For those of you that get your lawn serviced (fertilize+weeds gone!)

[CorCentral]

I had been using Scotts Weed and Feed for years with a very small lawn.

After moving to a bigger place within a decent neighborhood and doing this myself proficiently for 1 year, my yard still looks worse than everyone elses on the block. I just noticed today, a Tru-Green truck go by (servicing someone on the block I suppose) I figure...... That's why that neighbors yard is so perfect!

Questions:

1--- How many times must you have a yard serviced per year to make it look 90% awesome?
2--- How much does this cost per visit/mth to hire this type of service?
3--- It it worth it? Cost you save on buying the Weed & Feed/Labor, etc?
4--- What service is the best?


I know a lawn takes 2-3 years to get right but I want it easy and want my questions answered

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

What is the biggest difference between your yard and a neighbors?

Do you have a sprinkler system? Do they?

 

[conehead433]

Weed and feed isn't really necessary. If you mow your lawn regularly the winter weeds will disappear soon enough. A 16-4-8 fertilizer or even 10-10-10 will green it up and get it growing enough to choke out any other weeds providing you mow regularly. And BTW I was in the lawn service business for 4 years.

 

[CorCentral]

AgaBoogaBoo--- No Sprinklers needed around here and no one uses them as they are not needed (Mid TN)

conehead433--- This I know is dependent to where you live. Some weeds just don't disappear. What about the early spring Wild Onion? You're right though, the Onion does disappear afer two mowings but it comes back readily, just like the other weeds the next year.

I mow my yard at 3"...... the recommended height. I beilieve the grass is Tall Fescue or some other type of Fescue.

 

[49erinnc]

FYI: Granular weed n' feed pretty much sucks unless you really incorporate a lot of moisture before and after. You're far better off buying the weed n' feed concentrate that attaches to your garden hose. Use that to spray your lawn for a much more effective treatment.

Rule #1 with lawn care: buy a soil test kit (they're cheap) and test your soil. That will tell you a lot about what your best approaches are. Depending on the pH level, you may need to add a ton of lime (use the messy powder, not the granular which takes a long time to work). You can never add too much lime and it's great for your soil. Just be careful because some shrubs aren't real fond of it.

Also, it may be too late now depending on where you live, but always use a pre-emergent weed killer before weed season kicks in. The key is to attack them before they start to grow. But some weeds are still going to come up so see above.

If someone around you has a nice lawn, they have spent a lot of money on it, regardless if they did it themselves or had pros do it. It takes a lot of year-round work to keep it in good shape. 2-3 years is about on par for proper lawn establishment but that's only half the challenge. Maintaining it is the other half. Just test your soil and then research based on that and your area's climate. Also, your neighbors may be using a blend and not just growing Fescue. Some of the colder climate grasses (like rye) can get really green but usually dies off in the heat. You may also need a good aeration (coring, not just running spikes over your yard), re/over seeding and fertilizer treatment. That should be done each fall though.

Good luck...it's a labor of love.

 

[CorCentral]

Originally posted by: 49erinnc
FYI: Granular weed n' feed pretty much sucks unless you really incorporate a lot of moisture before and after. You're far better off buying the weed n' feed concentrate that attaches to your garden hose. Use that to spray your lawn for a much more effective treatment.

Rule #1 with lawn care: buy a soil test kit (they're cheap) and test your soil. That will tell you a lot about what your best approaches are. Depending on the pH level, you may need to add a ton of lime (use the messy powder, not the granular which takes a long time to work). You can never add too much lime and it's great for your soil. Just be careful because some shrubs aren't real fond of it.

Also, it may be too late now depending on where you live, but always use a pre-emergent weed killer before weed season kicks in. The key is to attack them before they start to grow. But some weeds are still going to come up so see above.

If someone around you has a nice lawn, they have spent a lot of money on it, regardless if they did it themselves or had pros do it. It takes a lot of year-round work to keep it in good shape. 2-3 years is about on par for proper lawn establishment but that's only half the challenge. Maintaining it is the other half. Just test your soil and then research based on that and your area's climate. Also, your neighbors may be using a blend and not just growing Fescue. Some of the colder climate grasses (like rye) can get really green but usually dies off in the heat. You may also need a good aeration (coring, not just running spikes over your yard), re/over seeding and fertilizer treatment. That should be done each fall though.

Good luck...it's a labor of love.

I really appreciate the information but I want to know about the services that you can get like Tru-Green.

Is it worth it to pay someone to do all this work for me/How much is it going to cost?

