Evan Lindman is the founder of E & D Lawn Care and co-host of Turf Nerds: A Lawn Care Podcast with Greg Durbin. He began his career in lawn care in 2010 as a high school student, starting small with basic equipment and gradually building a reputation for quality service. Over the course of more than 15 years in the industry, Evan has transformed his business into a boutique lawn care service, focusing on exceptional results and serving clients who value professionalism and attention to detail. He offers services such as aeration, landscaping, hedge trimming, and mowing, all while emphasizing a personalized experience for his customers. One of Evan’s most valuable lessons as a business owner has been learning to properly price his work. He transitioned from undercharging early in his career to confidently charging rates that reflect the expertise, time, and effort his work requires.
Beyond running his lawn care company, Evan shares his knowledge and experiences through his podcast, which offers an honest, behind-the-scenes look at the realities of working in the lawn care industry. He aims to inspire others by talking about the challenges of entrepreneurship, the importance of valuing one’s work, and the rewards of building a thriving business. Evan’s approach blends high-quality service with a balanced lifestyle, proving that growth doesn’t always mean scaling to massive size—it means working smarter, serving customers well, and creating a sustainable business.
Ezra McCarthy
Hello and welcome back to the lawn care blueprint. We’ve got none other than Evan Lindman back. We’re going to be sharing some wild stories, customer quirks, and who knows what else. So buckle up, grab your favorite cold soda. Let’s dive into a great episode here with Evan.
Evan Lindman
It’s an honor Ezra, I always like to be back on this show. Let’s go baby.
Ezra McCarthy
So Evan, let’s start with what is the strangest thing you’ve ever mowed over and survived to tell the tale?
Evan Lindman
It’s funny. I’m pretty sure I mowed over a wig back in the day, but I didn’t really care as much starting out with lawn care. I would just mow over basically anything, but most of it was just a lot of plastic bottles. I would just mow over anything. But yeah, there’s some weird stuff that people would throw. This is the honest truth. It was crazy. But lately now I try to avoid strange things. So the neighborhoods I’ve been mowing in, last year they had all these utility flags everywhere and they were scattered all over. I would hit those on occasion. That would really bother me because I’m a guy that likes to keep his blades nice and sharp.
Ezra McCarthy
Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever mowed over anything crazy. I was talking to my nephew a while back and I was asking him, how often does he sharpen his blades? Just there at his house and he doesn’t even sharpen it.
Evan Lindman
That’s bad. That would drive me crazy.
Ezra McCarthy
Yeah, it’s not good. If your mower could talk, what do you think it would complain about most other than your weight?
Evan Lindman
Cause I’m obsessed about changing and sharpening my blades. My mower would say, stop changing my blades so much. I’m always getting jacked up on the jungle gym’s jack. I have this little mower jack and that mower’s been jacked up probably a thousand times. I’m obsessively scraping the deck or I would argue you can never sharpen the blades too much. But yeah, the mower would just be like, put me down, stop jacking me up to clean under me.
Ezra McCarthy
So what about customer requests? Have you ever had someone ask something so odd you wondered, okay hidden camera around here?
Evan Lindman
You know this question really made me think. In my 15 years, more than 15 years cause I cut grass before I started my business, customers haven’t asked me anything too weird, but they’ve asked if I was good at plumbing or carpentry. I had this one customer, she’s a smoker. She smoked so bad and I always had to move her car to get into her backyard. I would basically hack a lung every time I had to move her car. Her car was basically like a moving chimney. That’s how bad it was. It was disgusting. You’d get out and I’d go home and people would think, man, were you smoking? No, I was just moving Linda’s car. It was full of smoke.
Ezra McCarthy
I don’t know, which is worse, mowing in 100 degree heat or mowing in a swarm of mosquitoes?
Evan Lindman
Hands down has to be the mosquitoes because mowing in the heat is not bad if you dress for it. We’ve talked about this on our show too, but Greg, my cohost, always wears long sleeves and I used to wear long sleeve performance shirts back in the day. Then I kind of stopped in recent years, but this happened about a month ago. I got home from work and something crawled up my triceps. I’m not really paranoid about bugs, but it was a tick. I flicked it off and thought, oh, I probably should have just killed that. So I went back to wearing sun protecting long sleeve shirts and that actually keeps you cooler in the heat.
I would not want to be mowing through a swarm of mosquitoes. I’ve got a buddy, he lives up in the upper peninsula here in Michigan. It’s the grand state and getting up north in our state. Ezra, you’re way out there in Canada so I’m sure you know what bugs are, but bugs get really bad and it’s something you can’t combat very well. The heat is easy though. Just wear long sleeves, it’ll save you from dirt and cuts too.
Ezra McCarthy
It depends how hard you’re working, you can even grab some of those performance ones Adam was mentioning.
