We lost our lawn service.

The guy didn't like the new ordinance against power leaf blowers. 

So ...... do I buy a battery, self propelled lawn mower or try to find a new lawn service? I already have the batteries so I would need just the mower. in the back of my mind, I am quite capable of mowing the lawn now. But what about 6 or 7 years from now?

Who is your lawn mower and what do they charge for 125 ft of berm and 100sf of interior?

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

The guy didn't like the new ordinance against power leaf blowers. 

So ...... do I buy a battery, self propelled lawn mower or try to find a new lawn service? I already have the batteries so I would need just the mower. in the back of my mind, I am quite capable of mowing the lawn now. But what about 6 or 7 years from now?

Who is your lawn mower and what do they charge for 125 ft of berm and 100sf of interior?

be prepared to pay double for lawn service now. What will happen to the older folks who can not do their own lawns? 

Who cares.  As long as an astoundingly acute minority of folks can feel better about their bumper stickers, there’s no number of Uyghur forced labor facilities or elderly left to do their own yardwork that matters.

When I support the side that you bash I know I'm doing well.

I'm very happy with our battery powered LM.  Lighter and quieter than the gas mower.  Would never go back.  We've also cut back on our lawn space by planting stands of wild flowers.

Our battery-powered lawn mower is more than adequate for our 50x125 lot.  I can mow the grass in less than a single charge.  The battery-operated mowers are lighter than the gas-powered mowers and sound much better (same feedback as bub).

The battery fits in a leaf blower from the same manufacturer.

I have never paid for a lawn service in Maplewood and never will.  I watch what they do to other people's lawns and shake my head.

Tag teaming with YahooYahoo, my battery recharges real fast too.  Maybe 20 minutes.  Strangely, the much smaller battery on the weed wacker takes hours to recharge.   I can get at least 2 mowings out of a charge on the LM.

bub said:

We've also cut back on our lawn space by planting stands of wild flowers.

Milkweed here. I’m thinking of getting a bumper sticker about it.

We do the milkweed for the monarch butterflies.  They show up.

The wildflowers work for beauty and their nearly non-existent maintenance requirements are perfect for a lazy SOB like me. 

--not looking good. I called one guy off of M.O.L. list  "You have reached a non-working number.

2nd guy, You're going to have a difficult time finding anyone to do work in Maplewood. "Go to the town meetings and ask them to change the law." I will drive by your house and take a look, but probably not."

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

--not looking good. I called one guy off of M.O.L. list  "You have reached a non-working number.

2nd guy, You're going to have a difficult time finding anyone to do work in Maplewood. "Go to the town meetings and ask them to change the law." I will drive by your house and take a look, but probably not."

I knew this was going to be the case here, these landscaping guys have thousands of dollars invested in gas powered equipment in order to get the job done quickly and move on to the next one, so that $30 a cut weekly might be double now. To go out and buy all battery powered stuff is not in their plans just to work in maplewood. One battery is over $100 , they will need a collection of batteries and chargers to plug in where? 
nope… do your own lawns… or plant milkweed. I’m not getting rid of my Stihl blower. I paid too much money for it. 

Maybe ask for lawnmowing services without the blowing?  Having the lawn cut so you don't get a ticket for having the grass too tall is the main issue, and your landscaper doesn't need a leaf blower for that.

There are plenty of landscapers out there.  They don't like change.  Some will step up and figure it out.  The others will complain. It will all straighten out over the summer.

Yes, I just wish that some of the environmentally-friendly lawn care companies would partner with landscapers to provide a full lawn-care solution. For better or worse, I need to work with someone who trims hedges and can even plant a new shrub or tree for us, and have had no luck finding an environmentally-friendly company that wants to do more than apply treatments to my grass. 

So I stick with my lawn company, which bought electric equipment a while back in order to comply with South Orange regulations.  Not eager to try to change as there actually seems to be something of a shortage of lawn care personnel (which I suspect is related to national immigration and border politics and a general labor shortage).

DanDietrich said:

There are plenty of landscapers out there.  They don't like change.  Some will step up and figure it out.  The others will complain. It will all straighten out over the summer.

I agree that there is a market out there for what you need.  I think its a good sized one .

We DIY because we have not been able to find a lawn service that will do it less often than weekly and in a more environmentally friendly way.  It is rare that we cut the grass more often than twice in a month and more like once a month later in the season and our yard looks fine. If I could find a service that would work on that basis, I would be OK with paying more per visit and it would probably come out the same for the total season. I'm also fine with only blowing/raking twice during leaf season. There's really no reason to do it every week.

I wonder if any of these electric backpacks can be plugged in?  I see most have battery packs, which could get annoying for landscapers.  If any plugged in a landscaper could just bring a gas generator with them if they didn't have easy access to an outlet.

But overall, electric blowers haven't' caught up to gas in terms of power.  So it will always take longer to use electric.  The noise level may be a bit lower - but it will last longer.

It should be interesting to see the solutions the local landscapers come up with.

jamie said:

I wonder if any of these electric backpacks can be plugged in?  I see most have battery packs, which could get annoying for landscapers.  If any plugged in a landscaper could just bring a gas generator with them if they didn't have easy access to an outlet.

But overall, electric blowers haven't' caught up to gas in terms of power.  So it will always take longer to use electric.  The noise level may be a bit lower - but it will last longer.

It should be interesting to see the solutions the local landscapers come up with.

The noise will not be constant.  Watch a landscaper with a gas blower.  They prep it at the trailer, fire it up and let it idle while they get ready, and then walk to the back of the yard.  They blow a bit and then it idles while they move somewhere else and blow a bit.  This goes on until they are finished.  Then they shut the thing off.  A battery operated blower is off and silent until they ate ready to blow, and off again as they move around.  Much less noise overall.

A constantly running and polluting generator defeats the whole purpose.

DanDietrich said:

A constantly running and polluting generator defeats the whole purpose.

Perhaps, but it is legal.