Lawn Care Companies

Lawn care companies vary greatly in several different aspects, including lawn care programs, cost, and the variety of standard and optional agronomic services they provide. So if you want to choose the lawn care companies that fit your needs, it is best if you familiar yourself with these:

• The annual cost for the lawn care companies’ standard program
• The services supplied as part of the standard program
• The types of and costs for optional services provided by the lawn care companies

Before contracting for lawn care services, call two or three reputable lawn care companies and compare them according to the above aspects. Then, ask them the following questions:

What types of services are included in the lawn care companies’ standard program?

Most lawn care companies include fertilization in their standard programs. In addition, most of them would offer preemergence (for crabgrass) and postemergence (for broadleaf weeds) weed control. However, there are some lawn care companies that do offer these as options.

Control of surface feeding insects, such as chinch bug, bluegrass billbug, and sod webworm, are often included in many lawn care standard programs, but grub control is often offered at an additional cost.

There are lawn care companies that offer no insect control at all. Disease control is generally not offered in a standard lawn care program and is only provided as an optional service by most lawn care companies.

How much fertilizer is applied during the year?

In turf fertilization programs, nitrogen is the key nutrient. Many reputable lawn care companies will provide you with Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, fine fescue, or tall fescue lawns with 3 to 5 pounds of actual nitrogen per 1000 square feet of lawn per year.

But while nitrogen is rarely excluded from a standard fertilization program, some lawn care companies only offer phosphorous and potassium at an additional cost.

No need to worry though, because the actual requirement for the latter two nutrients will vary from lawn to lawn, the extent of which is determined through soil testing.

What are the types of nitrogen fertilizers used?

The variety of nitrogen fertilizers offered by lawn care companies depends on the type of growth and color responses of the turf. But generally, nitrogen fertilizers are categorized into quickly-available and slowly-available.

Quickly-available nitrogen promotes rapid grass growth and dark green turf color relatively soon after application. Slowly-available nitrogen on the other hand provides a slower, more uniform growth and greening response from the turf.

Each category presents a wholly different challenge for lawn care companies, including the season for fertilizer application and mowing requirements.

Liquid versus dry lawn care services

Lawn care companies offer many different methods of fertilizing your lawn. Some companies apply fertilizer by spraying.

This method is called liquid fertilizing and is different from the granular when the fertilizer used is dry. To date, university research has not found any major agronomic differences between liquid and dry fertilizers.

The bottom line is that both types of lawn care companies’ service can accomplish the same goal – the production of a high quality lawn.

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