Welcome to our website!
DIY Lawn Care Tips
Having a green lawn is a mark of pride for many homeowners. A beautiful, lush, and natural-looking lawn becomes a big part of how they come to define “home.”
When you consider your own landscaping options, there might be some decisions on whether to hire professional lawn care or if you can do it yourself. This article will outline some of the basic considerations you’ll face so you can approach do-it-yourself lawn care with confidence.
Where do you start with getting your lawn in shape?
Every solid project requires a good foundation. The foundation for a good lawn is the soil in which it grows. If you have soil issues, you will have lawn issues. Perform a soil test for your lawn soil. This will give you valuable information on what your soil has and what you need to add to it.
There are do-it-yourself kits available from some lawn care services or lawn and garden shops. The cooperative extension offices in many states will also test soil for free or for a low fee. Private companies also provide kits and testing for a fee. Once you get the results returned, you will see what you may need to add to the soil in order to get the lawn of your dreams.
What type of grass seed should you use?
The type of grass you have in your yard depends on your location. For people living in the hot areas of Florida and other subtropical zones, St. Augustine is likely the local neighborhood favorite. In other areas of the country, there are additional options. Tall fescue or Bermuda are both popular choices in many areas of the country.
If you are aware of the type of grass you have in your yard and are content with its health and the way it looks, simply learn more about how to treat it well. If you are starting fresh, make sure you select a grass that thrives in your geographic area. One good tip is to locate the best-looking lawn in your neighborhood and initiate a conversation with the owner. They can give you a good idea of what types of seed, fertilizer and watering schedules might also work well in your yard.
How Do You Get Grass Growing in Shady Areas?
Most grasses require at least four hours of sunlight every day. If you have an area that doesn’t receive that much sun, you still likely have a couple of options to get the lawn you desire.
Find a seed mix that works well in the shade. Many fescue blends, for example, will work very well for you in the shade. That is great news for people that live further north, as well. In the south, St. Augustine is often the grass selected because it grows well in shady areas.
How do you plant new grass?
Planting new grass is actually a simple procedure for most homeowners.
1. Loosen-up (aerate) the soil. At a minimum, start by raking it vigorously with a dirt rake.
2. Spread the grass seed evenly over the tilled area. You can do it by hand or use a seed spreader for larger areas.
3. Cover the seed with a light layer of soil. There are treated soils available that provide balanced nutrients encouraging the growth of new grasses.
4. Water appropriately. Keep the soil around the seed moist until the new grass grows as tall as the grass around it. If you overwater the grass, the seed will drown. If you don’t water it enough, the newly sprouted grass will dry up and die.
How should you fertilize the lawn?
Fertilizing provides your lawn with the nutrients it needs to grow thick and green. In order to fertilize a sizable lawn you will need a spreader. Spreaders come in two varieties: drop and broadcast.
Drop spreaders drop the fertilizer directly below the spreader, while broadcast spreaders drop fertilizer in a pattern out and away from the spreader. Drop spreaders are more accurate while broadcast spreaders cover larger areas in a shorter amount of time.
1. Load the fertilizer into the spreader’s hopper. Each spreader has a setting that will allow you to control the amount of fertilizer put down. Follow the directions on the fertilizer bag to get the right setting for your spreader.
2. The first step will be to lay out a perimeter line of fertilizer. That means taking the spreader over the edges of the lawn and spreading fertilizer.
3. With the perimeter completed, begin walking the spreader back and forth over the lawn in parallel lines. As you approach the fertilized perimeter, turn the spreader off so you don’t run over the same area twice. Spreading the fertilizer in this manner will take some time, but the results are well worth it.
When should you fertilize and seed your yard?
You should do both during the cooler parts of the spring and fall. In southern states, you can do it in the Spring between February and April. in the Fall, you would look at doing it between October and November. In the northern states, the Spring seeding would be handled from April to early June, while the fall seeding might occur between September and early October.
