Final Draft for process essay

Francisco Magana Jr
Joel Murphy
English 51
14 March 2009


Quick and Easy
Who ever said making money was easy? It takes work. There is the old fashioned way of making money by getting a job, or doing illegal things, which will get you in trouble. If you need fast and easy money, there’s many ways to do that legally. One way, is by mowing lawns. Of course, if you plan on mowing lawns, make sure you have a lawn mower. You have to be good at mowing lawns or else you will do a bad job and people will want their money back. Try to have lower rates and be competitive with the neighborhood gardeners, clean up all the grass clippings, have a place to dump the grass clippings, and do not dump it on someone else’s trash. Mowing lawns could a source from which quick and easy money can be made.
One has to be good at mowing to start earning some cash. Find out what type of grass that will be cut. Certain grasses require to be cut at different lengths. Winter Season grasses, such as fescue, rye or bluegrass, should be cut from 2.5 inches to 3.5 inches. Warm Season grasses such as crabgrass, goose grass, and foxtails, require cutting from .5 inches to 1 inch because they can tolerate lower cuts. There are certain techniques to mowing lawns. The mowing patterns should be varied. Mowing in the same pattern time after time causes soil compaction and wear patterns. A varied mowing pattern also can prevent continuous scalping of high spots and uneven mowing where sharp turns occur. Leaving some grass clippings on the soil would be a good idea. Grass clippings return a valuable source of nutrients back to the soil. Research shows that up to 1/4 of a lawn's nitrogen requirements can be provided by recycling grass clippings. The clippings should be fine enough to disappear into the turf.
Next, think of how much to charge. Charging lower than other gardeners will give you better chances of people hiring you to cut their grass. Find out how much those gardeners charge and figure out how much would be fair for the costumers, charge a lower rate, but make sure you leave a good profit for yourself. For small yards, the price should be about $15, medium yards at about $20, and large yards for $25. With these prices, costumers will be asking for your services.
Finally, clean up is an important part of the job. Grass clippings can be used to fertilize the soil, but some people don’t want them on their lawn. Of course not all the grass clippings are used. Throw the rest away in the trash but not the neighbor’s trash. The grass clippings can also be used to fertilize other plants but beware. Do not use grass that has been treated with herbicides as a garden fertilizer because it is no longer an organic source. Plus, the herbicide may harm your garden's plants.Getting rid of grass clippings can be a problem unless you are prepared. If you have compostable wheelie bin collection in your area, commonly know as the brown bin, take advantage of this to dispose of the lawn clippings. Of course, this is limited in volume, so the average country-garden lawn owner could fill this many times over in one mowing session. Many people will put the grass in their standard wheelie bin, but this is to be avoided. Sending clippings to landfill is an expensive and sinful waste of landfill space.
Mowing lawns is a quick way of making money. By mowing 10 lawns a day you will have very good profit. It is easy to do and most importantly, it is legal! Mowing lawns won’t get you into prison like other things. Once you start mowing lawns, it might start you on your way to owning your own landscaping company. Have fun with it and think of ways to use the money you make. Don’t invest into the stock market though, or you will be back where you started!