Drivers have been seeing red at the gas pumps. But now the high fuel prices are spilling over onto green lawns. 

Gasoline is the lifeblood of lawn care services. More than one-thousand gallons a month flow through the tanks of Brothers Mowing. The Sioux Falls company tries to get the most out of every drop. Cole Weller of Brothers Mowing said, "A lot of it is trying to maximize efficiency, getting projects in the same area, on the same day, kind of crunch things together." 

But high fuel costs are putting the crunch on Brothers Mowing. The company is charging between three and five percent more on jobs to offset the added expense. "In some lawns, it might be a dollar, on some lawns it might be twenty, it just depends upon the size of the lawn." 

For many KELOLAND lawn care companies, three dollar a gallon gasoline was the magic number that triggered their price increase. "You can't buy fuel for less than three-dollars a gallon anymore, so you got to recover that money somewhere and I guess passing it onto the customer is the way to do it." 

Customers have been willing to pay the added charge. "The price of groceries is going up, the price of household items is going up, so most of them are pretty understanding about it." 

Weller doesn't foresee a dramatic drop in gas prices anytime soon... so mowers will have to ride-out the high fuel costs through the summer hoping they won't cut into the bottom line. "Price is price, you have to recover it somewhere if fuel prices are going to keep doing this." 

Grass has been growing more quickly during this rainy spring. So that means more frequent return trips to shaggy yards for Brothers Mowing.