Creative (ie; inexpensive) landscape maintenance solutions?

Question

in my area, landscapers charge a minimum of $100 per month to mow a lawn. I have skirted this by telling my tenants that in order to keep rent down, I ask that they mow the lawn and I provide them with a mower if need be. This has worked pretty well for me for about 8 years.

Weeding garden beds is a whole different issue. I add in the lease that they are responsible for basic maintenance and weeding, but weeds are ALWAYS a problem. I'm not talking about a small problem- I've had notices from the county that weeds were out of control and given me deadlines to clean them up to avoid fines. Has anyone out there had luck with any strategy to get their tenants to keep up with weeds? I don't want to pay a landscaper $100 every month to go weed, and I can't keep up with it myself.

Eric Gutierrez · Answer

How much of the landscaping has to be weeded? Maybe it would make sense to pay to have some landscaping done to reduce the areas that need the weeding. I find that concentrated generic roundup is fairly cheap to use for weed control.

Marcia Maynard · Answer

Well, I will be an outlier here, because I am into organic gardening and so are many of our tenants. RoundUp is a powerful chemical and I won't use it at our rental properties, but I have used in on pathways at our own home. Some of our tenants have compromised health, young children, assistance animals, or are gardeners who are growing organic food. I look for products that are safe to use around vegetables and flowers. That's what our tenants like to grow. I prefer to remove the weeds manually and then use thick landscaping fabric, mulch and pre-emegent products such as Preen, as mentioned by @Steve Babiak. For weed control in sidewalk cracks and at the curb, we are using a vinegar based mixture. Many recipes on the internet. We let our lawns brown in the summer and the weeds stand out and are easy to pluck or spray. The lawns green right up again when the rain returns.We require tenants in our SFRs to take care of the landscaping, except we tend to the trees and shrubs. If they don't mow, edge, weed control, and take care of the lawn, flower beds and vegetable gardens, then we will have it done for them, at their expense. We take care of the landscaping for our MFRs, except for the flower beds that tenants have planted and the vegetable gardens. Good ground cover plants can be your friend as well as plants that are well matched to your climate and don't require a lot of care and water.

Steve Babiak · Answer

I don't recommend anything with an invasive tendency, because at a rental it will spread to places where you don't want it to be.And you should establish a housekeeping addendum so that the tenant's responsibilities for yard care are in writing. Then the tenant is responsible; you explain that you can hire it out but then you would have to charge higher rent, or you can designate that the tenant perform this and it will help to keep the rent down.Train the tenants to perform the RoundUp applications. A one gallon pump sprayer is like $10 or so. Buy them the first 32 ounces of concentrate that comes with the measuring cup, show them how to measure and apply, and tell them they will have to buy the next container of RoundUp. Also, you can buy the weed removal hand tool for under $5 and give each tenant one of those; I was able to buy them on sale at Ace hardware earlier in the year for under $1 each. If you give it to the tenant remember to show them how to use it. And don't forget to get weed control products like Preen into your process; Preen requires that the weeds first be removed (it helps to prevent weed seed from germinating, so roots and all of the weeds must go first). You might still have to be the one to create any edging trench around the planting beds, but that is not repeated more than once a year from my experience so not as much of a hassle time-wise for you.And you have to get them to understand that good housekeeping on the tenant's part will not only help to control expenses, but also give them better consideration at lease renewal time ...

Jean Bolger · Answer

You could try to get a low maintenance ground cover established in the areas that get weedy. In our area Bishop's Weed (Aegopodium podagraria) works well. It's considered an invasive species in some areas, but in our drier climate it is aggressive enough to win out over weeds without being uncontrollable. If you find somebody with a big patch of this, they'll often let you dig some up and take it for free.

Corby Goade · Answer

Both good suggestions, thank you. Eric- I've used LOTS of round up, and could continue to do so. I have a full time job and just don't want to spend all of my weekend spraying and weeding at my rentals. I thought that having more garden space for my tenants was a good benefit for them, but they don't really use it and it has become a burden for me. I may have to look into some lower maintenance options- thanks for the post. Jassem- I like that too- will give it a shot. No harm in trying!

Jassem A. · Answer

I would create an ad on Craigslist and you will probably find people willing to maintain it for less than $25/mo. Most landlords have it in their lease that the Tenant is responsible for landscaping and if they do not then you can give them a cure or quit.