Gnome Lawn Care Review

Update: It appears as if Gnome is no longer in business. For a similar product/service, see Sunday Lawn Care.

Americans have increased their demand for DIY opportunities, organic products, and automated home delivery services. Taking advantage of these three strong trends, Gnome has introduced a subscription-based customized DIY lawn care package delivered directly to homes.  

According to Pew Research, “ Americans’ appetite for organic foods has grown steadily over the past few decades” They understand the health benefits of eating organically grown or produced foods. Many people don’t mind paying more for the healthier options. Homeowners who have vegetable gardens and believe that eating organic foods matters can find some organic gardening products from companies like Dr. Earth in home improvement stores and some suppliers, like Miracle-Grow have some organic products. However, the selection has been limited and includes few lawn care and fertilizer options. Gnome, a recent start-up, has stepped in to fill the gap.

Gnome Delivers Healthier Lawns for Humans and Pets

With everyone concerned about global warming and the environment, people have become more interested in natural, organic lawn care to help heal local ecological systems and support a healthier environment for humans and animals. Families want their children and pets to be safe in their yards. While turning to professional lawn care companies is an option, they can be expensive and sometimes unreliable when it comes to choosing organic alternatives. Also, many companies don’t offer any organic solutions, and traditional lawn care products often contain toxic substances, including glyphosates, a potential carcinogen currently present in 82% of human bodies, according to a recent CDC study. Although a link between glyphosates and cancer hasn’t been proven, health professionals are still concerned about chemicals from fertilizers. 

Saving Water and Preventing Water Pollution

Environmentally conscious homeowners also want to save water and avoid contamination of local waterways. No one wants to pay higher water bills, and sometimes watering enough to keep a lawn green isn’t even possible in drought areas. Conventional monoculture lawns that don’t support other wildlife and aren’t designed for the climate need too much water and fertilizer to be sustainable. The fertilizer also leaches into freshwater sources and causes oxygen depletion and harmful chemicals in drinking water from algae blooms.

Gnomes Approach

Two friends, Pierce and Clyde, decided to create a lawn care revolution. They hated the traditional green pellets people and professionals used to get lawns greener. They realized that a liquid, all-natural formula, could be administered with a hose distribution mechanism already existing. Pierce and Clyde also knew customizing the formulas using soil analysis and climate information would help deliver spectacular results without dangerous chemicals. Gnome’s mission statement says they want to “make grass greener with products that are good for people, pets, and the planet,”

Some of the natural ingredients Gnome uses are Atlantic Kelp, Lemongrass Oil, Cedarwood Oil, Soy Protein, corn Steep, and Iron. Each ingredient fulfills different lawn care needs. For example, Lemongrass Oil is rich in vitamins and minerals for better root growth and also prevents damage from heat stress. Cedarwood Oil repels mosquitoes naturally, and Soy Protein provides nitrogen and repels other pests like fleas, ticks, ants, mites, and fungus. Corn steep, a natural biproduct of corn wet milling, has macronutrients, and Iron is a weed fighter.

Gnome has offered some organic products for the past few years but launched its first-of-its-kind organic lawncare subscription recently. Subscription boxes start at $79 and run for six months at a time. The prices for subscriptions depend on your lawn’s size, and they include a soil testing kit to diagnose any nutrient deficiencies. The all-natural lawn treatments use only ingredients safe for kids and pets, yet the company guarantees a greener lawn in a few weeks. As a matter of fact, Gnome subscribers get a “Love Your Lawn” in 100 days or get your money-back guarantee.

A Customized Lawn Plan

The Gnome customized organic lawncare plan you get with a magic lawn subscription starts by analyzing your specific needs, from lawn size to soil analysis and climate:

• Lawn Size- The website helps you determine your lawn size. By entering your address, Google maps can usually provide the information needed to approximate lawn size. If not, you can enter some dimensions yourself. Either way, Gnome then knows how much lawn you have and can send you the exact amount of supplies and materials you will need.

