So... Minor update.



I called a landscaper to get a price for lawn work.
It breaks down like this:
They're gonna come and clean out all of our old leaves and whatnot, trim the bushes, edge the lawns, straighten out our flower beds and cut the grass. This first appointment will cost us $220, which seems kind of expensive... but that's because there is a lot of work to do.

After this, they'll cut our lawn once a week for $30 per cut. This includes edging, hedge trimming and waste removal.

The ivy removal will have to be a separate project for later in the summer.
Can't wait to come home and see the yard looking all spiffy!

Paying for Green?

I park my car next to this loveliness every evening. Honestly, things could be worse. As the weather continues to warm up, we're seeing more and more color popping up around The Serpico House. Some of it is almost startling--I need to take a picture of the enormous number of green stalks popping up next to our front steps. Mrs. Serpico, my hat is off to you... so many plantings!

Something I've been considering lately... it may make sense for us to hire out for our first lawn-cutting and Spring clean-out... mainly because we don't have a lawnmower yet, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper to hire someone to handle that than it is to buy a lawnmower. It already sort of looks like our front lawn is getting a little crazy... we can't let it go for too much longer. Ugh.

Another thought... a "Green Lawn" guy stopped by our place yesterday, trying to sell us his service. Dude doesn't cut grass or work on flower beds. Nope. All he does is come around about six times per year to fertilize the lawn, put down weed-killer and spray some kind of insect repellent. OK, I guess that flies with some of the other folks in the suburbs, but no. Not me. First of all, I don't care if my lawn is perfectly green and insect free. I don't mind crab grass. That shit is in nature, and I'm fine with it showing up in my yard. It's really no big deal. I was polite to him, and I told him we felt our money was probably more wisely invested in a landscaping company. I can throw down fertilizer and grass seed on my own. I wonder how many of my neighbors are going for this? I think it's like $50 per treatment. Screw that. I'll pay that to some kid every other week to cut my grass.

Spring Sprung

See them thar things above? Yep. Flowers. In our yard. Pretty, huh? As the weather gets nicer, it's becoming evident that Mrs. Serpico really liked to plant things, because we're seeing little sprouts and full-on flowers popping up everywhere in out yard. I'm bad with flower/plant names, but I know we have tulips and forsythias. So that's cool.

And remember the ivy-removal project? I got a quote from a landscaper on that--the dude says he needs $350 to get it all out of there, mainly because it's all wrapped around the fence, and it'll be a lot of work. I think I'm going to get another estimate on the job, but I think $350 isn't too bad... it really does look like a lot of work. Having said this much, I can't help thinking I might haggle with this guy a little and see if his crew will add a leaf clean-out for that price. I also think I'll want to get a second estimate from another landscaper. Someone else might come in a little cheaper, and there's pretty much next to no way that they can mess this up.

Another thought, though... I really need to discuss this whole thing with our next-door neighbor before moving forward with the full ivy-removal plan. The ivy is growing heavily on the fence that separates our yards, and he may want it there for some reason. It definitely gives his yard more privacy, that's for sure--I actually can't see into his yard at all from ours. I really hope he's OK with getting rid of it. Obviously, if he doesn't agree to this, the ivy on his side of the fence will just creep back over into our yard in time, making our efforts and expenditure in vain.

So... we shall see.