Mowing townhouse lawns

[Billy Goat]

I was talking to a lady that lives in a townhouse. Every home owner is responsible to maintain their own yards. Every house has very small yards except for the end units. A few neighbors she knows get their lawns mowed by a lawn care service every two weeks. The grass is normally high when cut mostly in spring and fall. They come in with commericial equipment without grass catchers, high powered trimmers and blowers. She said they do a great job but her complaint is their clippings and debris end up in her yard and on her car. She likes to do her own yard for the exercise but spends twice as much time because of cleaning up after the neighbors. She wants to buy a blower and blow the stuff back but doesnt want to start a neighborhood feud. I would like to read some replies from lawn care owners that service communities with small yards and how they control clippings and debris ended up in neighbors yards. One other question is do you charge extra for end units with slightly larger yards?

[LawnBoy0311]

Lawn care business tips

Don't give away my secret....but townhouses are high profits. I charge each unit as if it were it's own. Not every unit is the same, some have extended decks which involve more trimming, while others don't. When I mow them, I have no idea who their neighbors are or how picky they are. So I mow, trim, then blow the yard real quick making sure no clippings get in the neighbors yards. The ones I mostly charge an extra double bucks for are ends units and units with fences in the back.

[BelleCityLawn1]

Townhouse lawns are extremely profitable. I use a 36inch Bobcat for all my townhouse lawns. The key to not getting clippings into neighbors yards is either to bag the lawns or outline the lawn once or twice with the grass blowing into the center of the lawn. After that step is complete do the striping for the rest of the lawn. This may take a little more time but it shows customers that we really do care about them. My friends who own lawn care companies along with I have used this method for years. Hope this helps!

Thanks,
Tim Oezer
Belle City Lawn Care, LLC