App-Based 'Lawn Love' Offers Homeowners A Break From Yard Work

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Getting someone to shovel your driveway or sidewalks is now as easy as picking up your phone -- and you don't even have to dial a number.

An app-based service called Lawn Love just added snow removal to its list of jobs.

It connects you to a network of companies ready to shovel your driveway or do landscaping.

With how cold it is, you'd think landscapers would have switched their leaf blowers for snow blowers by now, but this early winter still had piles of autumn's leftovers.

"I have four oak trees that shed a lot in the fall," customer Mary Rigney said. "I can't use my right hand for any kind of lifting, or raking or snow plowing."

With her condition, Rigney needed help. A quick online search led her to Lawn Love. The website and app ask for the customer's address and use satellite images to analyze their property for a quote.

"It was very cool. Rather than me sending pictures or having to go out and measure my yard, I gave them my address," Rigney said. "They were able to pull up my house and see how much yard I had."

Landscaper and snow removal specialist Shawn Spiess says it gives his business a boost in customers.

"There's always new jobs popping up on my phone, on the phone app," Spiess said.

He added he has about 50 customers year round. And with more snowfall looming ahead, he's hopeful the calls on his phone keep piling up.

"If you can play a game on your phone," he said, "then you can use the app very easily."