How to handle problem with Lawn Mowing crew

[YourRabbitGirl]

Easy gardeners on this forum have been very helpful and insightful in the past, so perhaps I can get some guidance as to how to deal with a problem I'm having with the crew who mows my 1 1/2 acre of lawn.

The situation is this: my husband died this past spring. He used to mow our lawns with a riding mower. After he passed I hired a crew of professional lawn mowers, and overall they do an amazing job. They have huge mowing machines that make short work of what used to take the hubby all day with the mower and me with the string trimmer.

The requirements for mowing our property were thus: No pesticides or pruning of trees or shrubs or trimming (I still do the areas requiring a string trimmer myself), and stay far away from any lines of posts that mark unmowed areas where I am growing trees or flower/veg gardens. The main guy keeps forgetting and mowing closer to the forbidden fence posts, breaking a few of them. His young assistant on the other hand listened to me and remembers from week to week to avoid posts.

OK this last week, after finding a couple more broken posts I reiterated my request and the main guy smiles and nods and apparently pretends to listen and promises to do as asked. This was right before he mowed this last time. I walked over with him to the two areas with lines of posts I wished him to stay a couple feet away from, so I know he didn't forget. But after they left, I discovered that he had mowed right next to the posts yet again. So I have to figure there are only 2 possibilities - one that he didn't understand the request. This is hard to believe since I'm not speaking swahili and, from his replies to me, he completely understood what I wanted done (or NOT done) and planned to act accordingly. In the past I described it thusly : "Pretend that these posts shoot out death rays and will zap you if you get close to them." and "Please just mow at least a foot away from any posts. That is the minimum. I will never be upset if you mow too far away from the posts, only if you get too close."

The only other possibility is that this guy has some passive-aggressive thing going on and is doing this deliberately to aggravate me while pretending it was just a misunderstanding. I don't understand this kind of mentality. I am a direct person so this totally baffles me. I have been very generous with praise for the work these guys do, and indeed I am very grateful to have found this crew to step in and take over for my late hubby. If he could see how the property looks now, he would be very pleased. I want to stay on good terms with these guys who provide such an invaluable service, but I am finding myself stressed to the max after this past incident.

How would you all handle this? Perhaps some of you on here are professional lawn care folks and might shed some enlightenment on this confounding behavior. It all seems so stupid since avoiding posts and other structures would mean less mowing and be easier for these guys.

Now that a couple days have passed I'm thinking that just ordering more of the flexible, reflective, fiberglas posts and placing them outside the existing lines of posts to keep this over-zealous person at bay would be my best course of action. I may lose a few posts but at least they will be on the outside of the areas I want to protect. (Some of the posts I seek to protect have breakable glass bottles atop them that I assuredly don't want shattered.) Is this the direction I should take, do you think? I have maintained friendly relations with these guys and I don't want a confrontation. This is probably the best course of action to prevent stress, yes?

Normally weekly mowing is the rule, but some lawns need cutting more often. Other lawns will grow more slowly and might need cutting only once every ten days or two weeks. Generally, don't cut off more than one-third of the grass blade.