In the 37 years he has been mowing lawns for a living, Tim Morville has purchased around 20 Walker Mowers. He has also suffered two debilitating injuries on two separate occasions, each of which put him out of commission for an entire mowing season. Fortunately, he could count on his employees, family, and friends to step in and help keep his accounts serviced while he recovered.
Nowadays, at the age of 69, Tim is counting on his orthopedic surgeon to help him get through his 38th mowing season—and hopefully a few more after that. A bum knee has been making it difficult for this solo operator to carry out essential tasks like trimming and edging. The thought of retiring has entered Tim’s mind, but has never stuck around for long.
“I’m having way too much fun to retire,” says Tim, owner/operator of Accent Grounds Maintenance in Warrensburg, Illinois. “Once I get this knee replaced, I should be ready to go, come mowing season. I’d better be ready, I have no choice!”
Tim Morville, owner/operator of Accent Grounds Maintenance in Warrensburg, Illinois, mows with this Walker Model T23.
On the day Walker Talk visited in early November 2023, Tim was already preparing for his big comeback. A stationary bike was parked right in the middle of the living room. Tim was eager to tackle rehab with the same vigor he’d been tackling lawn care for so many years.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tim’s surgery on December 7, 2023 went according to plan, and rehab was right on schedule a couple of weeks later. “It does hurt a little, but I’m a trooper,” Tim said, adding that he’s confident he’ll be back on his mower this spring.
A Professional Painter Whose True Passion was Plants
Prior to starting his lawn mowing business, Tim Morville was in a painters union. Unfortunately, he found himself unemployed during the mid-1980s. To help fill his free time, Tim often went to the library. “I really got into reading books about horticulture and landscaping,” Tim says.
Feeling more inspired than he had in years, Tim began offering to mow lawns. Using a push mower and his grandfather’s Buick, he started off with five customers. “I remember chasing another contractor around that entire first summer,” Tim recalls. “I wanted to buy his truck, a Ford Courier. Eventually he sold it to me. Then a light bulb went on. What if I had bigger equipment? What if I had more lawns? Could this turn into an actual job? I went along for a few years before I started getting really serious in 1991.”
To go with his new/used pickup truck and trailer, Tim graduated to a riding lawn tractor. His account base began to expand considerably over the next few years.
“By the mid-1990s, I was up to around 85 accounts, a mix of residential and commercial,” Tim recalls, adding that he was even forced to take on a few employees during this time period. “Forced” might sound like a strong word, but the truth is, Tim says he’s a bit of a loner and prefers to work alone.
“I think it’s really important to have goals,” Tim adds. “Once my business got going in the mid-90s, I had a goal of having some kind of large, institutional account. I was lucky enough that, after quite a bit of hustling, I was able to secure the grounds maintenance contract for the hospital in nearby Decatur, Illinois. Along with the main hospital, they had numerous satellite buildings along with several vacant lots. It was a huge account. I was lucky enough to keep that account for a good eight years.”
Efficiency is Everything to a One-Man Band
Tim got his first Walker Mower in 1995 when he began servicing the hospital account. He’d seen a couple of other contractors using Walkers. One contractor who was cleaning up leaves really captured Tim’s attention.
“I remember standing there watching in amazement,” Tim says. “That Walker Mower was just mowing over everything and not leaving a single thing behind. I knew it was just what I needed to take care of this big hospital account with all of those trees on their properties.”
Tim bought a Model T with the Grass Handling SystemTM. He followed that investment with the purchase of a side-discharge model the following season. Tim continues to use both styles of mowers today. His current Walker fleet consists of a Model T23 with a 48-inch collection deck, along with three Model B’s with side-discharge decks (one 48” and two 56”). Tim’s newest Model B’s are 27i’s. He has become a big fan of the EFI engine due to the fuel efficiency. “One of my largest accounts is a 3.5- acre property where I used to burn a whole tank of gas,” Tim says. “With the EFI engine, I still have a quarter tank left.”
Tim does more side-discharging than collecting these days. For starters, he no longer services the massive hospital account, nor takes on any big leaf-clearing jobs in general. The other factor ties to Tim’s satisfaction with the finished look a side-discharge deck provides—even after making a couple of passes through a layer of leaves.
Of course, some customers still ask Tim to pick up their leaves. Other properties have so many trees that bagging is the most efficient option. That’s OK with Tim. “I live out in the country,” he says. “I can dump my grass and leaves on my burning pile, or sometimes I’ll put them on my garden. A garden loves that.”
Gardening and landscaping are two of Tim’s hobbies. He doesn’t offer those services in his business, though. He is purely focused on lawn maintenance, and has been since day one. “If you have a talent for that, along with the motivation, I’m proof that you can do just fine offering general lawn care,” Tim says.
Having been a landscaper for over 37 years, Tim is now mowing his 38th mowing season and hopes for many more with no intention of retiring.
Down, But Never Out
In only his second year in business, Tim Morville’s lawn mowing gig was hardly doing “just fine”. Central Illinois suffered a severe drought in 1988. With no grass to mow, Tim temporarily took up painting houses again. While walking on a shake shingle roof one July afternoon, he stumbled and fell to the ground, breaking both arms and a leg. It took him five months to recover. Fortunately, his dad, uncle and a family friend stepped in to help mow when mowing needed to be done.
Tim was also knocked out of commission in July 2017. While driving home from a day of mowing, a vehicle pulled out in front of him. He swerved and left the road, totaling his truck and trailer. Tim fractured three vertebrae in his back, taking him off the mower for the rest of the season.
“I was lucky for a lot of reasons,” Tim says. “A guy who’d often helped me out on a part-time basis knew a lot of people. They got together and basically worked full-time for me the rest of that season. Fortunately, they all knew how to run the Walker Mowers. I was even luckier in that my insurance company paid for those employees. It’s very important to have good insurance.”
The luckiest thing of all was that Tim bounced back quickly. He was back to mowing lawns the following spring, and as he has always preferred, he was doing it all on his own.
Tim’s machine of preference these days is a Model B with a 56-inch side-discharge deck.
Tim Morville doesn’t maintain the account base he did back in his heyday. But he’s still mowing more than 40 properties, which is beyond impressive for a 69-year-old with a beat-up back and bum knee.
It’s quite ;ascinating, really. In this day and age, a lot of people are traumatized by the prospect of not being able to retire at the age of 65. But at 69, Tim Morville’s biggest fear is not being able to mow for at least another five years.
“I’ve been very blessed,” Tim relates. “Everything you see here—my house, my trucks and equipment—it is all paid for. What I’m doing now is just gravy. But I continue doing it because I love it; it’s that simple.”
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