• Soil Analysis-The Magic Lawn Plan includes a soil analysis kit to understand your yard’s nutrient levels and current pH balance. After you test your soil and report the results, Gnome decides which of their all-in-one grass treatment formulas you need for a healthy, green lawn.

You can order the treatment products separately at trygnome.com or get them as part of your subscription. The three unique formulas are the: All-in-One Grass & Garden, Liquid Lush, and Mighty Micros. The first is an all-purpose fertilizer that provides a healthy blend of essential nutrients. The Liquid Lush formula has a potassium and humic acid supplement from decayed plants. The Mighty Micros formula contains a micronutrient booster.

• Climate- Gnome uses its database to consider your location in the country and take its climate into account. Each climate requires a different grass blend and unique grass food and treatment. The instructions you receive in your kit will differ from one climate to another, too. For example, what works in Wisconsin doesn’t work in Florida or Texas.

Using all the information, soil needs, lawn size, and climate, Gnome designs a specific, custom plan for each subscriber, including step-by-step instructions to give them a green, comfortably springy lawn that is in harmony with the broader local ecosystem. Gnome organic lawn care products are free of glyphosates, and their organic lawn care plans deliver the right level of nutrients for each lawn. By following lawn care instructions and using the formulas in Gnome’s Magic Lawn plan, homeowners can also prevent over-fertilization. The products use things like kelp, other bio-stimulants, and humic acids that help with grass and plant growth without damaging the ecosystem’s sensitive balance.

Why Liquid Fertilizer?

You typically buy lawn fertilizer from the DIY store in pellet form that you then distribute with a lawn spreader, but these are detrimental to the environment and dangerous for humans. They often have significant amounts of pesticides and herbicides, which means barefoot children and pets walking around on the lawn are exposed to potential health risks.

The soil often doesn’t absorb pellet-type fertilizers well, especially if it doesn’t get watered enough, which increases the amount of leaking into surrounding waterways and ecosystems. This leads to algae blooms, depleted oxygen, and unhealthy drinking water. Liquid formulas absorb into the soil more easily, and the Gnome technology formulas are designed to work with the soil conditions and have no harmful chemicals.  

Gnome is unique but they are following a recent demand for home-delivered lawn care products either directly from manufacturers or through fulfillment sites like Amazon. Gnome is similar to one company, Sunday Lawn Care, which opened in 2018. Both companies offer DIY subscription lawn care instruction and supply plans customized for buyers. The Sunday system does take a custom plan approach by climate and uses plant-based science to support the local ecosystem without overusing fertilizers. They offer liquid products like Gnome and think traditional lawncare methods use “brute force” rather than thoughtful planning to get green lawns people will enjoy. They are different from Gnome in that It appears that only some of their products are natural and organic. 

Giving Back

In addition to feeling good about what they’re doing at home, homeowners who use Gnome can feel good about how the company gives back. As with so many of today’s forward thinking companies that are concerned about global warming, Gnome donates to earth-saving causes. Gnome’s website, trygnome.com, states: “We proudly give back one percent of our revenue, because we love the Earth. It’s our favorite planet. We want the whole planet to look greener, not just lawns.” 

Gnome Delivers a Unique Lawn Care Solution

In an effort to fulfill a demand for home delivered, organic, DIY lawn service kits while simultaneously helping the environment, Gnome offers something unique. When homeowners want to improve the look of their lawn, rather than contracting with local lawn care or landscaping companies, customers can get lawns they will enjoy and feel good about by doing the work themselves.

Since most people know little about what it takes to grow a healthy lawn in their climate with their soil, and no one wants to rely on harsh pesticides, the Gnome subscription service fills a need. With the subscription, buyers get the perfect amount of the right formulas for their lawns. They also get all the instructions they need to produce a green lawn in their unique climate without damaging the broader environment, spoiling drinking water, or exposing the family to toxins.

Gnome Lawn Care Initial Reviews

Lawn care startup Gnome just launched their organic lawn care subscription box in 2022. Early reviews on Facebook are mostly positive. Let us know in the comments below what your experience with Gnome was like.