Gr Lawn Mowing And Gardening

Should I Choose a Gardener or a mowing business?

If you are looking for the best price for lawn mowing or making your lawn look great then you are in the right place.
If you are looking to have new flowers, shrubs or trees planted and want some advice on what to plant, then a gardening expert is the way to go.

Why Hire A Lawn Mowing Service?

Save time

The biggest reason to hire a lawn care service is the time you'll save. If you want to do your own lawn care, you'll have to spend some time researching what exactly your lawn needs. Then you will need to drive to buy fertilizer, seed, equipment, and whatever else you need. Then, you will have the ongoing time commitment of mowing and maintaining your lawn. It's much quicker to get a quote on our website and of course time is money.

Expertise

Even if you want to spend a large amount of your own time on your lawn, there's no guarantee that you won't mess it up. People hire experts as experts know what they're doing. Hiring a lawn mowing service means you can expect good results because of their knowledge and expertise.

Liability

Any good lawn care contractor will be licensed and insured, meaning you won't have to worry about liability (make sure they are). This means you won't have to worry about correct storage of pesticides and fertilizers, you won't have to worry about applying chemicals or disposing of them. These chemicals can have potentially dangerous effects on the environment when applied incorrectly.

Cost

Lawn mowing service providers subsidise their overhead with the volume of work they do. You don't care for hundreds of lawns so it is more expensive for you to purchase most of the professional grade equipment and supplies that lawn care services already have. For you to get your lawn to the same quality that a lawn care service can achieve all by yourself you might have to purchase the equivalent of a power aerator, a rake (Landscape, Thatching, and Lawn & Leaf), slit spreaders, a leaf blower, a leaf vacuum, leaf tarps, a whipper snipper and a good lawn mower. Of course, you can get the consumer versions of these, but to truly equal the power and performance of a professional lawn care service, you would spend a fortune. In many ways, you can save money as well as time by spending it on a lawn care company.

lawn mowing

How to choose the best lawn care or lawn mowing service

To keep your lawn looking its best, it is important to maintain it regularly throughout the year. If you are short on time but still wish to enjoy your lawn, there are lawn mowing services available that will keep your lawn looking well groomed and maintained. Basic services, like mowing and edging the lawn, will be offered by all services and most will provide many others, such as weed control, fertilising, rubbish removal (lawn clippings, etc), slashing, landscaping, pruning and trimming and gutter cleaning.

If you are considering hiring a lawn mowing service. Here are some tips to help you find one that works for you.

Recommendations and Referrals

One of the most effective ways of finding a good quality service is by asking friends, family, and neighbours for recommendations and referrals. Ideally, choose those that live in your area so that you only hear about services that are local to you. You could manually get testimonials and references from local services, and follow up with their previous customers to get a few extra details on their level of service.

Ratings

Every lawn mowing service on expertEasy is rated on a five star basis by previous customers. The average rating is a fast way to see how well a company or professional does their job.

Make Sure the Price is Right

Fitting the service to your budget is clearly important, so go ahead and ask them about their rates and what level of service is included in their quotes.

How Much Do Lawn Mowing Services Cost?

Straight Lawn mowing jobs are often priced based on the size of the lawn. In you roughly know the size of your lawn, see the table below for a guide price. Bear in mind this pricing would be for lawn mowing only, lawn edging and weeding is more labour intensive and harder to predict, so jobs that include either of these are better priced on an hourly basis.

Size of Lawn	Average Price
Up to 600m2	$50
Up to 950m2	$60
Over 1000m2	$70

Of course if you have a small lawn you will need to find a local service and expertEasy is great for that.

Lawn mowing average hourly rates

The average hourly rate for lawn mowing in Australia is around $46 per hour for a lawn mowing service, this figure varies based on location.

New South Wales has the most expensive average cost of $50/hr for lawn mowing services.
Australian Capital Territory residents are paying approximately $49/hr.
In Victoria lawn mowing businesses typically charge an average rate of $46/hr.
Queensland also has an average cost of $46/hr
South Australia is next with an average of $45/hr.
Western Australia has prices of around $42/hr.
Tasmania has the lowest average lawn mowing rate at $41/hr.

