Yard work and the outsourcing thereof

First of all, I should say that I'm a fan of the Great Indoors. I don't garden, other than a couple of minor attempts at the previous house over 15 years ago. I tend to ignore what's outside the house as long as I can. But that finally became impossible this year.

I bit the bullet and decided that I needed to find someone who would do a complete makeover on the flora on the outside of my house.

The backyard was truly scary, having mostly been overgrown with thistles and weeds. In front and back, were a bunch of bushes and arbor vitae that were shaggy and overgrown. And, most annoying, a few years ago the next-door neighbors put in a fence, and there wasn't enough room for a lawn mower to get to the strip of grass left between the fence and the driveway. It kept getting overgrown with weeds and volunteer trees.

A few years ago, I hired a local landscaper on the recommendation of a friend. It wasn't a success. Instead of giving the place the makeover I expected, she just did general lawn work and minor cosmetic stuff until the money I allocated was exhausted. It looked good while she was working on it, but it was all top-level stuff. This time, I wanted something more, and I'm going to commit to keeping it up.

First, I tried getting an estimate from a guy who did “organic yard work” that another friend recommended. He wanted $150 to give an estimate (payable as work credit after $2K), and I agreed, though I really hoped it wouldn't get that high. Alas, I knew we weren't a good fit about the third time he said "this really isn't the sort of work I do" and was giving open-ended estimates of tens of hours at $65/hour. I was thinking I'd have to pay the $150 just to have him go away, but he got annoyed at me first, said we weren't a good match, and walked off. Best for both of us, really. He's just doing mowing for the friend, so a different order of job and money.

So I went searching on Craig’s List, and found someone with a small ad, but the magic words “overgrown yards no problem,” and he’s been great. He gave me an quote, and stuck to it. When he wanted to do work above the original estimate, he checked with me first (and I agreed). It'll probably be around $2K by the time he’s done, but I’m very happy with what I’m getting for it.

The shrubbery got trimmed back pretty severely, and looks much better. The backyard and driveway got all the weeds dug up. The driveway area is now covered it with ground cloth (allegedly good for 25 years) and three inches of river rock. It looks so nice now, and it should be a reasonably permanent solution. Yesterday was the first rain after the rocks got laid down, and they look lovely now that all the dust has been washed off.

The backyard has been leveled and had broadleaf weed killer added, and will get seeded this weekend. I bought a sprinkler, which I hadn't owned, and will have to be assiduous about watering it.

Now I need to find someone to do mowing and ongoing yard maintenance. I’m out of the yard guy’s regular zone, and I suspect he prefers large projects to maintenance in any case. I recommended him to Pat WINOLJ, and she’s going to give him more work.

Maybe I’ll try Craig’s List again. But if anyone knows of someone who's local and affordable, I'm happy to take contact info.

Sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one

Remember that song pair I was trying to remember some time ago?

It's by Pure Prairie League: "Falling In and Out of Love with You/Amie." Pandora played the first half today, and that jogged the memory.