We’re lived almost five years in the same house, and the lawn has always been a disappointment. Patchy in spots, too much crabgrass, a sprinkling of wild onion that we haven’t been able to eradicate, and poor drainage in one spot. We’ve gotten the usual springtime solicitations from Scotts and TruGreen for lawn analyses and lawncare contracts. Our boys play on the lawn a lot over the summer, and we don’t want to hurt either them or the environment with a lot of toxic chemicals.
Any Dopers ever used either company? Worth the money, or a ripoff?
I don’t think you have much to choose between them as regards safety.
Scott’s will want to use lots of the company’s fertilizers and herbicides on your lawn.
Trugreen (formerly known as ChemLawn) is nobody’s idea of a environmentally green lawn service either.
If you’re concerned about your kids and chemical runoff into streams (which is reasonable), try contacting a local company that might offer organic or limited chemical-oriented services.
Adding more chemicals just makes the problem worse – the roots grow too close to the surface, making for more thatch. A natural approach tends to work better – this is a good product, though other companies make other natural products as well.
To the OP - What state do you reside? What kind of grass is currently down? Is it Kentucky Blue? See here . It’s a great link with useful tips.
Here are some things I do - and if I do say so for myself, we have a lovely lawn - I fertilize with organic lawn conditioner. Then I use nematodes for organic pest control.
Each year my lawn looks wonderful. It browns in the winter then is lush, full in the spring and summer into autumn. It’s the kind of lawn you just want to put your head down and have a nap!
Thes best thing you can do for your lawn (and yourself) is to lower your expectations.
Having said that, one of the best things you can do for your lawn is to use (or have a service use) a core aerator, then overseed. Use a mulching mower and fertilize using a low nitrogen organic fertilizer. Avoid “feed & weed” products that contain both fertilizer and a pre emergent herbicide.
The best way I have found to deal with onion grass is to go out after (or even during) a soaking rainfall and pull them up.
My neighbor uses a service and has for a couple of years now. I can’t tell the difference between her and my lawn at all. Plus my lawn looks kinda bad.
Judging on that experience, I’d say the service is a waste of money.
You forgot the fun you get from using these services - where they call you once a week to ask if you sent them their check yet for the bill they just mailed you.
I used ChemLawn for a season because of the out-of-control creeping charlie that was taking over my lawn. For those unfamiliar with it, creeping charlie is a groundcover that chokes out pretty much everything else, and spreads via roots so it’s nearly impossible to remove it by hand. They succeeded in killing off the weeds and my grass looked fine, at least until the next summer when my next-dorr neighbor once again did nothing for the the creeping charlie in her yard, and it migrated over again. So, I did the only sensible thing: sold my house and moved.
My new place has a crappy lawn, too, so I am intrigued by this Wow stuff, or any other suggestions for non-poisonous methods of lawn maintenance.
My lawn is the kind that makes you want to put your head down…between your knees (until the nausea passes).
Well, it isn’t really that bad. It is green and that’s great unless you’re picky about a goodly percentage of the green stuff not being grass. There’s a fantastic dandelion show every spring. Still I don’t have to worry about discharging chemicals into the runoff and pizening my well water, as well as paying for all the fertilizer and weed and feed.
Someone mentioned paying $80/month on lawn care products. Jeez, I spent about that much last year for a single application of organic fertilizer and felt like a Big Spender.
By the way, this outfit offers a bunch of “environmentally aware” lawn care products. I have no experience with them.
Speaking of which, is there any real evidence basis for any of the lawn treatments being touted or booed in this thread?
As the semi-owner of a lawn that both looks like a scene ripped from the soccer-field in Black Hawk Down and a veritable jungle of lucious soft grass, I have to say that the only thing that really makes a bit of difference in my book is water. And watering your lawn a billion times over the summer isn’t cheap or environmentally friendly in most regions of this country.
Like ethelbert suggested, try lowering your expectations first.
Take it as an anecdote, but I have yet to meet anyone that was happy to have a lawn service. Between the cost, and not being able to have the kids and pets on the grass for a day after the applications, and every so often there’d be a goof and the lawn gets burned, it just seems like there are better ways to manage grass.
They’re the same people I recommended, though you linked to a different product.
I agree with the advice that keeping your expectations low is the best, and most environmentally responsible, approach. There is no way to get a putting-green lawn without a hell of a lot of chemicals (which then enter the water table), water, and effort.
That said, a healthy lawn will take care of itself pretty well. If you encourage deep root growth, your lawn will be healthy, and you won’t need to water it to keep it alive. (During the dog days of summer, you probably should let the lawn go dormant for a while, and not water it. If it’s healthy, it won’t die – just take some time off.)
Since natural products are generally “slow-release” (don’t shoot their entire nutritional wad at once, as petro-based chemicals do), you can generally get away with fertilizing once or twice a season (spring and/or fall), not once a week or once a month. The fertilizer will continue to feed your lawn for months, encouraging slow, steady, deep growth.
