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One of the biggest costs of maintaining a lawn in Southern California is the cost of paying the weekly "mow, blow, and go" gardening service. This cost is actua
by HillaryBriss 11y ago
One of the biggest costs of maintaining a lawn in Southern California is the cost of paying the weekly "mow, blow, and go" gardening service. This cost is actually more than that of the water.
This gardener service cost savings should really be accounted for in estimates of the time to recoup costs when a plastic lawn replaces a real one.
- caminante 11y agoWait, did this article not factor in maintenance costs? Edit: I'm not seeing any substantive analysis on maintenance, though, they do claim: "Because water is so cheap, the financial payback period of replacing your lawn with a more drought tolerant substitute is around 30 years."
- hermanradtke 11y agoThere is just as much maintenance on xeriscape. The focus of the article is around cost centers that consume water, not the cost of a lawn. I thought the the article did a good job as presenting two sides. Lawns relative to agriculture do not use up a lot of water. However, lawns do use a lot of water relative to other household usages.
- vacri 11y agoA properly xeriscaped garden should be very low maintenance; certainly nothing that compares to weekly attention.
- shostack 11y agoWhat sort of maintenance would that be exactly? The whole point of xeriscaping is low maintenance.
- cam- 11y agoWe have a xeriscaped yard. Basically the only cost is hitting it with some water when it is 110F+ and cleaning up some brush.
- HeyLaughingBoy 11y agoDo that many people in Southern California really pay someone else to do it? I'm really surprised to hear that. I live in a fairly upscale community (mostly hobby farms and retired farmers who sold off most of their land) and no-one around here has someone else doing their gardening. If anything, my neighbors are the ones who own lawn care/property management businesses.
- HillaryBriss 11y agoI'm sorry I do not have rigorous numbers for you. I can only estimate based on personal observation: in a typical neighborhood of single family homes, about 50% of homes employ a gardening service in Southern California. In my area, it's typical for the gardener to visit once a week and receive $20+ a visit.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoYeah I lived in San Jose, and you had to beat off gardeners with a stick. It was easier to say Yes once than No a million times. Not SoCal but anyway.