not watering because there's a drought and it's J. too expensive. It's all I can do to J. keep the tomatoes going.

As for my garden, I have a Burning Bush, a Crepe Myrtle and the rest is everblooming daylilies (Stella d'Oro). I don't really have to do anything with it. At the beginning of the season, I spot spray for weeds on my mulch and edge the entire yard with weed/grass killer. Makes weedeating much easier and lasts for 3 months. :-)

We have a very large yard for our area in the burbs... a little over 1/2 acre and we back up to an 85 acre preserve.

Our yard is 3 tiered as well so it is like having 3 yards because each tier is different as far as watering, etc.

My hubby does most of the work when it comes to the yard. He is very picky and we've had 3 services in the past but no one does it the way "he" wants it so he does it himself.

It is a huge job and depending on what he is doing, it can take 1/2 day to most of the weekend. Last week he got 6 yds of dirt delivered and he spread it out all by himself.

Like I said he is very picky. Our water bills are already hitting the $250 mark and the highest last year was over $700. We are on water restriction and we only water on our specific day but when we do, we soak it.

I have to say that hubby keeps our yard looking very nice.

As for M., I do not like being in the yard, in the grass, etc. It is itchy and because we back up to the woods, we have copperhead snakes (I HATE) but I love the other wildlife we see often which as bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, owls, etc.

We don't have a garden (no space) but up until recently (two months ago) we did do our own yard work. It was a family affair with even the toddler pitching in. He likes to pick flowers and to pick up sticks for the beloved trashcan. :) I would mow and do the flowerbeds/hanging baskets (fertilize, pull weeds, deadhead flowers, etc.). My husband would do the rest (edge, weed eat, blow, trim trees, plant as needed, seasonal heavy fertilizing, bug/snail baiting, all pruning, etc.). My husband is a perfectionist always secretly aiming for yard of the month. Thus, it took us about 2 to 3 hours every other weekend. He has high standards and used to run a landscaping business so the end results are a professional looking yard. We do water everything but that is set up on timer with water hoses. Due to the heat, our toddler and my pregnancy we have finally splurged on a yard service but most likely that will go away when the new baby arrives. We went through three service companies before we found one my husband could tolerate even slightly. The front yard is average suburban yard size while the back is miniscule (the pool takes up all the space). It’s not much square footage in the scheme of things but it is my husband's pride and joy.

We have a small yard (1/3 acre) and it was well landscaped when we moved in. The older kids mow the lawn and week whack plus rake leaves, do spring and fall clean up, spread mulch and loam etc. All of that is co-managed by my husband and M..

I am in charge of all of the flowers and shrubs. We have mature foundation beds in the front of our house, shrubs along fences, perennial flowers along back of the house, two giant perennial flower gardens in the main part of our yard, a smaller perennial garden in the pool area, and random flowering shrubs around the yard. Those are all my babies. I normally do a small vegetable garden but have been too busy with work this year. I have potted perennial an annual herbs. I spend a lot of time readying the yard in the spring and fall and then maybe an hour or two a week the rest of the year. I also do some of the hardscaping - I re-did a stone walkway in the front yard and maintain our stone walls in back yard.

Having the yard look great is super important to M.! We live on a busy street with lots of people passing by our house and this is the face that I show the world. I love that most days, i come home and can be proud of how my house looks from the outside - it has lots of curb appeal. Then, we live in the back yard from May - September, so it's important to M. that this look good for my own pleasure, but also because this is where I entertain weekend after weekend all summer.

My husband does most of the yard work. I maintain the bird feeders and I plant flowers if I want them. I haven't mowed a lawn in over 20 years and I rarely rake. I don't like yard work, and I don't care what the yard looks like so long as it isn't overgrown. The kids help with raking in the fall, picking up things before their dad mows, and sometimes pulling weeds or moving small rocks.

I have a friend that puts constant work into her yard and garden. She enjoys it, and she's good at it.

I say whatever floats your boat.

We have 3 acres of fenced yard. Within that we have part of it fenced off for pigs and another section fenced for our German Shepherd. Then the entire area is fenced and gated, too. That is the part that we maintain. There is an un-fenced area that grows wild.

I do most of the mowing on a tractor mower, and I mow once a week until it gets really hot (now), and then I can mow every other week. My husband does all of the weed-eating and edging. We have a stock pond that needs lots of weed-eating.

I have a rose garden, grow a bunch of other various flowers, and grow herbs and peppers, too. Our boys, ages 8 and 14 pull weeds every week or two, and I pull them every time I water, also. That way they don't get too bad. Our oldest son sprays weed killer all along the fence line so that my husband doesn't have to weed-eat there anymore. The boys also help any time we have a big storm and need to pick up branches. We have a lot of trees.

The boys also take care of the pigs while I'm doing yard work. We all pitch in there.

I spend a ton of time on the roses, flowers, herbs, and peppers, but that's because I love them, and I love being outside, especially in the morning and evening. :) It's J. so hot (100+) the rest of the day.

I cried when I read "When I moved here 11 years ago, the North Dakota prairie grew right up to my front door, so I knew I had my work cut out for M.." And then read that you converted it to 1.5 acres of lawn. What a huge loss of beautiful habitat.

We currently live on a 1/2 acre suburban lot. We converted a bunch of lawn to perennial garden beds (lots of flower variety for butterflies and birds) and vegetable/fruit gardens (mostly perennial). I weed once each year and then mulch. I am responsible for the gardens 100%. I am also responsible for raking. I used to be responsible for mowing but my husband has recently taken over some of it. We never remove "weeds" from our lawn, we actually encourage them because of the variety they provide for insects and animals. We also let our lawn go dormant in the heat of summer (i.e. we never water it). My perennial flower gardens rarely need to be watered because of the plant choices. I only water my vegie garden.