Professional Lawn Care
The Advantages of Lawn Care:
There are many advantages do having a professional landscaping company do your regular lawn care chores for you. Think of all the time you’ll be saving with a professional service. One is called Kustom Lawn Kare LLC, and we do great service for a low price.
You won’t have to pay for a new lawn mower anymore when the old one breaks down, which can easily cost in the neighborhood of three hundred to five hundred dollars, or one hundred seventy dollars for a lower end machine.
A professional landscaping company will trim back your bushes, cut your lawn to your specifications each week, water your garden, eliminate weeds, apply fertilizer, and more.
The cost of services varies depending on what company you choose to work with and the lawn care options you choose, not to mention the frequency with which you choose to have these services performed. All in all, like so many other home services of this kind, it really does pay for itself over time.
With proper professional lawn care, you will never have to worry about bare spots in your lawn again, or weeds or pests. You will have more time to devote to your job and family, and the cost for new equipment to maintain your lawn with will become a thing of the past. This is something that is available most anywhere throughout the nation, whether you live out in the country, in a small town, or in a thriving metro community.
For the most part, you can count on companies such as Kustom Lawn Kare LLC, to be reputable, dependable and professional. Even so, you may check with the Better Business Bureau and do your own research as you shop around before signing with a contractor. Make sure that they have experience and are properly licensed. See if they are in accordance with state and local regulations, as is law.
Try to find some genuine customer feedback online, as companies are generally known through the voices of their customers, both past and present ones. If you think you cannot afford these services, compare them with other companies. See what your options are, and what services you can do without and which ones are more likely needed.
The final price you sign up for will also depend on the size of your property. Do you own a half acre lawn, or a one acre lawn? The average weekly cost of having your grass cut is going to be somewhere around forty five dollars a cut. Not bad, considering the cost of gasoline to power your mower, not to mention recurring maintenance costs and the price of replacing a mower or weed eater if it wears out.
Most landscaping companies only use the best equipment, and they only charge you for the services you sign up for. It is well worth the investment. Additional landscaping services such as tree trimming and fall cleanup, like raking and removing fallen leaves, can cost between two and four hundred dollars, but again, compare prices.
How This Option Can Save You Money
If you already know what you want out of a landscaping job, write it out on a piece of notebook paper, and make calls or send emails to the companies which interest you.
§ Most will be willing to provide you with a free estimate for their services.
§ Visit their web sites in advance. Look for their certifications, and if possible, a score from the Better Business Bureau.
§ Make sure they are a legitimate company before providing a bank account number or credit card number.
§ Avoid getting ripped-off.
§ See if there are any promotional discounts or coupons available, either on the company web site or elsewhere on the Web. The companies that have been in business the longest tend to have the most experience and the best track record of customer satisfaction, as well as competitive pricing. All of this will be in your favor.
Do you have any neighbors that use a similar lawn and garden service? Ask them what they think, and if they are satisfied with the business they are currently using.
If you are on a tight budget, don’t let this become an obstacle to you. Most companies will work with you to deliver a price that you will be happy about in return for a fair amount of work.
Consider some cost-cutting options. Can you afford to have your lawn cut every other week instead of on a weekly basis? If so, ask for this. Are you willing to perform some of the extra maintenance work yourself, such as tree trimming and weed elimination? This will all help to lower the overall cost of the service fees charged by your company.
The best companies will have been in business for at least Fifteen years or more. Ask the companies which interest you how long they’ve been doing business. This information may be available on their company web site. Does the company have a mission statement or money back guarantee? Ask to read it, or have it read to you. Talk with the owner personally, if possible. Most lawn care companies work hard to expand and keep their customer base, so these are things they will be happy to do for you if mention them.
If you find a lower price for the same services from a competitor, see if you can get them to lower the price for you. This may be a way to get the best lawn care coverage for the best possible price.
