I’m not positive in that measurement. My plot is smaller (1/3 of an acre) and my grass is about 11.5k. I know driveway and house factor in, other things as well, but that just feels small to me.
I’d base your decision on your interest in caring for it. Lawn services usually aren’t a huge increase in cost versus doing it yourself. The difference is in the lawn service fitting you in when they can versus you controlling timing to perfectly fit your yard and the weather.
If you want your yard to be a 9/10 and have time and interest, do it yourself. If you’re cool with 7/10 and work a lot, have limited free time, just don’t really care much, then do the service.
The second package includes aeration and overseed and I’ve paid $1,000 for 10k of aeration and overseed. The second option has a much higher value and the best option in my opinion.
Also understand that lawn care is a lot about soil health. It may take a year or two to get everything balanced and to where you are happy, but you have to trust the process and always remember, new seed will not grow if you don’t water it!
As someone who used to work for one of these companies, you can have a higher-up tech come out and give your lawn an evaluation, and they can do small changes to get your lawn done properly. It’s definitely a generic plan, but you can have notes on your account that will pop up when they are doing your lawn. You can mention specific weeds to make sure they get direct spray. I mean there are all sorts of examples to give of specific lawn things to you, but you can have them add them in your account notes, and the guy who comes out would do that too as he sees things. They want you satisfied so you keep paying yearly to keep their business.
If you have a bunch of specific things, then like have a cold drink for the guys to take or something. I specifically remember a lady giving me and my partner a cold IBC Root beer, and it hit the spot so good at the time, so she always got extra care from us from that point on.
I have 1/3 acre in Midwest 6B. While I can put out granular just fine, a pro will put out granular and spray liquid, too. I used to DIY, but switched to a pro because I don’t want to deal with storing liquid products and spraying them myself, cleaning the sprayer, etc. Check out what your neighbors with nice lawns do; I found my lawn guy because he’s local and has excellent results.
Depending upon which program you use, the costs may be similar. However, most of my neighbors use professional services and I am amused by the quality of work. I’ve seen these guys pull up, do a couple of laps with their machine, and be gone in 10 minutes. The lawns green up for a week or two and begin fading. I can’t imagine that they are getting anything close to full coverage.
So, while I might not be saving significant dollars by doing it myself, I don’t mind a bit of exercise, and the quality of work is much better.
Zen said: @Kris
Does yours stay green because you apply every week?
No, I apply every 6-8 weeks using the Lesco slow release. I have thought about going to a more frequent liquid application, but I just don’t have the time right now.
I attribute the degradation of their fertilizer to the under-application that my neighbors get from the pros.
The price is fair and not a bad idea as a first-time homeowner. Let them get/keep your grass in good shape for a couple of years while you decide if you want to keep paying someone. Personally, I pay someone for this service and mow it myself. I can’t help but chuckle at the “savings” by “reserving your spot early.” I mean just post your prices; we all know you aren’t going to charge the higher rate in the early spring.
I’m 11,000 SF yard (0.4 Acre lot) in the Midwest. We moved here in summer 2020 and I hired a local company to do our lawn weed/feed service for the first few years. Over the first three summers, we got hit with disease, bad thinning, and other problems, mostly because I didn’t spend the time necessary to develop the knowledge on how to properly care for and maintain my yard. The yard looked “OK-ish” for maybe half the year. It got kinda bad in the summer & early fall though (before our KBG filled back in in the late fall/springs) and we lost a ton of the front yard last year to drought that prompted me to make changes.
Last year, I went off the deep end and subscribed to the Lawninfluencer programs (I personally did Yard Mastery by Allyn Haynes, so I feel like I can give it an honest review). I spent a ton of money chasing better results and, to be fair, I did see a fair amount of improvement over the results I had from the lawn care company. That said, since I’ve started reading this subreddit, thelawnforum.com and white papers/best practices published by my local university (https://turf.purdue.edu/), my lawn has improved SUBSTANTIALLY over both prior approaches (both the lawn care company and Yard Mastery) & my costs down substantially from either of these two programs, although I think they may go up some this year as I want to do some things I’ve read about that I think are “cool” (Humichar, some other soil amendments/top dressing & maybe even FAS/PGR in the spring heading into summer).
These services are OK - they don’t necessarily break the bank in terms of cost but are “one-size-fits-most” programs and aren’t super adaptable if you’re trying to customize your lawn care. So, for example, if you decided you wanted to overseed one year, you’d need to communicate with them and confirm they haven’t and don’t plan to put out pre-emergent in a time that would be impactful to your overseed establishment. If you don’t have time, or care to do it, your HOA probably won’t come after you if you use one of these programs. That said, you probably also won’t have a yard that I’d describe as a top half to top third of the yards in your neighborhood (YMMV here - obviously the “pride of ownership” varies wildly from place to place).
One final thing I’ll say, one homeowner to another: No one will ever put in the same amount of care or time that you will to improve your home & yard. Nobody. You are billable hours to everyone you ever hire. Keep that in mind when you decide what services to purchase and which to do “in-house”.
You can definitely do a DIY for less money. These services in my opinion want to do more treatments than you really need and they want to spread them out over the growing season so maybe things get applied in summer for example that may not be needed. I do a basic 10k sf for my yard for around $150/yr. Pre-emergent plus fert in early spring, then fert Sept. 1 and again Nov. 1. That’s based on recommendations from various Midwest state extension services - Ohio State, Michigan State, Purdue.
I don’t do grub treatment every year because it’s not really needed. I might do one every 3-5 years if I see grubs in the soil or a lot of beetles in the yard. So add $50. I spot treat weeds with a spray bottle and haven’t used weed and feed for years. Again, not needed unless you have a lot of weeds getting started with your own program.
Rent an aeration machine yourself for $100 if soil compaction is an issue.
You can always do more but you can get very good results just doing the basics in my opinion.
These folks use cheap fertilizer and seeds, so even if you think you are getting a good deal - you are not. So much more effective and satisfying to do it yourself.
Since you are a new homeowner, however - it might make sense to use them for the first year.