Gardener Needed

[eigoya]

Gardner may be overststing the requirements:keeping jungle at bay.The guy who did our weed whacking left the business and now our Shindaiwa officially died (it was good while it lasted). Looking for someone a few hours a month. Any recommendations?

[Rob Tucker]

Good luck. I am having a problem finding someone too. I am paying $20 hr. for whacking and so far each time I hire someone after two hours they "don't feel well" and are gone not to come back.

[ElysianWort]

I've seen businesses before. Twin bros yard care, back yard Monkeys etc. If you're willing to shell out enough $ you can find someone.
Otherwise nature does it's reclaiming thing.

[eigoya]

Yes, our first guy was super cheap (and super slow), but the next guy wanted the (FT) equivalent of 70K. Is there anything in between? I'll keep looking.
, Or buy anotherShindaiwa.....

[ElysianWort]

For all of us that have gone out there and done it ourselves, we know how extremely taxing that type of work is.

In fact there is even a warning in the owners manuals of these new weed-whacker tools one can buy. This is right from the Stihl manual:

Prolonged use of a power tool (or other machines) exposing the user to vibrations may produce whitefinger disease (Raynaud's phenomenon) or carpal tunnel syndrome. These conditions reduce the hands ability to feel and regulate temperature, produce numbness and burning sensations, and may cause nerve and circulation damage and tissue necrosis.

So what I am saying is that you cannot expect many people to want to go out there and work for more than a couple hours at a time without breaks. Of course there are die-hard young types that just go and go but in my opinion, $20 per hour just isn't enough for that type of work. Hiring a company allows them to shift workers between the job or have a bunch of them working at once, completing the job in a shorter period of time.

Also sometimes the lone renegade people willing to accept this type of work are young ex-cons that have a hard time getting other jobs. (Not sure I want an ex-con working on my property)

Might be best off hiring a landscaping company.

[lquade]

oh good grief.. there is no work ethic anymore. too many people get paid for sitting on their bottoms and the only exercise they get is their thumbs on their stupid phones
i weedwack several times a week and always at least 4 hours. i am in my 70s. $20 is good pay cash. our government has created this mess by putting everyone on the free money. after going through several jokers who didn't work as hard as i did beside them, i gave up and do it myself and also finally gave in to roundup for the fence lines (2000 feet)

[ElysianWort]

Props to you lquade! That is awesome that you are that active at your age. I consider myself in fantastic shape in my 40s and hope to be like you when I get there. I have no problem doing a 4 hour stint myself but I do it often enough that I don't have to. (maybe at least twice a week) Also if I find myself going in a marathon weedwhacking type day, I'll simply choose to break it up. A couple hours here, some woodwork there, some gardening then back to a couple more after lunch.

I'll bet you that you're a minority though. Get 20 seventy-year-olds in a room together and I bet you're the only one that does 4 hour weed-eatin' stints. Maybe you and someone else on occasion. That's 10% or less. Don't get me wrong I wish more were powerful cowboys like you. The community would be a better place. Healthier too.

[eigoya]

Lquade: That is where we left it once the guy quit and we got a quote (hell for that price, it is a breeze). Mind you our man never did more than three hours or 300sf (it he was cheap). We were doing a couple of hours a week each and it didn't look bad (nor did it look good BTW), but wonder if it is worth it to buy another good weed whacker. Probably going to rent a lawn mower for flat parts and let the sides invade some ( or poison). In other six months may reconsider.....

[My 2 cents]

" Get 20 seventy-year-olds in a room together and I bet you're the only one that does 4 hour weed-eatin' stints."

Hard to imagine anyone lasting 4 hours weedeating in a room with all the toxic fumes.

Joking aside, I have to agree with lquade about the work ethic. I'd bet that getting 20 random 20 year olds together (outside) would produce roughly the same results.

[Chas]

Wow, you actually think you would get 4 hours of work out of 20 random 20 year olds?

Sorry I can’t help you on the yard work thing. I feel your pain. Years ago we had a guy named Gerald who was fantastic. Since then nobody has hung around, even though we paid them well.