Doing yard work can be one of the tougher parts about keeping your home as you begin to get older. And not everyone can afford to pay someone to do the work for them. A new program is launching in one part of Prince George’s County that offers help to seniors who need it.
The Senior Lawn Care Program is only available in District 8, and that’s because of impact grants generated by MGM National Harbor. It’s supposed to be for basic mowing and trimming, but crews showed up at a home a few blocks off Livingston Road in Fort Washington for a job that needed expert landscaping and the kind of equipment most people don’t keep in their sheds.
“We’ve come across a few properties that need help,” said Kelvin Moore of DLC (Divine Landscaping Company). “This one is probably one of the ones that needed the most help.”
The trimming, weed whacking and mowing — only once anyone could see the ground, though — heard throughout the neighborhood hadn’t emanated from this backyard in years.
“My age caught up with me. I used to keep the yard myself,” said the homeowner, a woman in her 70s. “Because of circumstances — death in the family, sickness, illness, and a series of things happened to me — I became in a state of denial and running away from it. It got larger than I knew that it would become.”
Moore said it took him a few tries to even convince her to allow his crews to do this work.
“You’ve got fence lines that are completely covered,” he said. “So not only is the problem inside this property, it’s spilling out into the neighbors, which can cause more issues.”
In a lot of cases, all the vegetation had grown over other items strewed about the yard, adding to the mess.
“We’re cutting vines and chopping things back just to be able to get to the vegetation onto the junk,” he said. “And then we’re kind of sorting and throwing things away while still remembering that this is someone else’s home.”
Moore said over 300 residents have signed up for the program so far.
District 8 Council member Ed Burroughs said there’s room for about 500 people to receive basic yard maintenance. Though, even if your yard is in rough shape, help is available.
“What we have found is that some of our seniors have not had the means to upkeep their property for months, even years in some instances, and they’ve lost full usage of either front yard or their backyard or both,” said Burroughs. “And in situations like that, we have a crew that comes in and completely cleans it, guts it, removes all the debris, and after that, we then enroll them into the two-week grass cutting program.”
The elderly homeowner said she was overwhelmed before getting help.
“But right now, it’s beautiful. I can see a vision now of a beautiful yard, a cookout, and just having some friends over. Maybe some seniors to introduce them to the program, because they’re definitely going to see the improvement,” she said.
Burroughs said it also allows seniors to live in their home with pride and dignity.
For Moore, who said he still appreciates the help he got from strangers when his business was robbed last year, it’s also a way to pass that gratitude on.
“Any seed you sow today, it will reap a harvest in the future,” Moore said. “Love, love, love — that’s the only thing that’s going to multiply.”
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