Evan Lindman
Oh yeah, wish I had luck on that. Amazon affiliate link or we should get our own shirts made for that extra, that’d be pretty sweet. Actually when I was buying on Amazon for that, they have like a seven pack for 40 bucks and they’re really nice long sleeve performance shirts. On Amazon you can just input landscaping shirts and everything pops up, but protecting yourself is better because you at least want to look like a human when you get home to your wife.
Ezra McCarthy
What do you say is the most MacGyver repair you’ve ever done out in the field?
Evan Lindman
I’ve always been a hack at trying to fix stuff, but I don’t think I’ve really ever had to repair anything in the field per se. I had a cylinder head crack on my Exmark rider years ago and it started to leak oil all over the grass. And when I had an Exmark walk behind, one of the hydro chambers was leaking oil everywhere. So that was fun. This was back in the day.
Another Exmark riding story. I got my Exmark rider stuck way back in a yard and at the time I was driving a 1998 manual stick shift Ford Ranger. I got in the truck and tried to pull the mower out and ended up getting the truck stuck in the backyard too. So I had my truck and my mower stuck in this client’s backyard. My Italian neighbor had to bring his power wagon, I think it was a Ford power wagon, and pull out both my truck and the mower. That was quite the ordeal.
Ezra McCarthy
That’s like I heard, I forget who it was, they were mowing by their pond and it was a little too slippery in the rain and they ended up dunking their mower right in there.
Evan Lindman
I’ve seen those videos online of guys doing that. There was a recent video I saw, I think it was on the beater mower’s Instagram, where these guys were pulling a mower out of a pond. The guy was sitting on the mower and the way they were pulling it out, he almost flipped over. The mower came out fine, but the way they were doing it wasn’t really professional. If you’re pulling a mower off something like that, I’d probably not be on the mower in case it rolled over. There have been a lot of freak stories of people having mowers land on them. Praise God we have these stand-on mowers now so we can hop off and run away. Our lives are too precious compared to a mower, that thing can just get destroyed.
Ezra McCarthy
What would you say if you had to give an award for the most memorable customer? Who would win and why?
Evan Lindman
I’ve had some customers for basically almost 15 years, my whole career doing this. I think of my first client, his name is Dennis. He’s nice, he gives us pop every week, but he basically says, if I’m not texting you every week complaining, then you know something’s wrong. So he always has a complaint weekly, but he’s still a nice guy through his complaints. Then there’s Don, he’s a personable guy, good character, and a great writer.
He gets the memory award because one time he tried to grow grass in the shade. He roped off his area and put a note on it that said he would cut off our hands if we mowed down the baby grass he was trying to grow. So he’s definitely a character and we always have back and forth funny stories and quips. He actually writes a lot of children’s books and gave some of them to me for my son. He’s really a creative writer.
You want the client that will just come out and talk to you about anything, not always about cutting grass. Don will also complain though. Two years ago he was telling me to cut it shorter and that was because he was watering it to death. He would send me these passive emails like, hey, my lawn looks kind of ratty, why don’t you come over here and mow it short? I’m like, not when you’re watering it nonstop. I’m not going to be able to get your lawn much shorter than what you already have. But he’s a good guy. With being a memorable client, clients like that are great because you can raise the price. We don’t gouge people, but you continue to raise the price on them and they’ll basically always pay without balking at it.
Ezra McCarthy
What is the funniest excuse or strangest excuse you’ve ever heard for not paying a bill?
Evan Lindman
I didn’t really have too many funny or strange excuses, but this one was kind of odd. I used to cut for this really weird guy named Mark. He would always pay me in person with cash. Sometimes he would act like he didn’t see me, even though he would wave other times. And when he did pay me, he would park anywhere from five to ten houses away, then meander through the longest part of the yard to get to me. He was a total weirdo. His mailbox was always full, he had a cell phone that didn’t work half the time, his email didn’t work, and his house was in shambles.
It was quite the interesting story. On top of that, when he would open his garage, the floor was full of Styrofoam food containers everywhere. He was bizarre. He would wave and then turn around like he didn’t know it was me. I’m like, Mark, you know that was me, you’ve seen me enough. But he would pay cash so it was fine. Still, when you park five or ten houses down and then take the long way to get to me, it’s strange. There was just something off with this guy, he was a character.
Ezra McCarthy
I tried to make it a habit to have customers that would pay really quick and offload them pretty quick if they did not, refer them away kindly. If your co-host Greg could say only one catchphrase for the rest of the podcast, what do you think it would be?