Above all, remember that what you are saving the most for yourself is time. Time to get work done, so that you can be a provider for your family. Extra time to spend with your family. All of this will surely make having a lawn care service a valuable asset to you and your family. No more will you need to worry about keeping your lawn trimmed. You will have the time and money to focus on what’s more important.
Commercial Lawn Care
Where To Find The Best Commercial Lawn Care Services
There are many commercial lawn care companies out there, and finding a company that exhibits professional behavior, and which you can trust can be a challenge. This will attempt to answer all your questions about lawn care companies, including those regarding price, where to find the better companies, and popular, well-known franchises in your area.
Perhaps you’ve used lawn care services in the past, but are now looking for a more reliable, better service. Maybe you’re a first-time home owner and need reputable landscaping services, never having used them before. You might be of retirement age, and need to turn your lawn care over to someone else.
In any one of these situations, you need Kustom Lawn Kare with professional, courteous agents, who will do the amount of work you and your money demand.
Pricing for Commercial Lawn Care: Shop Around
Americans spent more than $44 billion in 2006 on commercial lawn care services from companies like ours. Consumer Reports published a report that showed that for all the claims of lawn care companies providing “custom” or “specialized” lawn care packages, most offerings from major lawn care outfits were comparatively similar.
Watch out for big name companies who promise the world, but do little more than cut, trim, and fertilize.
That said, you can usually get good deals from lawn care and landscaping companies in your vicinity. Kustom Lawn Kare LLC, offers a super-low price of $27.75 per mow, with a mere $1 extra fee for corner lots. The minimum of lawn care services, on average, will run you around $32.50 per week, or about $130 per month, and $1,040 per year. Count on doubling that if you want a more full range of landscaping services.
The Lawn Advisor breaks down commercial lawn care pricing for a 1/2 acre property like this:
§ Weekly lawn cut – $20-$40
§ Weeding Beds (3 ft. perimeter) – $20-$50 per month
§ Spring cleanup with some trees – $200
§ Trimming landscaping – $175-$400
§ Fall cleanup – $200-$500
§ Chemical application – $400-$700 per year
Local Examples of Lawn Care Services
Kustom Lawn Kare LLC, for example, specializes in both commercial and residential lawn care service, and has 24-hour emergency response to Snow and Ice Storms. We’ve also collected numerous accolades for their experience and professional abilities.
Tips For Business Owners on Hiring Lawn Care
You can do a local search for companies, or look for nationwide lawn mowing franchises in your area. Most folks opt to search for local companies with a good reputation. You can count on there being someone in your vicinity who runs a thoroughly professional landscaping outfit, and who will give you an accurate lawn estimate.
A good indicator of a reputable commercial lawn care company is an extensive, user-friendly website, with plenty of photos, and preferably, customer testimonials. If they have multiple user reviews and ratings on their site, or on another site, even better. Granted, you may end up paying more for their services, but it might be a small price to pay compared to opting for the guy in the rusty truck with the lawnmower from 1985.
It will also pay off for you in the long run to have true turf specialists working on your lawn. Anyone can get out there and run a lawn mower over your grass, but it takes a real pro to know what application to use for what grass type, along with fertilizer choices and other scientifically-applied know-how designed to make your yard and garden beds shine.
You’ll know an expert by how willing to they are to engage in a conversation with you regarding everything organic on your property, such as the proper application of chemicals, pruning, and other greenthumb knowledge.
Final Thoughts on Hiring Lawn Care Specialists
Doing your own homework on what your lawn needs will help you keep up with “fast talkers” looking to make a buck off of you, who ultimately don’t care what your trees, lawn, and garden beds look like in 6 months or a year.
It will also help you to do your own lawn care work, at least in part. If knowledge is power, a little bit of homework when it comes to yard work truly goes a long way. Heeding all of the above advice and information, it should be easy for you to quickly locate the best commercial lawn care services in your area.
http://www.facebook.com/Kustom.Lawn.Kare.of.Indiana
To Serve you better we are a member of www.relayindiana.com a service for the deaf or hard of hearing.
