I have no green thumb and I struggle getting my yard to look good. So I have been looking at some of the systems like Scott’s subscription, Sunday and there a couple of others as well. If you have any experience or suggestions please help. I want to get my yard looking good for a future sale.

Thanks
Ed

I grew up in the Upper Midwest, I attended Purdue (down the road from you), Dad still maintains his own lawn in Upper Midwest, and back in the day took care of 6 or 8 lawns. Back when I took care of 6 or 8 lawns, I went to a local nursery and bought their lawn care program as it worked better than Scott's for less money. Dad uses Vigoro since its large pellets don't clump like Scott's powdery fine pellets, and uses a liquid weed killer (don't waste money on weed & feed).

TruGreen does wonders short-term (i.e. initial cost/benefit is great but after lawn comes up to snuff then cost/benefit goes down), but they will hound you for the rest of your life. To counteract, create a new e-mail address and a Google voice number before contacting TruGreen. After you've sold and moved, delete the e-mail address and Google Voice account.

I was doing my own for a couple of years and it looked good but not great and was a bit of work.

Now I have a local company and it's as cheap as doing it myself, and my lawn looks amazing. They spray every 2 months and charge me $55. I will never go back to doing it myself.

I do mine and my Dad's.
I usually use Lesco products because it comes in a large bag that will treat both lawns economically. The crabgrass preventer (1st step) is the most expensive. They recommend 4 treatments a year, which is great, but sometimes I only do 3x a year. If you have a decent spreader it doesn't take long. I use an Earthway.

Earthway 2150 Commercial Broadcast Spreader 50lb Round Hopper
$65.36
https://www.finishge.top/earth...IEAQYASABEgKoJ_D_BwE

I prefer a local outfit over a huge corporation. Try to support your local.

I did my own and my neighbor has his professionally done. His yard always looked better so I switched to them. Agree on trugreen. One you leave them they will call you and email you forever. This time I am using Weed-man. Same price I was spending on bags to do it myself.

I DIY, and it looks better than anytime the services did the work for me. Also the bags are large enough to do my yard and the daughters so it economically works out.. 2 fer 1

Just fertilized and my yard, and one other neighbor who uses the same DIY method, have super green yards compared to our neighbors.

They have us on an email schedule for what needs to be applied, its easy to do doesn't take long, and the walk around the yard is good exercise...

If you have a DIY store, check it out, be sure they have a scheduled reminder program or sheet to follow.

Do not ever get Tru Green. They are mostly a scam company. I know at least 4 people that had nightmares trying to cancel them. It took over 2 years for one guy and they kept charging him. I think he is taking them to court now.

I just get a bag of Scott’s fertilizer formulated for Bermuda...one bag covers 5k ft...which is about the size of my lawn...I spot spray weeds

When I had almost 2 acres I talked to the neighbor who ran a yard company, he sold me fertilizer at cost and that’s all I did.

I tried for years on my own and finally broke down. I went to the 4 best yards in the neighborhood.
3 out of 4 used TruGreen. I signed up with TruGreen and the yard looks great.

I'll tell you a story about my buddy in Oklahoma - who hated yard work.

He used to make fun of the people on his street who had their yards painted green (ie, fertilizer and whatnot). Said his would always look just as good and he didn't need to mow it as often.

Then I was there for a week in early spring. I went to Lowe's, bought a bag of Scott's, and spread it out.

Came back in the fall (to hunt), noted how well his yard looked, and asked what he did.

His answer, "goddamn it - this shit keeps growing, I had to mow it every week this year."

I was laughing so hard by the time he stopped ranting he knew something was up (and I did tell him).

Soooo, go with Scott's (or not).

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
I usually use Lesco products ...

That's all I use for fertilizer and seed.

Additionally, I use Scotts GrubEx for grub control, and Ortho Weed B Gon and PBI/Gordon Speedzone for weed and clover control.

You can't just throw down some weed-and-feed once a year and expect to get good results.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
I DIY, and it looks better than anytime the services did the work for me.

Same experience here.

We had TruGreen for a couple seasons. The lawn looked "ok," but not great. It looks much better now that I'm doing it then ever it did when they were.

Does it take a bit of work? Sure it does. But I enjoy it, so there's that

One big difference I noticed about DIY vs. TruGreen: When they stopped the lawn started degrading again nearly instantly. Last year I took a bit of a break and there are still hardly any weeds in the lawn and it still looks pretty healthy.

Plus, when we had TruGreen they were constantly trying to up-sell us, and cancelling them was like pulling teeth.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
I'll tell you a story about my buddy in Oklahoma - who hated yard work.

He used to make fun of the people on his street who had their yards painted green (ie, fertilizer and whatnot). Said his would always look just as good and he didn't need to mow it as often.

Then I was there for a week in early spring. I went to Lowe's, bought a bag of Scott's, and spread it out.

Came back in the fall (to hunt), noted how well his yard looked, and asked what he did.

His answer, "goddamn it - this shit keeps growing, I had to mow it every week this year."

I was laughing so hard by the time he stopped ranting he knew something was up (and I did tell him).

Soooo, go with Scott's (or not).

Well at least you didn’t write dirty words or obscene gestures in his lawn.

That’s what herbicide is for.

I’ve heard it’s been done before.

Ahem. Cough cough.
.

Had TruGreen for years, just wish their staff didn't change so much. Probably a local problem

I had true green twice.

The kept charging me for extra services I didn't want. they eventually fixed the bills

I canceled them then gave them a second shot because my lawn looked good.

Same shit second time.

I will not use them again

I just contacted my local LawnDoctor franchisee for a quote on a service plan. I got one the next day, which was impressive - I figured that they sent someone out right away, but I was curious as to how they figured all I needed was their basic "weed & seed" program (or whatever they call it) vs. the "Power Seeding" they advertise on their website, given that I have a rather large damaged (dirt) patch and my lot is exactly one acre square, which their quote seemed cheap for.

I asked.

They explained that they do everything based on information available online. When I questioned that, they got snippy with me and told me that "no lawn company would ever come to look at [my] lawn before servicing it."

I thanked them for their time and let them know that the two other local lawn companies I contacted did exactly that. And I copied LawnDoc's corporate HQ so they would know they'd potentially lost business due to this franchisee.

Probably doesn't matter to them, but I wouldn't use Lawn Doctor.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:

Well at least you didn’t write dirty words or obscene gestures in his lawn.

That’s what herbicide is for.

I’ve heard it’s been done before.

Ahem. Cough cough.

I have heard that it works even better if you use fertilizer instead of herbicide for the writing implement.

Of course, I have no personal experience with that.

I use TruGreen for the chemicals. I enjoy yard work, but not the chemical process. The hippies around me always comment on how good it looks, I just blurt out "Better living through chemical engineering"! That usually gets 'em moving along.

DIY. You can buy Scotts fertilizer for your type of grass at HD/Lowes. You do it quarterly. Water is the main thing. For your area, and type of grass, you need to figure out how much water your lawn needs per week. That will translate to how many minutes per station, and how many times of week. I like to water at night, when wind speed is low. I typically will water from 12am to 5am. Setting my zones to 5 minutes per zone waiting 2-3 hours and running it a second time for 5 minutes per zone to eliminate run off.

I would suggest a consultation with a sprinkler company in your area. It'll be a simple $100 service call and they will tell you how much to water, when, etc. Then just get on the Scotts quarterly. You'll buy a big bag of fertilizer and you'll need a Scotts spreader. It's very simple to do yourself.

I’m also a DIY Scott’s guy. My lawn looks like carpet. My biggest lawn problem is keeping enough green beans in the dog to keep away the pee burns.