Cost Of Lawn Care Is Skyrocketing

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With Spring around the corner many local lawn care businesses are raising prices.

It’s in response to the rising cost of fertilizer and other materials.

Jim Gourlay is the owner of Jagger Lawn and Landscaping. He has loyal customers he has to break the news to that he may have to raise the price of his services.

“And then what ends up happening is you have to kind of push that onto the customer and then it’s a trickle down effect and maybe they’re not real happy with the pricing and what not. So I have to do a little explaining,” Gourlay said.

Gourlay says the prices of some of the materials he works with regularly are skyrocketing.

This impacts his livelihood.

“Yeah it’s a little frustrating but it’s my livelihood and I just got a deal with it,” Gourlay said. “Let’s get through the next year or two and see if we can turn everything around.”

At Blackhawk Hardware, in the Park Road Shopping Center, sales associates say that fertilizer and seed is up around 20 percent.

According to Landscape Management, raw material costs have driven the price increases on finished good products.

The three key raw materials in fertilizers – urea, ammonium sulfate, and potash – have all increased significantly over the last year.