A few years ago, when I was living in San Francisco, I moved from one apartment to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could I do it? Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But by the end of the day, I remember thinking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Never again.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I had saved money, but I had traded an entire day of my life\u2014and a lot of physical energy\u2014to do it. I realized I didn’t really save the cost of a mover. I simply decided to become the mover myself<\/strong> for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Landscaping works much the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’ve maintained your own yard for years but recently let it get overgrown, the cost of professional cleanup can be surprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A small cleanup might start around $300<\/strong>. A more typical cleanup might cost $700\u2013$1,200+<\/strong>, while a large, heavily overgrown property can easily reach $3,000\u2013$7,000 or more<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why such a big difference?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Landscaping is labor-intensive. You’re paying for workers, trucks, tools, equipment, insurance, travel, waste hauling, disposal, and the time required to complete the project. As the property gets larger, denser, more difficult to access, or produces more waste, the price increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But here’s the good news:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don’t have to hire a landscaper.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to save money, you can absolutely do much of this work yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tradeoff is time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like my apartment move, you’re replacing professional labor with your own labor. Your mornings, evenings, and weekends become your landscaping crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re willing to make that trade, here’s how we approach a basic yard cleanup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In The Art of Clean<\/em>, we break basic yard cleanup into five jobs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weeding. Trimming. Pruning. Raking. Waste hauling.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You don’t need a truck full of commercial equipment to get started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For weeding<\/strong>, get a good grub hoe and a few basic hand tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For trimming and pruning<\/strong>, you’ll want hand pruners and hedge shears. An electric hedge trimmer can make larger shrubs much faster. Commercial crews may use more powerful equipment, but most homeowners don’t need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For cleanup<\/strong>, get a durable metal-tine rake, a large yard-waste container, and a leaf blower. A battery-powered blower is perfectly reasonable for residential use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there’s one part homeowners frequently underestimate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are you going to do with all the waste?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A heavily overgrown yard can generate an enormous amount of vegetation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have municipal yard-waste service, you can gradually dispose of the material over several collection cycles. You can also keep a designated pile and work through it over time. Larger projects may require a truck, trailer, dumpster, or another disposal option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is one of the biggest differences between DIY cleanup and hiring a landscaping company. A professional crew can potentially cut, load, haul, and dispose of a large amount of vegetation in a single visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 Why Cleanup Gets Expensive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cutting vegetation is only part of the job. Everything that comes down still needs to be raked, loaded, transported, and disposed of. On heavily overgrown properties, waste hauling can become a major part of the project.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Don’t attack the entire property at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start with the area that matters most visually\u2014usually the front yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick one garden bed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weed it thoroughly. Pull weeds by hand where practical and use your grub hoe to loosen larger areas. Try to remove accessible roots rather than simply cutting everything at the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t worry about how fast you’re moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our crews perform these movements every day. Using a hoe, rake, hedge trimmer, and pruners eventually becomes muscle memory. It’s similar to typing on a keyboard or driving a car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You’re probably going to be slower when you’re starting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s completely fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give yourself an hour or two and concentrate on getting one area clean<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 Speed Comes From Repetition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Professional landscapers aren’t necessarily performing complicated movements. They’ve simply performed those movements thousands of times. Don’t compare your first Saturday working in the yard with someone who does it every day.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Once the weeds are gone, look at the shrubs and plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remove dead material. Cut back obvious overgrowth. Lightly shape shrubs that need it. If you’re maintaining an established hedge, a relatively small trim may be enough to restore its shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pile the clippings with the weeds you’ve already removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But know your limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t try to become an arborist in an afternoon. Larger trees, difficult pruning, ladders, hazardous branches, and plants you can’t confidently identify are where basic DIY maintenance starts becoming more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 Don’t Just Cut the Tops Off Weeds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When practical, remove weeds and their accessible roots instead of simply cutting the tops. It takes longer initially, but it generally produces a cleaner bed and reduces immediate regrowth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Now rake everything together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Load the material into your yard-waste container, bags, truck, trailer, or whatever disposal system you’re using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the bulk material is gone, rake the garden bed again and blow the surrounding walkways and hard surfaces clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You now have one finished section<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then repeat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weed. Trim. Prune. Rake. Haul.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Move from the front yard to the side yard and eventually into the backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t think about cleaning the entire property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about cleaning one section at a time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 Work One Area at a Time<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t cut down your entire yard at once. You can quickly create a mountain of debris that’s harder to manage than the original vegetation. Finish one section before opening another.