Having a vibrant, green and healthy lawn is something many proud homeowners aspire to, but unfortunately the work required to keep grass luscious and neat can prove harder than it looks.
Regular watering and the occasional mowing sessions aren’t always enough to keep your lawn looking rigorous, strong, and free of weeds. In fact, proper lawn husbandry is a detailed science requiring a sound knowledge of soil types, fertilizers, and other landscaping skills. That’s where fertilization companies come in.
Today we’ll be looking at some of the best fertilization and lawn care firms operating across the U.S. today, as well as thinking about why you might want to get professionals in to help keep your back yard looking spruce.
What is fertilization?
Fertilization is the process of adding nutrients back into the soil, either via chemical fertilizers or natural, organic compounds. Fertilizers come in various forms, ranging from hard pellets to liquids that you dilute and spray.
Some can be toxic, and are best left alone until they soak into the soil. Others are designed to be pet and child friendly.
We often need to fertilize our lawns because the grass gradually saps nutrients from the soil it grows in. Rich soil that is balanced in nutrients not only helps your grass thrive, it also helps to deter weeds, and can keep your lawn resilient in the face of drought or cold.
Why choose a fertilization company?
Many people choose to buy over-the-counter fertilizers and apply them themselves. This is nearly always the cheapest option and keen DIY gardeners who want to save money often opt for this approach.
However, choosing the proper fertilizer for your soil type, grass species, and climate can be a more complicated process than it seems. This is where professional fertilization companies can play a role.
Fertilization companies usually offer some form of diagnostic assessment to gauge the quality and make-up of your soil, as well as taking into consideration your particular location, climate, and grass species. They will then offer a package of lawn care, involving regular home visits from qualified professionals who can apply premium fertilizer products correctly. Some firms also offer DIY-kits, allowing you to soil test your lawn patch before giving you tailored fertilizers to suit your lawn’s needs that you then apply yourself.
Although tailored lawn care solutions often cost more than over-the-counter remedies, the best companies can offer a level of knowledge, experience, and professional attention to detail that DIY-ers often struggle to match.
What’s more, you could save a great deal of time and worry by delegating lawn husbandry to a trained professional. Many of the most respected fertilization firms offer satisfaction guarantees, meaning that they’ll visit and service your lawn as many times as is necessary to get it looking and feeling the way you want it to.
Lawn Fertilizer Company Reviews
TruGreen
TruGreen are a national firm that often top reviewer’s lists when it comes to lawn care services. They offer a wide variety of specialized lawn care packages, as well as services for trees, shrubs, and garden pest control.
TruGreen pride themselves on a long built reputation spanning almost 50 years. They employ highly trained, expert lawn technicians, all of whom receive TruExpert Certification before working for the company as lawn specialists.
TruGreen also produce plenty of user guides on lawn care and grass maintenance that can help customers understand some of the finer details of lawn husbandry themselves.
TruGreen’s TruComplete package is their most comprehensive lawn care service, including overseeding and aeration as well as carefully detailed fertilization and weed control. Their TruHealth and TruMaintenance packages offer more affordable lawn care. They also offer a TruNatural lawn care package for those who want to opt for organic methods.
In terms of pricing, TruGreen are one of the few operators who offer relatively straightforward online estimates based on your property size. A simple zip code and address will enable them to approximately gauge the size of your lawn space and provide you some rough quotes there and then, without you having to speak to a representative. They also have an intuitive app, making for easy scheduling and billing.
As a general guide, for a lawn space of roughly 7500 square feet, their TruComplete package costs just over $1000 a year, with their cheapest TruMaintenance package costing less than $600.
Each lawn subscription should give you visits from specialists once every four to six weeks, to carry out lawn care and monitor your grass’ health.
Lawn Doctor
Lawn Doctor are another highly experienced firm offering personalized lawn care services throughout most U.S. states. They’re proud holders of some of the highest customer retention rates in the industry and garner widely positive feedback from loyal and grateful clients.
The services they offer are, from what is advertised, relatively similar to those of TruGreen – personalized lawn analysis, lawn fertilization and treatments tailored to your specific soil, climate, and grass-type, and ongoing visits from highly trained, certified lawn professionals.
Their lawn care subscriptions usually allow for visits every 6 to 8 weeks, although the company’s no nonsense satisfaction guarantee states that they will visit as often as possible until they have your lawn looking the way you want it to.
They even offer mower maintenance in some regions as part of their lawn care subscriptions, making it easier for you to keep the grass trim between visits from their technicians.
Unfortunately, their website doesn’t have quite the same transparency when it comes to getting a rough quote. In order to get an idea of pricing, you will need to fill out a brief form, call their national hotline, or contact your local Lawn Doctor office.
Spring Green
For those who want to keep their lawn properly fertilized, but are also keen to minimize the environmental impact of their fertilization methods, Spring Green can be an attractive choice.
Like TruGreen and Lawn Doctor, Spring Green have decades of experience in offering tailored lawn care to clients across the country. Nowadays, they are committed to minimizing the environmental impact of their fertilization methods.
They use organic-based fertilizers that introduce nutrients to the soil in a more gradual, balanced way than harsh chemicals. They are also seeking to reduce their use of chemical pesticides, spot-treating lawns by identifying problematic areas and limiting pesticide use, rather than blanket spraying whole areas indiscriminately.
Outside of the work they can do in your back yard, the firm have also teemed up with Project Evergreen, an organization that advocates for ethical, healthy landscaping, and the Arbor Day Foundation, through which Spring Green aim to plant at least 10,000 trees every year.
Lawnbright
What if you want to fertilize your lawn using products specifically designed for your area, climate, and soil profile, but don’t want to stretch as far as having professionals coming to tend the grass themselves?
With Lawnbright, you fill out a brief questionnaire, and they send you a free soil test kit. Post it back to them and they can then have the soil analyzed at their professional lab, before sending you regular shipments of natural, organic fertilizer tailored specifically for your garden.
Their products are made from non-toxic ingredients such as sea kelp, cornmeal, and molasses, making them a safe option for families and pets. Simply connect the Lawnbright fertilizer to your hose using the attachment provided and spray the area yourself.
Fertilizer is sent out every 8 weeks during the growing season and your subscription will be suspended during the months in which you don’t need to tend to the grass. Lawnbright can also provide you with information and tips depending on weather conditions in your area and their Turf Team is always available to speak to directly for maintenance tips.
Lawnbright’s most comprehensive package is their ‘Prevent and Repair’ which, for a large lawn subscription geared towards spaces between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet, costs around $430 for the year.