Evan Lindman
So guys, if you listen to our podcast, we all know Greg says this, “Hello, this is Greg.” But it would not be that one. One catchphrase for the rest of the podcast? Greg has said this before, he goes, oh, I charge a minimum of $50. I have a $50 minimum. When he says that, it’s funny because he acts like Mr. Tough Guy, but Greg’s a really nice guy. So when he says, oh, I have a $50 minimum, it’s just really funny. That would be the one. I need to clip that so you can actually hear it. Greg’s got good quips and some solid wisdom.
Ezra McCarthy
Have you ever recorded one and then thought to yourself, wow, we’re not going to release this?
Evan Lindman
Yeah, I’ll try to be charitable saying this because nothing was done out of malice. There was one episode I hosted with Ben. Ben was my previous co-host. He’s still part of the show here and there and we would talk.
Ezra McCarthy
Did he get half the lawn business?
Evan Lindman
No, he was just a buddy from my former church and he helped me host. He had nothing to do with the business. I think I just went right through it and we did a show about foul-smelling customers and those who never pay on time. We kind of revolved the show around these foul, slow-paying customers. No one ever heard that one because after I got done editing and played it back, I thought, this is all done in good cheer, but someone could take some blowback from it. Maybe one day if we get bigger and people demand it, we’ll do a paywall, like a $5 episode so people can hear it. It wasn’t mean, but it was just funny.
Ezra McCarthy
Sure. If you had to rate Greg, your co-host, as a lawn care tool, what would you classify him as?
Evan Lindman
I’ll rephrase this. Greg would definitely be the one operating the tools, but the caveat is he wouldn’t get much work done because he’d spend too much time talking. We’re kind of tools too in the business because we have to operate the equipment, but Greg would just spend too much time chatting. That’s where he’s greatest. That’s how he’s built his clientele, because he talks. He might even be worse than me in that respect. We’ve done aerations before and he’ll get them for me, then stand there with his arms crossed talking to the customer for 40 minutes, laughing, while I’m just sitting on the aerator.
Ezra McCarthy
This leads into another one. What sound effect, if you could use it in every episode, what would that be?
Evan Lindman
Well, I started to use this in every episode, but it’s just the regular fart. I’m already putting them in all the episodes, but if you listen long enough, I add Easter eggs and random sound effects from video games, my life, and TV shows. It’s probably the farts though, cause I’m still a little immature in some respect. But hey, it keeps the guys out there in the field interested as they’re mowing their lives away.
Ezra McCarthy
Oh no, Evan! Right. So, let’s think a little deeper here. If mowing lawns became an Olympic sport, what would be your signature move?
Evan Lindman
Ezra, if you think about lawn care, in some respect it’d be cool if it really did become an Olympic sport about who can stripe the best or trim the best. My signature move would be flip edging on my Segway. I recently started to edge and trim on a Segway Ninebot S2. I got this from Cameron Duncan over at Lawn Care Life in Missouri.
Ezra McCarthy
Wait a sec, you’re talking about a Segway that you stand on?
Evan Lindman
Yeah, you can do it and I can do it on about 95% of my lawns. It works. I spent $550 on it, obviously wrote that off, and I upgraded the tires. It goes 12 miles an hour and for most undulations and uphills, it works fairly well. It’s self-balanced.
Ezra McCarthy
This sounds like April Fools.
Evan Lindman
I will have to… I mean, if you want to…
Ezra McCarthy
You have to send me a picture.
Evan Lindman
Yeah, I’ll send you a picture. Maybe you’ll change the episode art, but no, you can actually trim on a Segway. Guys do it. Cameron actually turned me on to it, but then he was talking about another company called Electronic Unicycles. They go 40 miles an hour and they’re even better than the Segway. Down the road, I’d like to get one, but those are like $3,000. With $550 you can trim and edge on a Segway. I’d say I’m cutting about 20 lawns a day and I just do it lawn by lawn. It’s probably bumped me up an extra two to three lawns per day because of that. I haven’t really timed it, but it saves about an hour to an hour and 20 minutes.
Ezra McCarthy
Are you doing it in the backyard too, or just the edging? Are you weeding with it?
Evan Lindman
You can string trim the entire yard, just got to pray for flatter yards. I’ve taken a few falls on it because there are some undulations and bumps. To go over bumps you kind of have to jump with the Segway using your knees to absorb the shocks. You can also dial in the sensitivity settings for turning. All in all, it works out well for lawns. And Ezra, you’ve mowed. We don’t mow very flat lawns, do we? Lawns are up and down, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fine. People turn and look, and I’ve had crews, clients, and even random people stop and film me on it. I’m not even that fast—there are guys who can go faster than me. So this isn’t me being silly, it actually works. I think it’d be cool to pitch an idea to Segway, call it the Lawn Glider, and have them tailor a scooter with two wheels made specifically for lawn care.
Ezra McCarthy
This needs to be in a comedy routine.
