The whole maintenance side of Larkmoor on one page: the plans and their prices, what happens on every visit, and what your yard needs in each month of the year.
The difference between them is not how well the lawn is cut — it is how much of the rest of the yard we take off your hands.
Weekly, March – October · fortnightly in winter
The lawn itself, done properly and done on schedule. For yards where the beds are already the way you want them.
Weekly, March – October · fortnightly in winter
Everything in Mow & Go, plus the jobs that decide how the yard looks in August: feeding, weed control and the beds kept clean.
Weekly, year round
For planted gardens rather than lawns. The same care, plus pruning, mulch and seasonal colour handled without you having to ask.
Prices are for the weekly season, March to October; the four winter months are billed at the fortnightly rate. Lots over an acre, steep slopes and yards left unmaintained for a season are quoted after we have seen them — we will tell you the number before we start, not after.
Most complaints about a lawn service are really complaints about not knowing what was done. So here is the whole visit, step by step, with roughly how long each part takes on a quarter-acre lot.
Before anything starts: what changed since last week, what is stressed, what needs saying to you.
The height changes four times a year. In July it is as high as the mower goes, because grass shades its own roots.
A hard vertical edge is the single thing that makes a yard look maintained from the kerb. It is done every visit, not monthly.
Fence lines, post bases, tree rings, the strip behind the AC unit — the places a mower cannot reach and most crews skip.
Drive, walks, patio and porch. Clippings left on concrete stain it, and they end up indoors on somebody's shoes.
Sent the same afternoon: what we did and anything we are keeping an eye on. You never have to go outside to find out whether we came.
Landscaping is the one trade the calendar decides. This is the round we run in Austin — what actually needs doing each month, and why.
Dormant pruning — crape myrtles, roses and fruit trees, while the shape is still visible.
Ornamental grasses and perennials cut hard back before new growth starts.
First cut of the year, pre-emergent on the turf, every bed re-mulched.
Planting month. Weekly mowing begins and the irrigation is tested head by head.
Growth peaks. Edged every visit, and the first feed once the soil is properly warm.
Watering moves to the city's summer days and the mowing height goes up an inch.
Cut high, water deep and less often. Beds checked weekly for heat stress.
The hard month. Nothing new goes in the ground; we keep alive what is already there.
Second feed, and overseeding wherever the summer thinned the turf out.
The best planting window of the year. Leaf clearing starts towards the end.
Leaves off the lawn, irrigation dialled back, tender plants covered before the first freeze.
Final tidy, mulch topped up, and January's hard pruning planned with you.
Shaded months are the weekly round, March to October. In the four unshaded months we come fortnightly and you pay the lower winter rate.
Four steps, and you can stop after any of them without owing us anything.
Tell us the address and roughly what you want. We can see a surprising amount from the street and the map before we ever knock.
Free, and usually within 48 hours. We measure, look at the soil and the drainage, and tell you what we would do first if it were ours.
One page: what we do, what it costs each month or once, and which week we can start. Nothing begins until you say yes.
Same crew, same day of the week. If rain moves us you get a message, and we never skip a week without telling you first.
No. We come out, walk the yard with you and put a price in writing, usually within 48 hours. If you decide not to go ahead, that is the end of it.
No. Maintenance is month to month. Tell us any time and the visits stop — there is nothing to cancel and no fee for stopping.
Because the work is. From November to February we come fortnightly instead of weekly, and you are billed the lower winter rate for those months rather than an averaged figure all year.
We message you and move you to the next dry day that week. We never skip a week without telling you first, and you are not charged for a visit that did not happen.
That is most of the job. We plant natives and adapted species that handle the heat and the watering rules, and anything we plant that fails in the first year is replaced free.
Yes, though we will be honest about it: a yard that has been left for a season costs more to reset than it does to keep. We quote the reset separately from any ongoing plan.
Either way the price comes in writing before we do anything, and there is nothing to sign.