My First proper Job - and quetions

[ATC1983]

So after getting most of the stuff I need together to go into gardening I got my first job, yesterday, which carried over into today.

 

I got a call from a guy wanting his front lawn cut and the front moss on his patio taken out. So I priced the job at £15, not thinking it would take too long, and that would cover the cost of weedkiller. The lawn was covered in weeds, and needed reseeded in parts.

 

I bought two types of weedkiller - one for the lawn, which apparently does kill grass, and another just for the patio, which apparently kills grass as well.

 

I did the job, but my strimmer played up, leaving me to handcut the lawn with shears - then I got the strimmer up and firing again and finished the cut. I then dragged off the debris with a rake and brush, and reseeded parts of the lawn, whilst applying the lawn weedkiller. My first question is is it ok to both apply a grass seed whilst putting down weedkiller? The bottle says not to do this, but I just used it in small amounts, my idea being that rather than redig the entire lawn overtime it would be possible to rechange the balance against weeds - is my logic flawed doing this?

 

I then went on to hoe the weeds on his patio and put down moss killer on the worst parts. In total the job took me 2hrs 30, mostly because of the strimmer issue - and I now know because I'm taking so much time to clear up with just the rake and brush.

 

After this the guy took me on today, and I quoted him £25 to do his back lawn, which was very much overgrown with weeds and a total mess generally. I also pruned back a tree at the back. He paid me £30 in the end. This took 3hrs 30, and again I reseeded, and put down the lawn weedkiller over the worst effected parts of the lawn. Again - was this the right thing to do? To eventually try to rebalance out the lawn by a combination of seeding and weedkilling?

 

I can see my main drawbacks are: time spent raking / uncertainty over method. In total I made £38 profit, out of £45, which I'm happy with. The total work time was 6hrs, which I know is unacceptable, but I think I did do a good honest job and have cleaned the place up.

 

Can any of you guys help with respect to time - I suppose this could be fixed by a blower - and an efficient weeding strategy / reseeding grass?

 

Thanks in advance - bear in mind I'm a total beginner.

[Hodge]

Is this a serious post?

[SAM66S]

Its not ideal to apply the weedkiller & overseed at the same time to be honest. You want to be at least £15 an hour as a beginer doing gardens. I take is you dont have your PA1 & PA6a of any public liability insurance? Be careful what you do with weedkillers you can soon make a mess of peoples gardens.

[alex_m]

Is this a serious post?

 

shouldn't that be pmt tree surgeons

[ben lightfoot]

A good way of killing weeds on patio is table salt and boiling water, also no need for the spraying tickets

[Hodge]

shouldn't that be pmt tree surgeons

 

Im serious, I thought it was a wind up.

If the bottle of weed killer says don't sow seed when you have applied said weed killer then that tells me you don't sow seed.

[Mozza]

Im serious, I thought it was a wind up.

If the bottle of weed killer says don't sow seed when you have applied said weed killer then that tells me you don't sow seed.

 

It's funny that, Coz I'd of thought exactly the same, even when I was a beginner, I could still read!!

[Nat]

You'll learn that having good equiptment in top notch condition makes the difference between making money and losing money on a job.

Having a 2nd machine as backup is ideal....

 

Obvs this is dependant on having funds for a 2nd machine but you cannot run a successful business with poor unreliable tools.

[ATC1983]

ok - notes taken - the stuff I was using was this:

 

[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000TAOWIM/ref=s9_simh_gw_p86_d1_g86_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=08N0KX09DMGZ844W0HTY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294]EverGreen Feed & Weed 100 sq m Liquid Concentrate Lawn Food and Weedkiller: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors[/ame]

 

Evergreen lawn feed and weed - I assumed this would be ok?

[son of a birch]

You can knock a few quid off your profit, as you are going to have to re-seed the garden again in a week or two (depending on the weed killer)!