Grass Cutting Service

[Paul King]

Hi Everyone,

We have recently purchased a property near Villebois-Lavelette (16320- Charente) and have a grass section of garden on approx 600 sq mtrs.  We only visit the property about 5 times a year and therefore require someone to keep the grass short so not to upset the neighbours and relieve a bit of the workload when we do visit - does anyone know how much it would cost or any people who could undertake cutting the grass one a month?  We would be very grateful for any replies via PM. we are not looking for a perfect lawn just short grass!!

Many thanks

Paul & Maureen.

[dr orloff]

I hope your grass grows slower than ours - we are currently cutting it twice a week.  In a month it would be a couple of feet high.

[Kitty]

When our house was a second home, we paid the neighbour to do it and he was very pleased.  It kept the garden tidy and yet gave him some wine money.

I'll warn you.  French grass really does grow quicker than English grass (except in high summer) - it's the warm and wet conditions.

[Paulaphillips]

Hi Paul - we are near Villebois and our neighbour cuts our grass around the house for us regularly and we pay him - he welcomes the extra money.  I do agree though it grows really quickly over there - our local farmer cuts the small field we have - which we found out was hay not grass - rolls the hay into big bales, stores it on our land and takes it for his animals - and just charges us a very nominal amout.  Its worth asking around or check the small ads in Super U just up the road.  Good luck - maybe we will bump into you!

Paula

Near Salles Lavelette

[woody234]

whats the difference between hay and grass

[Ron Avery]

whats (sic) the difference between hay and grass?

One is cut and baled for animal feed,  the other you smoke[:D][:D].

[woody234]

no you dont smoke grass, you normaly cut grass, someone cut my grass and made it into bales, i thought hay was cut grass but maybe im wrong

[Pads]

Hay is grass plus anything else that grows in your field like wild flowers etc.... that has been left to get long cut dried and baled... we have a field which is cut twice a year by a local farmer and he pays us for it to feed his animals, its a free way to get it cut plus making some money at the same time ... he also keeps the hedges trimmed..    

[Scooby]

We also pay our neighbour to cut the grass for us.  The local guy who does the 'gardening' for the commune comes and cuts our hedges, prunes the grape vine etc and does the other heavier stuff or the things that require more 'gardening' knowledge - again for a fee. We tried to do it ourselves initially but the grass grew so quickly it wasn't sufficient - plus it was very frustrating to be spending most of our short time in France tied to the garden so this arrangement is much better.   We don't have a huge garden in France (having over an acre here in the UK taught us that acres of land are not necessarily a good thing!) but even with a moderate sized garden it takes a lot of time to keep on top of it all.

[woody234]

what happens when you dont cut the grass for a year, doesnt it just grow in the summer then die or bio-degrade in the winter and does grass grow all year round

[Pads]

Grass does grow all year fast in the summer and very slow in the winter... if never cut it will grow tall and fall over this will in the end become a like a mat the grass will become weak underneath and yellow from lack of light , but will still continue to grow, but you will get dead patches, it will eventally compost away, not a good idea if you do one day want to use the land as unless you have a tractor or rotorator , it become very hard to clear... if you have a good size either get a farmer to put sheep on it or cut it for hay.. its a bit of extra income   

[buckdendave]

We have a place near Limoux and our plot is 1000m2 in all, and the area of grass is about 600m2.  We live in England most of the time and only get to France a few weeks per year.

It costs me 70Euros per session to get the grass cut and a bit of strimming around the bushes, etc..  When last over (a couple of weeks ago) I had to pay for 5 cuts - that is 350Euros since April.  A wet spring / early summer is very expensive!

Dave

 

 

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

I'm confused. This forum is very heavy with "don't employ people on the black", but it appears pretty usual to pay neighbours to cut grass. Is this legit?

I'm not trying to be clever but with a largish grass area myself I'd like to know the proper rules. Whether I follow them or not may be another matter!

[woody234]

people on the black means people you pay for in cash for building work and things like that, cutting grass is different, the first year i paid for 3 cuts at 40 euros each (2003) for 5000 m2,  2nd year i paid for 4 cuts at 40 euro each cut (2004), 3rd year i paid for 6 cuts at 50 euros each cut (2005), i said to the french person who was cutting it why does it keep going up all the time and he said the more  it rains the more it grows, I said i cannot afford 300 euro per year to get  the grass cut anymore, and it has not been cut ever since, food and shelter comes before cutting the grass with me, it would probably be 10 cuts at 60 euros  this year to cut the grass if i had carried on with it, some french people think that because you are british you are loaded and naive and fair game, i dont blame them for thinking that

[zeb]

[quote user="woody234"]people on the black means people you pay for in cash for building work and things like that, cutting grass is different,

first year i paid for 3 cuts at 40 euros each (2003) for 5000 m2,  2nd year i paid for 4 cuts at 40 euro each cut (2004), 3rd year i paid for 6 cuts at 50 euros each cut (2005), i said to the french person who was cutting it why does it keep going up all the time and he said the more  it rains the more it grows, I said i cannot afford 300 euro per year to get  the grass cut anymore, and it has not been cut ever since, food and shelter comes before cutting the grass with me, it would probably be 10 cuts at 60 euros  this year to cut the grass if i had carried on with it, some french people think that because you are british you are loaded and naive and fair game, i dont blame them for thinking that[/quote]

 

Only 6 cuts a year? I hope he was using your equipment and not his!

 

 

[Pierre ZFP]

[quote user="woody234"]people on the black means people you pay for in cash for building work and things like that, cutting grass is different, [/quote]

Really?  I bet there's a lot of fully registered, taxed, all-legal-and-above-board landscape gardeners (some I know are on this forum) that might disagree with that.

Isn't there also the thing if I am doing work for you and have an accident on your premises, you have to take care of me for the rest of my natural?

[woody234]

good point pierre, make sure the people cutting your grass have there own insurance or they may try and sue you in court if they get injured, especially the local people that dont speak english if you know what i mean