The first few weeks of spring set the tone for your entire mowing season. I've talked to landscaping contractors who hit the ground running on day one because they spent February getting ready, and I've talked to guys who spent the first two weeks of spring scrambling to fix equipment, chase down employees, and re-sign customers. Same trade, very different March.
Here's the checklist that separates the two groups.
Equipment prep (do this in February)
If you wait until the grass starts growing to touch your equipment, you're already behind. Get this done while it's still cold outside.
- Mower maintenance. Change the oil, replace the oil filter, swap out the air filter, and check the fuel filter. Replace spark plugs. These are cheap parts and they prevent expensive problems. A fresh set of plugs and filters costs maybe $30 per mower and saves you a breakdown in April.
- Sharpen or replace blades. Dull blades tear grass instead of cutting it, which makes lawns look bad and opens the grass up to disease. Sharpen every blade. If a blade has deep gouges, nicks near the center hole, or is worn thin, replace it. Keep a spare set of sharp blades on the trailer.
- Check belts and pulleys. Look for cracking, fraying, and glazing on all belts. Spin the pulleys by hand and feel for rough bearings. A belt that looks "fine" in February will snap in May at the worst possible time.
- Inspect trimmers and edgers. Check the trimmer heads for wear. Stock up on trimmer line. Make sure the edger blades are sharp and the guard is in good shape.
- Trailer inspection. Check tire pressure and tread, inspect the floor for rot or rust, test the lights, grease the wheel bearings, and check the ramp hinges. A failed DOT inspection or a roadside breakdown costs you an entire day.
- Blower and backpack sprayer. Test-run everything. Clean the sprayer thoroughly if you used herbicide last season (residual herbicide in the tank will kill ornamentals in April).
Pricing review
Don't just carry last year's prices into the new season without looking at them. Here's what to check:
Fuel costs. What was gas last April? What is it now? If fuel went up 15%, your per-lawn cost went up too. Calculate the actual difference.
Labor costs. Did you give raises? Did minimum wage go up in your state? Are you paying more for seasonal workers this year? Labor is typically 40-55% of your cost per lawn, so even a small hourly increase adds up fast across hundreds of cuts.
Materials. Fertilizer, mulch, seed, and herbicide prices have been volatile the last few years. Check current supplier pricing before you quote spring cleanups and treatment packages.
The actual math. Add up your monthly overhead (truck payment, insurance, trailer, fuel, phone, marketing, your salary) and divide by the number of lawns you can cut in a month. That's your breakeven per lawn. Your price needs to be higher than that number. Use the landscaping pricing calculator to run the numbers properly and check the contractor rates tool to see what your market will bear.
If you need to raise prices, do it now with clear communication. "Due to increased fuel and materials costs, lawn maintenance pricing will increase by $X per visit starting this season." Most customers accept a $3-5 per-cut increase without pushback if you tell them before the season starts.
Customer reactivation
This is the step that most solo operators and small crews skip, and it costs them thousands of dollars every spring.
Contact every customer from last season. Send a text, email, or postcard in late February or early March. Keep it simple: "Spring is coming. Want me to put you on the schedule for the same service as last year? Reply YES to confirm."
You'll get three groups of responses:
- Immediate yes (60-70%). These are your loyal customers. Lock them in.
- No response (20-30%). Follow up once. Some forgot, some are shopping around, some moved.
- No thanks (5-10%). They found someone cheaper, they're doing it themselves, or they moved. Don't chase them.
The customers who don't respond on the first message are the ones worth following up with. A single follow-up text recovers 30-40% of that group, which can mean 5-15 extra recurring customers you would have lost.
Spring cleanup pricing
Spring cleanups are a great early-season revenue boost, but they're also easy to underprice because every yard is different.
| Yard size | Light cleanup | Full cleanup |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5,000 sq ft | $75 - $125 | $150 - $250 |
| 5,000 - 10,000 sq ft | $125 - $200 | $225 - $375 |
| 10,000 - 20,000 sq ft | $200 - $325 | $350 - $550 |
| Over 20,000 sq ft | $300+ | $500+ |
Light cleanup means leaf removal, bed edging, and a first mow. Full cleanup adds dethatching, aeration, pruning, and mulch installation. Quote these after an in-person look at the property. Photos from Google Maps are fine for mowing quotes, but cleanups need boots on the ground because you can't tell the condition of the beds from a satellite image.
Route optimization
Before you start scheduling, look at your customer map. Group properties by neighborhood and day. The tighter your routes, the less time you spend driving between lawns and the more lawns you cut per day.
Some practical rules:
- Try to keep drive time between stops under 10 minutes. If a lawn is 20+ minutes from the nearest cluster, it needs to be priced higher or moved to a day when you're already in that area.
- Don't mix residential and commercial on the same day if you can avoid it. They require different equipment setups, and switching back and forth kills your efficiency.
- Schedule your biggest or most complex properties early in the day when your crew has the most energy. Save the simple, small lawns for the afternoon.
Hiring and crew prep
If you need seasonal help, start recruiting in January or early February. By March, the reliable people are already taken. Post on local job boards, ask your current crew for referrals (offer a bonus for hires that stay the season), and check with local trade schools.
Before the season starts, run a training day. Even experienced crew members benefit from a refresher on your specific standards: mowing patterns, edging technique, how you want beds maintained, how to interact with customers. An afternoon of training prevents a season of callbacks.
Document your standards in a simple one-page sheet that goes in every truck. It doesn't need to be fancy. "Mow at 3.5 inches. Edge every visit. Blow all hard surfaces. Don't mow wet grass." That kind of thing.
First-mow timing
The first mow of the season is a judgment call that depends on your region and the weather. Generally, you're looking for grass that's consistently growing (not just one warm day followed by a freeze). Some rules of thumb:
- Cool-season grasses (fescue, bluegrass, rye): Start when daytime temps are consistently above 50°F and the grass is 3-4 inches tall.
- Warm-season grasses (bermuda, zoysia, St. Augustine): Wait until the grass is fully green and actively growing, usually when soil temps hit 65°F.
- Don't mow frozen or frost-covered grass. This seems obvious, but every spring someone emails me about a crew that went out at 7am and destroyed a frozen lawn.
Set the deck high for the first cut. You can bring it down gradually over the next few mows. Scalping a lawn in spring weakens it for the entire season.
Get your pricing and scheduling ready for spring
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