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1. What does lawn care cost in Brazil?
2. Which grass rule applies in Brazil?
3. What does the city pick up?
4. What does the soil do here?
5. Which parts of Brazil does this cover?
6. Questions

Brazil is in Clay County, not Vigo. Neither Terre Haute's grass rule nor Vigo County's reaches it: the city has its own, and the county has another for the ground outside the city limits. Downtown is about 9.5 miles from New Life Fellowship on Wabash Avenue, so most of Brazil is priced exactly as Terre Haute is.

What does lawn care cost in Brazil?

Lot size	Mowing, trim, edge and blowper visit	Fertilization and weed controlper treatment	Seasonal cleanup (leaf mulching)per cleanup	Core aerationper visit
¼ acre	$49	$66	$147	$249
½ acre	$54–$61	$73–$82	$162–$183	$249
¾ acre	$63–$71	$85–$96	$189–$213	$249
1 acre	$70–$80	$95–$108	$210–$240	$249–$286

Mowing, trim, edge and blowper visit

¼ acre

$49

½ acre

$54–$61

¾ acre

$63–$71

1 acre

$70–$80

Fertilization and weed controlper treatment

¼ acre

$66

½ acre

$73–$82

¾ acre

$85–$96

1 acre

$95–$108

Seasonal cleanup (leaf mulching)per cleanup

¼ acre

$147

½ acre

$162–$183

¾ acre

$189–$213

1 acre

$210–$240

Core aerationper visit

¼ acre

$249

½ acre

$249

¾ acre

$249

1 acre

$249–$286

These are Terre Haute's prices, and they are Brazil's for any address within 10 miles of New Life Fellowship. That is most of the city: Brazil runs from about 8 to 11 miles out, and the 10-mile line crosses the east side of town. An address past it is 20% more. The quote works out which side of the line you are on from your address.

Median year built, Brazil

1962

Median home value, Brazil

$113,900

Homes lived in by their owners

72.8%

The median Brazil home was built in 1962, five years after Terre Haute's and twelve before Clay County's as a whole (1974). The oldest blocks, in the Meridian–Forest district by downtown, date from 1866 to 1940. We price the grass we measure at your address, not the lot size, so a big house, a long drive and beds under the trees do not add to the price.

Everything we do in Terre Haute we do here: weekly mowing, fertilization and weed control, spring and fall cleanups, aeration and overseeding, landscape installation, holiday lighting and snow plowing and de-icing.

Which grass rule applies in Brazil?

Inside the city limits, Chapter 94 of the Brazil City Code. Grass or weeds over eight inches are a public nuisance (Sec. 94.01 and 94.02).

Height limit, Sec. 94.01

8inches

To cut after a notice, Sec. 94.03

7days

Minimum bill if the city mows, Sec. 94.04

$25

Penalty if cited, each day a new offense

$100

The city's Planning and Zoning Administrator enforces it, from City Hall at 203 E National Ave, (812) 446-0050. The notice is handed to the owner, or mailed certified and regular to the owner on the County Auditor's records with a copy posted on the lot. The code gives seven days from the notice; the city's own FAQ says ten. You can ask the administrator for a hearing before the Board of Public Works and Safety (Sec. 94.04(B)).

If the city mows, the board bills the owner the cost, at least $25, due when the bill arrives. Unpaid 30 days after the work, it goes to the County Auditor and is collected with your property taxes (Sec. 94.04(C) and (D)). If a citation is written, the penalty is $100, and each day is a new offense (Sec. 94.99).

Where the street or alley beside you is "not improved", the code counts your lot out to its centre line (Sec. 94.01), so that grass is yours to keep down as well.

Outside the city limits, Clay County Ordinance 6-2013. It covers the county "excluding the incorporated city and towns", and it sets no height at all. Weeds are a violation when a failure to "mow, trim or cultivate to reasonable heights" leaves them unsightly or a danger to health and safety.

Under the county ordinance you can appeal in writing to the County Auditor within 10 days of the notice, and the commissioners hold a hearing. They can also allow up to 30 more days if you hand in a written plan and a $75 fee.

The county folded its ordinances into a Code of Ordinances in 2015, with a chapter on health, sanitation and nuisances. The Auditor's office keeps that code and we could not find it online, so the county figures here are from the 2013 ordinance as passed. We could not confirm whether the 2015 code changed them.

What does the city pick up?

Keep clippings and leaves out of the street, too. The Brazil Times reported in April 2024 that a city ordinance, 4-2016, bans blowing them onto streets and sidewalks, that the police enforce it, and that fines start at $100 and rise with each offense in a calendar year. It is not in the city's online code, so we could not read it ourselves.

For more leaves than ten bags on trash day, see seasonal cleanup.

What does the soil do here?

Inside the city limits the soil map shows silt loams formed in loess, which is wind-blown silt:

Iva silt loam, somewhat poorly drained

41%

Muren silt loam, moderately well drained

24%

Hoosierville silt loam, poorly drained

12%

• Iva is the same soil as most of Terre Haute, and the most common in Clay County. USDA puts the water half a foot to two feet down from December to April, so a mower on it in March leaves ruts that last.
• Muren sits higher, on ridgetops and side slopes, with the water 1 to 2.5 feet down over the same months. These lawns firm up sooner in spring.
• Hoosierville is on the flats and is the wet one. Even where it has been drained, USDA puts the water table between half a foot above the surface and half a foot below from December to April: standing water in a wet spring. The series was described from a site about seven miles south of Brazil.

Silt loam compacts under foot traffic and mowers, which core aeration from August through October relieves.

Outside town there is a fourth soil worth knowing. Brazil was a coal and clay town, at one time with 13 coal mines and 11 clay factories, and strip mining came in during the 1920s and 1930s. The mines left Fairpoint soil, formed in mine spoil: about 17,700 acres, the fourth most common soil in Clay County, though almost none of it is inside the city. USDA says reclaimed ground is "increasingly" used for homesites, and that it is typically dense and slow to drain, with little organic matter at the surface, "making establishment of vegetation difficult". If a lawn outside town stays thin whatever you do, this may be why.

Month by month timing is on the Terre Haute lawn calendar.

Which parts of Brazil does this cover?

All of the city, ZIP 47834, the Clay County seat, on US 40 (National Avenue) and I-70. Places locals will know:

• Downtown along National Avenue between Depot and Forest avenues, a historic district built from about 1875 to 1935, and the 1914 Clay County Courthouse on its 1.9-acre block.
• The Meridian–Forest Historic District, roughly North Meridian, East Chestnut, North Forest, Church and State streets: 220 historic buildings from about 1866 to 1940. Old lots and old trees mean more trim and more leaves for each square foot of grass.
• Forest Park, with 49 acres of woodland and the Chafariz dos Contos fountain, a gift from the Republic of Brazil in 1956, and Craig Park, about 97 acres with two fishing lakes.

Questions