Evan Lindman
No, it’s true. i will send you. i thought you followed. i put some up there on the turf nerds on instagram. it was me edging my neighbor’s driveway on it when i got it a couple of days after, but i’m much faster. so it’d be flip edging on the segway, the lawn glider.
Ezra McCarthy
That would be hilarious. i’m looking forward to seeing that picture. so what gets you through the long days? tell us what is your favorite snack to eat while you’re out mowing?
Evan Lindman
It’s actually from Costco. They have these chicken sticks and they’re really good. I was just pounding them. I think they’re like eight grams of protein. They’re like chicken jerky type sticks and they’re super good. Costco has a lot of good things. Aside from that, I don’t know how healthy they are, but the calories are too high. They have Uncrustables too, which are really good.
Anything protein-based powers me through the day. The tip to get through the day, which guys need to do but don’t, is learn to just passively snack more throughout the day. They don’t do that. Me, I could bring a steak dinner and eat it on the mower. I don’t stop to sit down and take a break. I just slowly pop some food in and keep going.
Ezra McCarthy
Well, thank you for that great insight. Sounds a little scary. Chicken sticks, no comment there. Evan, if you had to swap jobs with a completely different profession for one week, what would it be?
Evan Lindman
I’m so thankful that I’m in lawn care because I like to work with my hands. I can’t sit still. Ezra’s met me, I’m always bouncing around doing something. If I had to swap jobs for a week, it’d probably be IT, doing some sort of computer work. I like technology. I’ve custom built some computers back in the day. If you saw my studio here, I’ve got my desktop right next to me. It would probably be some sort of IT job, even though it would drive me crazy because I’d need to get out and get some fresh air.
Ezra McCarthy
Evan, to close out our last question, what is one lawn myth you’d love to bust once and for all?
Evan Lindman
First, I’d like to say this. The lawn myth I’d bust once and for all is that lawn care isn’t a skilled trade. I would argue it definitely is a skilled trade because not everyone can do what we do. I mean, everyone can try, but not everyone can actually do it. I could get on my little soapbox here, but it takes a lot of skill to professionally use a zero-turn mower, how to distribute your weight if you’re on an angle, and there’s a proper way to use the trimmer. You don’t just butcher everything and scalp it down.
I’ve seen bad jobs where people trimmed lawns, so there is a skill even though you don’t go to school for it. It’d be funny if they had a master’s in lawn mowing or something like that—like, I got my master’s in striping. Everyone can try it, but not everyone can do it well. There is a big skill to it. I’ve acquired this skill over 15 years, but I could still do this business for another 10 years and keep learning even more mowing skills. We always want to continue learning something new in this industry. What we do might seem repetitive, but there’s so much skill behind it that people don’t really appreciate.
We have to remind ourselves that it’s a luxury we’re out there cutting grass. It really is. If you can afford a lawn service, that’s a luxury, and there’s skill behind it. It was kind of funny, I was mowing this lawn the other day—I should have taken a video of it, but I didn’t. Is there anyone worse than a “chuck in the truck”? This guy had a truck and a lawn mower trailer, but he left clippings everywhere. He just went in a big circle and made a huge mess. I was sitting there infuriated because that’s where the myth doesn’t get busted—people see that and think anyone can do it.
He had a decent truck and trailer from what I saw, but what he did almost depreciates and devalues us. There’s so much skill behind this and I take a lot of pride in what I do. You have to take pride in it. Then you get this Joe Schmo next to me just devaluing the trade. So yeah, it’s been said it’s not a skilled trade. It definitely is—and remember that.
Ezra McCarthy
I have to say, if you can ride a Segway and edge at the same time, that’s a skilled trade right there.
Evan Lindman
Well, Ezra, if you get down to the Equip Expo, I’m actually going to be bringing the Segway and the trimmer. I’m going to be showing it off for the guys. Hopefully I don’t go over, because there are certain parts of grass you can’t see. If you fly over those, guess what—you’re going sailing. It’s actually hard to fall off, but when you do, you’re really flying. No one can trim going 12 miles an hour or faster. I don’t have long legs, but if anything can help you save even 20 minutes, it’s worth it.
Twenty minutes could change the whole trajectory of your day. I got home 20 minutes earlier and was able to see my son before he went to bed. Obviously I try to get home earlier than that, but in years past when I was biting off more than I could chew, the Segway would have been nice because I could have saved time. Now I can almost gain some lawns back. It’s an actual thing. I want to send you a picture of that, Ezra, because your listeners may be dumbfounded, but this is the truth—you can trim on a Segway.
Ezra McCarthy
Well, that’ll segue into our outro here. Thank you for listening in. This has been a bit of a different episode, but hopefully you got some humor today and it lightened up your day. Be sure to subscribe, leave a rating and review, and we’ll catch you on the next one.