The soaring cost of spring landscaping has become more than a passing annoyance for Northeast Ohio homeowners.
For many readers responding to a question posed through the weekday “From the Editor” text chain from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, the rising prices of mulch, flowers, tools and lawn care are changing how — and whether — they approach their yards this year.
The responses poured in after I asked readers whether the kind of sticker shock I experienced buying pine bark nuggets and other landscaping supplies was affecting their own spring plans. More than 150 people wrote back, revealing a region doing math in garden centers, cutting back on projects, improvising with cheaper alternatives and, in many cases, connecting the price of mulch to broader anxieties about the economy…