2024’s Most Expensive Metro Areas for Lawn Maintenance

What are three of the biggest misconceptions about lawn care?

1. That you can’t do it yourself. You can, but if you don’t enjoy it there are affordable services out there.

2. That you have to spend a lot of time and money to have a great-looking lawn.

3. That lawns are a source of pollution. If fertilizers and lawn protection chemicals are applied correctly lawns cause no pollution. In fact, they help filter our water and air.

What is one expensive lawn maintenance task that is always worth the cost? What’s one that isn’t?

Putting out a pre-emergent herbicide in spring and fall always pays for itself if done in a timely manner. Irrigation systems audits also usually pay for themselves.

De-thatching is one that probably gets more bang for your buck with topdressing to control thatch and you get a smoother lawn.

What are three of the most affordable lawn care services?

Usually mowing, soil testing, and fertilizing.

What are three of the most expensive lawn care services that homeowners can easily DIY instead?

1. Mowing — home owner machines are more inexpensive and better than ever.

2. Fertilizer applications. You now have access to professional products that are much easier to use.

What are three key preventative lawn care services for maintaining healthy turf?

1. Scouting for lawn weeds, insects, and diseases.

2. Soil testing every couple of years.

3. Irrigation audits.

What are three of the biggest misconceptions about lawn care?

1. Watering daily is beneficial.

2. The shorter the grass, the less often it needs to be cut.

3. Winterizing.

What is one expensive lawn maintenance task that is always worth the cost? What’s one that isn’t?

Worth the cost: Aeration.

What are three of the most affordable lawn care services?

1. Basic mowing services.

2. Seasonal cleanup.

3. Grub control treatments.

What are three of the most expensive lawn care services that homeowners can easily DIY instead?

1. Dethatching.

2. Fertilization.

3. Weed control.

What are three key preventative lawn care services for maintaining healthy turf?

1. Soil testing.

2. Pest and disease monitoring.

3. Proper irrigation management.

What are three of the biggest misconceptions about lawn care?

1. Professionals are only applying products and formulations that homeowners use. In fact, they often use better formulations (like switching ester and amine broadleaf controls) and can spray or spread in a more uniform manner).

2. Professionals are applying dangerous pesticides that aren’t needed. In fact, most are using pesticides that do the job that they are intended, but there is room for not applying herbicides or insecticides where there is little risk of weed or insect issues.

3. High turf maintenance creates a “green desert” that hurts our environment. Data indicate that the turfgrass ecosystem, even ones that have regular pesticide applications are extremely biodiverse. It’s just that the “critters” are all very small. Research by entomologists have regularly identified that a square meter of managed turf can have between 25K to over 50K arthropods.

Even after an insecticide application, these populations rebound to pre-spray level after two to four weeks. Turfgrass isn’t a stand of a single species and/or cultivar like field crops, but a genetically diverse population of plants. The microbial populations are also just now being investigated, and the diversity is high.

What is one expensive lawn maintenance task that is always worth the cost? What’s one that isn’t?

I would say that periodic core aerification is a relatively expensive task, but worth the long-term investment.

Regular applications of surface insect controls are generally a waste of money. Applications in neighborhoods that have a record of billbug or chinch bug activity would be warranted.

Many cool-season lawns are being converted to turf-type tall fescues and these are highly resistant to chinch bugs, billbugs, sod webworms, and armyworms, but they can still get white grubs.

What are three of the most affordable lawn care services?

1. Regular fertilizer applications.

2. Pre-emergent weed control.

3. Broadleaf weed control if applied in the fall.

What are three of the most expensive lawn care services that homeowners can easily DIY instead?

I can’t name any of the “most expensive” as a DIY as these are most expensive because of the equipment and expertise needed (i.e., core aerification, or seeding).

What are three key preventative lawn care services for maintaining healthy turf?

1. Pre-emergent herbicides if the lawn is thin and weak. Thick lawns are at low risk of having annual grassy weeds.

2. Broadleaf weed controls are rarely effective when homeowners use fertilizer granules with broadleaf herbicides (i.e., the “weed and feed” products). Professionals use sprays that are much more effective.

3. Late-season fertility that most lawn care companies do but DIYs avoid as they don’t see any reason to “feed” a lawn when it is going into winter.