Search

Do It Yourself Lawn Care Worth It? Factors To Keep in Mind For the DIY Landscaper

Share this post:

lawn care professional It's safe to state that spring has finally arrived through much of the United States. The temperatures are on the rise, lawns are waking up from dormancy, trees and shrubs are leafing out and many of these plants are also producing flowers and the tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs are blooming. It is also the time of year when advertisements for lawn care fertilizers and other control products are seen in the mail, newspapers and online. If you use a professional lawn care service like Spring-Green to care for your lawn, you may start comparing the price you pay for that service to the prices advertised for different lawn care products and think it may be cheaper to do care for your lawn on your own. Caring for your lawn on your own can appear to be much less expensive than contracting with a professional company, but there are other important aspects of caring for your lawn that should be taken into consideration.

DIY Lawn Care Factors To Keep In Mind

• What products to apply? • When to apply each product? • What pest you are trying to control? • Why each product should be applied? • What is the size of the area being treated? • How each product is applied? • How much of each product to purchase? • What equipment is needed to apply each product? It is important to highlight a few of these points. Do you know how big your lawn is in square feet? Most products are applied as a set amount per 1,000 square feet. This can be in pounds or ounces per 1,000 square feet. If you don’t know the size of the area being treated you could either be adding too much product, which can lead to possible lawn damage, or not enough product, which can reduce the effectiveness of the product. The second critical factor is knowing what type of weed you are treating, what products can and cannot be used on that plant and at what rate. This is especially true when it comes to different species of turfgrasses. The nutritional requirements for Bermuda grass is much higher than that of Centipede grass. In fact, too much fertilizer on a Centipede lawn could result in permanent lawn damage.

Timing in Lawn Care Maintenance

Timing is important.Fertilizing warm season grasses too late in the fall can lead to an increase in winter injury. On cool season turfgrasses, applying too high a rate of fertilizer during periods of stress may result in a decrease in performance and possibly an increase in disease activity. You cannot effectively control grubs and pests without being able to identify the pest and know what part of its life cycle is the most damaging and at what stage control measures should take place. In regards to insects, does it have a complete or incomplete life cycle? When controlling weeds, are you trying to control a broadleaf weed or grass-like weed. Even lawn diseases have a life cycle, so you need to know if the disease is currently active. You also must know what product is labelled to control that pest. Just because it's an insect, it doesn’t mean that all insect control products are effective in controlling that bug. When controlling weeds, you need to know whether you should use a pre-emergent or post emergent product. You need to know if you should use a selective or a non-selective weed control product. For diseases, you need to know if you should apply a preventative or curative product. There are several RTU or Ready-To-Use products on the market to control weeds, insects or diseases. Many times, these are the same products that the professional companies use, but are mixed in very small quantities, relative to the size of the container. If you are planning to spray an entire lawn for broadleaf weeds, a 16-ounce container is not going to be sufficient in size.

Why Hire Spring-Green Lawn Care?

At a minimum, if you plan to purchase the basic lawn care equipment to fertilize your lawn, spray weeds and control diseases and insects on ornamental shrubs, it will cost about $110.00 for a spreader, two 1-gallon sprayers and a hose end sprayer. After buying all the equipment, you still have to buy the fertilizers and control products. The biggest advantage you have in doing your own lawn care is that you can pick the day to do the work, providing that it isn’t too hot, too cold, too wet or too windy. It may seem that it is cheaper to do the work yourself, but if you start adding up all the costs, including your time to do the work and the inconvenience factor, hiring a professional lawn care company like Spring-Green makes the most sense! Contact us to get started on your lawn care service this season!