We are building a house on a 1 acre suburban in-fill lot. We removed as few trees as possible (other than the invasive buckthorn trees). We are planting mostly natives (J. completed a native butterfly garden and got certified as a Monarch Waystation) and lots of edibles. I have started studying permaculture techniques and philosophy. The goal for both my husband and M. is to have NO LAWN! We do not want to ever have to mow again. This year I will be doing lots of sheet mulching for the areas where I want plant next year. I will be planting fruit trees and bushes underplanted with other plants that like to grow with them in a symbiotic way with an emphasis on creating a balanced, self sustaining garden. I am planning a mix of edible cultivars along with edible native plants.

My goal, have great productivity from the land with as little work needed to sustain it. Weeding when necessary will consist of J. slashing and dropping the weeds in place to act as mulch and nutrition for the other plants. Watering will be accomplished by hugelkultur techniques.

All of us work the yard but mowing and weed whacking usually falls on Troy.

I am slow on redoing the landscaping but that is usually my stuff to piddle with.

Our garden is 20 by 40, I call it the back 40. Aren't I clever? :p The garden takes us a weekend in the spring but after that it is pretty low maintenance. Mostly going out and picking the veggies.

Well... we don't have a huge house or a huge yard. But we both work at it - separately, because we take different responsibilities. It works better for us that way. When the children were growing up, they learned how to mow and how to weed, so they helped in those ways.

For years, all we could do was J. try to keep the grass growing. Flowers would look at M. and die! Now, however, we've been able to do some more successful planting.

Five years or so ago, I almost gave up the flowers, which I love, as beyond my ability. But hiring a landscaper to work on the whole outside area was too expensive. The man did work on the large flower bed, and showed us what he did and what he used. Once we were better educated, we could continue ourselves. My husband was so impressed with the look of the moss rock edging that he has done the same thing with a lot of the garden and shrubbery areas. I tend to do the plant selection, the planting, and the weeding. I declared myself allergic to lawn mowers (:^D) years ago, so he does the cutting and a lot of the watering. Since I'm married to a rather "nobody's going to tell M. what to do" kind of guy, I let him pick what he wants to work on and I take the rest. No big deal.

With the fires in this area, it has become even more important to us and our neighbors to take care of our yards and keep them from drying up. Making them look nice is good, too!

Well, my house sits on a lot in a housing development that is 40' by 90'. Of course most of the lot is taken up by the house so we have a small yard. We have been here 10 years and I have gone through phases where I plant a bunch of stuff. Frankly, I have found that I J. do NOT like yard work. Our yard needs to be cut now...and I am dreading that either myself of my husband needs to do it. Since we have had kids, it is J. not my priority for sure. I aspire to be able to hire someone to maintain it....

I pay a guy $25 to mow my little lot.

I do plant a container garden of herbs, tomatoes, and hot peppers.

I envy your energy!

We rent so all the boring maintenence type stuff gets done by the gardeners. (A lot of it is not to my liking... the whole front is almost all squared off hedgy things that were planted over 50 years ago and are innapropriate for their location. Another frustration of renting, but I digress.)

I LOVE weeding too - pretty much an addiction :)

We share all the watering and maintenence - kid is only 3 but loves to help and water. Husband is more of the green thumb in the garden dept. I plant the non-food items. Summer seems to be a little more time spent but we mostly J. have to water, weed & feed that probably averages at 5-7 hours/wk. The planting is sort of once in a while.

We basically feel limited by time since we both work but mostly limited by the fact that we don't own our place. We would do a lot more if we were investing in our own property. Yours sounds amazing.

It sounds like you really love it BUT -- and I say this fully realizing this wasn't your question :) -- if no one else can/will help you, you should feel completely ok about hiring somebody to help out once in a while if you can afford it and you want the help. A lot of people are surprised by how cheap it s to have a crew come by and spend a few hours even if it's not on a regular basis. J. to do the stuff you aren't as excited about. Even if you love it, big jobs deserve a little help.

Happy gardening!

I am responsible for the yard, the kids do help out. We live rural and before we came here the yard was neglected. We saved one side, which I am trying to let reseed itself again but it is driving M. crazy. The other side is weeds, I used to keep them green and give the appearance of grass but decided this year I don't want to.

I also have a garden and everyone kinda pitches in there, but not always. It's moderate sized, and right now I need to weed it badly but it will have to wait for a few more days.

Mowing is normally once a week, haven't done it this year, watering is a pain cause I have to move the lines and it can take days at a time.

Our total yard/property (including where the house/pool sit) is .69 acres. No all of it has grass, one large corner is scrub shaded by a huge centuries old oak tree. So no grass grows there, J. weeds.

Husband has always mowed/edged our grass. Now that our son is a little older, for the last few summers he also does some of the grass mowing. I tend to do whatever we do with flower beds (which isn't as much as it once was). We have really about 4 "flower beds", but one is full of perennial lantana that you don't have to do anything but in the fall when it dies back. The others tend to have roses (need dead heading) or sago palms (that don't really require much of anything), or other evergreen shrubs that need a once a year pruning at most.
Hubby does the pruning, except for the roses. I am the one who weeds and pulls out the grass runners (centipede grass runs like crazy). We ALL put down mulch/pine straw and rake leaves in spring/fall.

Hubby/son mow about once a week, edges about once a month. Roses are on an as-needed basis and takes about 5 minutes. The grass runners/weed pulling is usually a once a year project and can take 2 days.