Lawn maintenance tips

If you want to do some of the maintenance yourself, we have great advice for you:

Lawn mowing

Leave some of your grass clippings on the surface of the lawn after you mow. In order to prevent the buildup of thatch, mow frequently so the grass clippings are small and will decompose rapidly. Grass clippings contain 16 essential nutrients – including any fertilizer you've applied, these nutrients can be recycled back into the lawn by leaving the clippings in place.
You should be mowing frequently enough that you never remove more than one third of the height of the lawn when it is mowed. Simlarly mowing too often can also weaken the lawn. In hot weather, mow a bit higher (to encourage deeper roots).
Alternate mowing directions to avoid forming ruts in your lawn.
Never mow with a dull blade. You can remove and sharpen the blade, or replace it fairly inexpensively.

Lawn Thatch removal

If your lawn feels "spongy" underneath your feet, you may have a thatch build up, thatch is the term for the layer of organic debris that lies under the grass surface, this can starve the roots of air, water and other essential nutrients and can also cause fungal disease. Thatch can be removed with a lawn scarifier. If it is just a small area, you could use a metal rake to remove the thatch. One problem with a thick layer of thatch is that newly sown seed will root in the thatch layer – not the soil. Thatch doesn't provide the same insulation as soil, so the roots dry out quickly, and the lawn dies. A heavily thatched lawn dries out faster so you have to water more frequently.

Aeration

Compacted soil has too many solid particles in a certain volume or space, which prevents proper circulation of air, water and nutrients within the soil. Aeration involves perforating the soil with small holes to allow air, water and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots. This helps the roots grow deeply and produce a stronger, more vigorous lawn. The main reason for aerating is to reduce soil compaction.

Aeration can be done most simply on small areas using garden fork, however there are dedicated aerating tools and machines, these fall broadly into two categories: spike aerators and plug aerators. With a spike aerator, you are simply using the tool to poke holes into the ground, much like with the garden fork. Plug aerators remove a core or plug of soil (and grass) from the lawn. For the best results, look for an aerating tool or machine that removes soil plugs as poking holes is less effective and can actually cause additional compaction in the areas around the holes.

Aerators can be rented from most gardening or hardware suppliers. If your lawn gets heavy use or was established as part of a newly constructed home (soil often gets compacted by construction traffic) then there is a good chance it could benefit from aerating.

Weeding

Weeds are a problem in most lawns at some point or another. Lawn weeds can be removed by hand or you can apply a targeted herbicide – products that kill the weeds but not the grass. If you have moss growing then this indicates that the soil in that area needs thorough aerating. You can use a wire rake to remove the moss.

Lawn fertilising

For a healthy lawn, you should feed it in spring. Fertilising in springtime will help to make the grass look greener and strengthen the lawn against diseases, moss and weeds and missing patches. Grass needs a specific type of fertiliser that is different to that used on flowering plants. There is an abundance of lawn fertilisers on the market including:

Liquid hose on fertilisers (good for greening the grass up quickly)
Organic lawn foods such as blood and bone, this will feed the grass slowly over a number of months
Synthetic granular fertilisers, these will green the grass fast
Combination fertilisers (combination of organic and synthetic fertilisers)
Slow release lawn foods, as per the name they slowly release nutrients into your lawn

Before you use the fertiliser, you should prepare the lawn.

Cover any bare patches of soil with lawn filler or sand.
Remove any weeds from the lawn.
Ensure the lawn is well aerated.

Spread your fertiliser evenly, over application will burn your lawn so be careful not to go over the same area more than once. You can spread the fertiliser carefully by hand, or you can use a spreader to ensure a more even distribution. Always read the instructions as some fertilisers require you to water the lawn beforehand while others will require watering after.

garden sprinklers

Watering

You might believe that lawns require lots of water, however as long you do not mow your lawn too short or over fertilise it then the amount of water it will need should not be all that much. You can reduce the water requirements further still by using a wetting agent on your lawn and keeping it well aerated. If you have water restrictions in your area, you can still water your lawn - just ask your local authority to find the current limit of water you can use. Rain water tanks never have any restrictions with how much water can be used from them so if you find you cannot easily stay within the restrictions then it might be an idea to buy one of these to store water for use on your garden and lawn. If you are landscaping from scratch or your lawn is completely worn out from doing renovations, consider using a species of grass that is native to your region as this will require less water than a non-native species and stay greener for longer.