People who know me personally know I’m very much a do-it-yourselfer.  I do my own plumbing, electrical work, computer repair, and so on.  I even took a stab at self-dentistry once when I was desperate.  But there’s one service I’ll gladly splurge to have someone else do, and that’s mowing the lawn.

photo by Muffet @ flickr.com

I’ve never liked mowing, and I really didn’t like it when I lived in the country and had 1-acre-plus lawns.  It was always getting ahead of me, and about the time I’d get finished on one side it’d be time to start over on the other side.  It was a constant weight hanging over my head from April to October.  Push mower or rider didn’t matter; they’re both noisy and annoying and too slow.  When people tell me they like mowing because it gets them outside in the fresh air and sunshine, I tell them I can get that on a lawn chair with a book and a glass of iced tea.  Maybe I just got spoiled driving farm equipment that can mow a path several feet wide at a time.

When I moved into an apartment in Barry, my relief at not having to mow anymore was so great that I promised myself that my next place with a yard would be mowed by sheep or robots, or I’d turn it into a rock garden, but never again would I let my yard rule my week.  So when I moved into Angel’s, although the yard is small enough to be mowed in a half-hour, I was only too glad to hire someone.  Everyone deserves to splurge on something.

So we hired a young guy named Matt Lorentzen, who owns Aspire Lawns.  At the time, I think he had one lawn mower in the back of a pickup; but he’s expanded since then and now also offers gutter cleaning, leaf removal, hedge trimming, snow removal, and other landscaping services.  This year he’ll also maintain flower beds for people.  He does a great job, charges a very reasonable price, shows up every week on schedule, and doesn’t complain about working around the chicken pen and garden beds and dog holes.

Matt just started doing our lawn for the third year, so I thought it was about time I put in a plug for him.  He doesn’t have a web site, but you can contact him at 217-440-7651.  I highly recommend him for anyone who needs someone to do mowing or other lawn services.  (Full disclosure: if you tell him we referred you, we’ll get a free mowing out of it.)