By Neat & Tidy Landscaping
Evan Le 
You Can Absolutely Do It Yourself. Here’s What “Free” Actually Costs. Want to know the secret to removing blackberry for free? Do it yourself. Seriously. You don’t necessarily need to spend $2,000 or $3,000 hiring a landscaping company to remove blackberry from your property. Blackberry isn’t some mysterious plant that only professional landscapers know how … Read more
Invitation to Blackberry Mountain. Last July, I was finishing another landscaping estimate and getting ready to head home when my phone rang. It was a woman named Samantha. “Hey Samantha, how’s it going? What can I do for you?” She told me she had a large blackberry project and wanted to know if I could … Read more
The Contractor Is Evaluating the Project Too One of my favorite things about working in landscaping is the number of people I meet. Before landscaping, I spent more than a decade working in the corporate and technology world. I met plenty of people—coworkers, developers, managers, vendors, clients, and people from different companies. Landscaping has been … Read more
A landscaping estimate comes back for $1,000. Maybe $1,500. Maybe $2,000. And the homeowner looks at the yard and thinks: For weeding, trimming, raking, and hauling some debris? Why does that cost so much? It’s a reasonable question. After all, most landscaping work isn’t mysterious. Almost anyone can pull a weed. Almost anyone can rake … Read more
We live in Washington—the Evergreen State. Trees, shrubs, vines, ground cover, weeds, native plants, invasive plants, fallen branches, leaves, and decomposing organic material are everywhere. That’s part of what makes living here beautiful. It’s also why homeowners need to understand something about properties that border greenbelts and wooded areas: A greenbelt is not a garden … Read more
Let’s be straightforward about weeding. At its core, weeding is simple. People have been clearing unwanted plants from land for thousands of years. You have an area you want to cultivate, maintain, or live around, and vegetation is growing where you don’t want it. So you remove it. That’s basically weeding. The interesting question isn’t … Read more
A beautiful house on a hillside can look incredible. You might have more privacy, a larger property, mature vegetation, or a great view. The backyard might extend another 50 or 100 feet down a hill, and on paper that sounds like a lot of extra land. But there’s something home buyers often don’t think about: … Read more
Getting a good landscaping quote isn’t just about finding the lowest number. The goal is to understand what you’re buying, compare contractors fairly, control the scope of work, and find the best combination of price, service, experience, and results for your property. After estimating and completing landscaping projects for homeowners with different properties, budgets, priorities, … Read more
A few years ago, when I was living in San Francisco, I moved from one apartment to another. I wanted to save a few hundred dollars, so I rented a U-Haul and did everything myself. I packed the boxes, loaded the furniture, drove the truck, unloaded everything, and spent essentially the entire day moving. Could … Read more
You and your wife are finally ready to buy a home. You’ve been renting for years. You’ve saved up a down payment. Financing is coming together, and you’re ready to stop paying somebody else’s mortgage and start building some equity of your own. Fantastic. Maybe it’s your first starter home. Maybe you’re moving from a … Read more