CHESTER, Ohio — With spring around the corner, lawn service companies are slammed, facing lots of calls while also battling increased costs.
Jeffery Johnson runs his own lawn company; he says the spring is when business picks up, but it’s costing more than before.
“Just bringing a truck and a trailer here is costing almost twice as much. Anything that comes in on a bag, salts mulch, soil all at least up 40 to 50%,” said Johnson, owner of Jeff Johnson Landscaping & Design.
Those prices don’t include his equipment and the fuel that makes all of it run. For a lawnmower to cut an average yard, it will take about two gallons of gas, which has doubled in cost. That’s leading to the domino effect — the cost of supplies increases, then the cost of services increases.
“I try not to gouge myself too much, but I got to increase prices little by little to try to meet that margin,” said Johnson.
If you don’t see the increased cost when you are getting your grass cut, you may see it when it’s being treated. Chip Soltesz with Dyna Green fertilizing company also sees a rush of business in the spring every year.
“So the second the weather starts breaking as it does now, it goes from pretty much full stop to full speed,” said Soltesz.
What they don't usually see is a spike in costs like the one that came this year.
“I normally pay, for this application, $11,000 to $12,000 for a semi load, which was $20,000,” said Soltesz.
To add to that, they are also struggling to get supplies in. Soltesz told News 5 some truck deliveries used to come within four days, now they are lucky if they come in a couple of months.
Dyna Green, just like Jeffery, makes it work and hope customers understand any price increases.
The Ohio Landscape Association says it is something we may see for a while, and people in the landscaping industry are hurting across the board. In addition, they're facing the same staffing shortages as other businesses.
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