 

[BoomerD]

We used Clark Pest Control for about 2 years. (they also take care of weeds and fertilizing lawns) When we started, we had one of the worst looking lawns in the neighborhood, even though I fertilized 3-4 times per year with Scotts and Vigaro. Within 2 months of starting with Clark, the lawn had improved immensly. MUCH greener and healthier than it had ever been. After about 4 months, I was needing to mow 2X per fvcking week! They use a GOOD fertilizer! The service was expensive, (they took care of bugs and the lawn service as well) and for a while, I could justify the cost pretty easily, just because of the results...However, we terminated the service this past month in some cost-cutting measures...(putting $$$ away for a vacation)
Tru-Green and Chem-Lawn aren't available here, (they were my first choice) so I went with Clark...
Is it cost efficient for YOU? That's hard to say, but odds are, their service will make a HUGE difference in the appearance of your lawn...

 

[huberm]

you may need to aerate your soil and overseed, or rent a power rake and dethatch

 

[Kelemvor]

When we did it, it cost us about $40 each time they came out. They had a schedule and came out every month or so or whatever schedule the fertilizer called for. It definitely looked better than when we did it ourselves. But don't let them charge you to aerate the lawn. You can rent an aerator for like $35 and have your yard done in 20 minutes. Then get your neighbors to pay you $10 each and do theirs too.

This is in WI.

 

[CorCentral]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
When we did it, it cost us about $40 each time they came out. They had a schedule and came out every month or so or whatever schedule the fertilizer called for. It definitely looked better than when we did it ourselves. But don't let them charge you to aerate the lawn. You can rent an aerator for like $35 and have your yard done in 20 minutes. Then get your neighbors to pay you $10 each and do theirs too.

This is in WI.

How long did it take them to finish 1 application for your yard?......... What's the size of your yard?
I have about a half an acre. .25 in back and .25 in front. Only worried about the front though. I cut the back every other week because the shade from all the trees slows down the growing
How many visits/applications did they make to your lawn before you saw a noticable difference?

I was just thinking of going with a service because bags of fertilizer go for an easy $25.00- $30.00 plus the time to actually do the job (my time is worth $50./hr j/k)

Thanks again for the info flowing here............ Keep it comin'

 

[Kelemvor]

Our front yard is average size of a normal front yard. Not sure on the size. Backyard is relatively large. (You can see photos of it at the links in my signature)

They just come do it during the day so I have no idea how long it takes them but I'd guess not very long. They just push around a spreader like I would and it doesn't take me more than 15 minutes or so I'd guess. We used a service for 2 years and then decided to go on our own from there. But the main thing is just remember to do it and when to do it and stay on that schedule that I don't keep up with so we thought about switching back.

It took maybe halfway through the first year to notice a difference and the second year was definitely better.

 

[SOONER]

I use a lawn service. It's about $60 per application and they do 6 applications per year. My yard is about 3/4 of an acre. It looks great too. It's not that much more expensive than buying the chemicals and doing it yourself. Plus if weeds come back they will re apply it at no charge.

 

[spidey07]

I used a lawn service. It was like 150 bucka a year for 7 treatements. Plus they would want 80 bucka a year because "you got grubs". WTF! Didn't you just treat for grubs last year?

I do it myself now. Much better results for the same price.

 

[CorCentral]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I used a lawn service. It was like 150 bucka a year for 7 treatements. Plus they would want 80 bucka a year because "you got grubs". WTF! Didn't you just treat for grubs last year?

I do it myself now. Much better results for the same price.

Don't these services guarantee good results? Not sure how they work.
Edit: $150.00 a year is a steal though. But, depending on the size of your lawn of course. That's about $21.50 per application.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: CorCentral
Don't these services guarantee good results? Not sure how they work.
Edit: $150.00 a year is a steal though. But, depending on the size of your lawn of course. That's about $21.50 per application.

It may have been more than that. At 30-35 bucks for a bag, doing it on my own costs around 7x(30-35 bucks) plus tax per year. And the results are MUCH better.

 

[CorCentral]

Spidey07---- What brand/type of fertilizer do you use?
What size is the lawn you treat?

 

[spidey07]

Scotts. Around 3/4 acre I think.

 

[boomerang]

I have about an acre of lawn and they charge less than I can buy the fertilizer for. They would like to do 6 treatments a year, but I opt for only four.

The only way you're going to find out how much it's going to cost you, is to call.

I have an independent company do mine. TruGreen/ChemLawn kept pestering me wanting to do more services.