Do it yourself (DIY) is big these days, and a lot of us think DIY landscaping and lawn care are money savers. However, the truth is, hiring a lawn maintenance company is incredibly cost effective. When you factor equipment, supplies, costly mistakes and the most valuable commodity of all–your time–hiring a landscaper makes a ton of financial sense.
DIY Lawn Maintenance vs. Epling Lawn Lawn Maintenance
In an era of big yards and busy schedules, taking care of lawn maintenance and landscaping needs with a push mower on a Saturday afternoon is a thing of the past. Today’s DIY lawn maintenance has plenty of hidden costs that make it way less cost effective than most of us realize. Let’s break it down:
DIY Pitfalls
- Equipment: lawn care equipment is a cost many of us don’t take into account when we think about our yards. Let’s start with the mower: a decent zero turn mower is going to cost at least $3,000. That’s in addition to other needs for a really great looking lawn: an edger, weed wacker and smaller hand tools for lawn care. Then there’s the gas to keep them running and necessary equipment maintenance and repair. This means thousands just to get started and ongoing costs that are higher than people realize.
- Products: keeping your lawn up to today’s standards means finding the right products like fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides for weed control. These often mean multiple trips to the store each season, and the cost can add up big time.
- Your time: more on this below, but if you believe that time is money, spending yours on lawn care may not be the most effective approach.
Cost Savings With Epling
Equipment: we have all of the top-notch equipment we need to complete your job to your specifications, and it doesn’t waste time sitting idle in the garage, so we’re able to pass the cost savings on to our customers.- Supplies: As a thriving landscape company, we’re able to achieve significant economies of scale on high-quality supplies including the right fertilizer, weed control products, mulch and other necessities.
- Professional crew: our team of professionals is efficient and quick, doing a great job in far less time than it would take the average DIY enthusiast. We plan our jobs to make the most of our team’s time and pass on cost savings to our customers.
Professional Lawn Maintenance: Time Is Money
For most of us, working on our own cars just isn’t worth any potential savings because of the time and headaches involved. It’s really the same thing with lawn care. The time saved by outsourcing lawn maintenance to the pros can be used in much more productive ways.
And lawn care usually takes way more time than people realize. Remember, it’s not just pushing the mower for an hour or two. There’s also the headache of going to the store (a trip to a lawn and garden store can eat up hours on the weekend!), sourcing plants, planting, weeding and beyond. If it’s really your passion, go for it! But most of us would rather be enjoying a gorgeous backyard than working on it on a Saturday afternoon.
Our pros are efficient and effective and do a great job in a fraction of the time, saving you money and allowing you to spend your valuable time on the things that matter most.
Are Lawn Care Mistakes Costing Me Money?
Most backyard DIY enthusiasts aren’t experts, and the unfortunate reality is that fixing DIY landscape damage can be expensive. If you spend a ton of time and money on a landscape project and it fails, it’s a significant financial loss.
Some of the most common (and often costly) mistakes we see include:
- Cutting grass too short and damaging roots
- Failing to test and treat soil, leading to less-than-healthy plantings
- Over-fertilizing
- Planting grass seed at the wrong time, leading to bare spots and wonky patches
Our pros know when and where to put in plants, trees, and shrubs and how to care for them to avoid expensive fails. We are also experts at grasscycling–using clippings as a natural fertilizer to feed your lawn instead of bagging clippings. This cuts costs and is environmentally friendly.
Hiring A Landscaper: The Unexpected Cost Savings
Many of our clients hire Epling because they want the best-looking, healthiest lawn and landscape they can find. However, they’re often pleasantly surprised at the time and money they save by hiring us. Especially for larger properties–it’s an absolute no-brainer when you consider savings on equipment, supplies and time. And less stress, as we all know, is priceless.