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n One of the easiest DIY mistakes is budgeting three hours for cutting and assuming you have a three-hour project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you cut everything, you still have to rake it, move it, load it, dispose of it, and clean the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The job isn’t finished when the vegetation hits the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 Your Yard-Waste Bin Has a Limit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure out where your material is going before<\/strong> you start cutting. If you’re relying on your regular yard-waste bin, work at a pace that matches your disposal capacity. There’s nothing wrong with completing a large cleanup over several collection cycles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A project that takes a professional crew one day might take a homeowner several weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have the time, physical ability, tools, and willingness to work through the property gradually, basic yard cleanup is extremely DIY-friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Set aside two or three hours every Saturday morning. Finish one bed. The following weekend, finish another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, you’ll get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The process isn’t particularly complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The difficult part is the time and energy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s ultimately what you’re choosing between when deciding whether to DIY or hire a landscaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can spend more money and have a professional crew bring the labor, tools, truck, equipment, experience, and hauling capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or you can spend less money and provide those things\u2014especially the labor and time\u2014yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither choice is wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 Buy Better Hand Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You don’t need commercial equipment for everything, but don’t buy the cheapest tools you can find. A quality grub hoe, rake, hand pruner, and hedge shear can make hours of repetitive work considerably easier.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n There’s also a middle ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do some of the work yourself and hire professionals for the hardest parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might maintain smaller garden beds yourself but hire a crew for the initial overgrown cleanup, heavy hauling, tall pruning, blackberry removal, or other labor-intensive work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the bulk work is finished, maintaining the property yourself becomes considerably easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, this can be one of the best ways to control your long-term landscaping costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 The Hybrid Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hire professionals for the heavy initial cleanup and maintain the property yourself afterward. A crew can remove years of accumulated growth and waste, while you handle smaller maintenance visits going forward.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Basic weeding, trimming, pruning, raking, and cleanup can be very DIY-friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But every property is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Large trees, steep slopes, heavy materials, difficult access, extensive invasive plants, machinery work, electrical hazards, and difficult ladder work can quickly change the equation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s a difference between spending Saturday pulling weeds and attempting work that requires specialized equipment or experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 Know When to Stop<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving money isn’t worth getting injured or damaging your property. If the work becomes unsafe or exceeds your experience or equipment, that’s a good point to bring in someone who does it professionally.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I think back to that apartment in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I successfully moved everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I saved the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I never wanted to do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s the question to ask yourself with landscaping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can you do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For basic yard cleanup, probably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you want to do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s a completely different question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If professional landscaping isn’t in your budget, buy a few good tools. Start with one garden bed. Give yourself a few hours. Then do it again next weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you would rather spend those Saturdays with your family, working, relaxing, traveling, or doing something else, that’s part of what you’re paying a landscaping crew to give back to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The process is simple. The time and energy are the hard part.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n FIELD NOTE \u2014 The Real Cost Is Time<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n DIY landscaping can save substantial money, but it isn’t free. You’re exchanging your time and physical labor for the contractor’s labor, equipment, hauling capacity, experience, and speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For some homeowners, that’s a great trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For others, getting their weekend back is exactly what they’re paying for.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/client-resources-washington.b-cdn.net\/site-images\/seattle-wa-bark-mulch-installation-garden-bed-with-shrubs-well-maintained-17328dbd.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Maintained Yard - Seattle, WA","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contractors-costs","category-diy-tools","category-the-art-of-clean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71,"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/71"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neatandtidylandscaping.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Five Basic Jobs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Start With the Front Yard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Then Trim and Prune<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Rake, Haul and Blow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Cleanup Is Part of the Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Cheapest Landscaping Crew Is You<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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You Don’t Have to Choose One or the Other<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Know When DIY Stops Making Sense<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Money or Time?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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