From a landlords perspective (don't shoot me).....having lawns maintained to me means that they are kept the way they were when the owner (or previous tenant - subject to landlords satisfaction) left them. With my house and gardens in Perth, we pay for the lawns to be mowed and edged once a month (will change very soon) and expect only the garden beds, plants and grass to be weeded and watered. That is very clearly stipulated in our Lease. If you're a tenant who is not a gardener, then perhaps don't rent a house with a garden and save yourself the hassle!
Our house has bore water though, and a timer which we set to come on on our watering days for 10 minutes each station.
I don't particularly care whether the tenants don't maintain it to my standard while they are living there (and I can't see it) but I sure as hell expect to see it back the way I left it before I get it back for myself. If the tenant doesn't maintain it, then it only means harder work for them IYKWIM, so it's easier to do it than to fight and faff around asking for this and that. That's just me though and I'm a gardener!
As far as the hose, we left ours with the house, and expect it to be there when we get back. If I was a tenant in a house without a hose, I'd just go out and buy one of those ones for the grass that you lay there with the holes in it (or a regular one, whatever tickles your fancy)....but it would stay mine and I'd take it with me. No one gets anything for free!
If you don't want the costs that come with a garden, then rent a house on a concrete block. I have never lived in a house that didn't expect me to cover costs, and rightly so. My family gets to enjoy that garden and how much would it have taken for the owners to get the garden to the current state in the first place. And we've got a hose that we take with us to each rental house we've ever lived in.
HOWEVER, if it is stipulated in your lease that you do not need to maintain the yard as maintenance is provided then you have an awesome landlord! It's not a given and not something I've ever expected.
And no landlord is above the govt, so if you are expected to water the lawn yet water restrictions say you cannot then them's the breaks for the owner. Unless they provide you with a grey water system or a rainwater tank there is nothing they can do if the lawn dies!
We decided we're gonna get a gardener to come in and prune the plants and tidy them up, perhaps do some weeding as well. Then we'll decide if we'll keep getting the gardener to come each month, or how ever often the plants need to be pruned. We'll go get a hose.
Oh my gosh, who can keep grass GREEN in an Australian summer? Even with all the watering, a day in the sun and its shriveled up. Fair enough to water the plants with bucketed water from the shower, but a whole lawn? Unless you have a tank, I'm pretty sure its against water restrictions to be watering your grass to make it green...
BTW, we just do like Rouge and have a hose we take when we move. Plus we only rent what ww want to maintain, so our place is flat. Our backyard is only lawn, so only needing to be mowed, and we have a teeny tiny fron garden. It's pretty much a given that when we rent, you rent the whole block, and are expect to live as if it were your own.
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