Reply #15: Around here, most people... [View All]

[TreasonousBastard]

contract annually with the services, and it includes leaf pickup, some general gardening, gutter cleaning, whatever. I could check what stuff costs, but it would probably be much different in your area. Competition and immigrant labor around here make such costing crazy.

The sneaky way to get costs in your area is just to call a bunch of lawn outfits and ask them. They'll want to see the place, so if you don't want them to come to your house, use a friend. And, they will be pissed if they figure out they're being played, but so what... Oh, and they might underbid to get the job and add something later.

I've thought about electric lawnmowers and leaf blowers, and did have an electric chain saw which worked great in the back yard. At least within reach of an outlet.

Here's one cordless mower that might work, but it does have limitations:
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/lawns/gr/mulching_mowers.htm

And a cordless leaf blower:
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/lawn_and_garden/leaf-blowers/index.html

Cordless leaf blowers are a problem because they don't come with very big batteries, but you can probably figure out how to charge them from the truck you use, or people who hate the usual noise might be perfectly happy to let you plug a corded one in.