5.5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't use a Lawn Treatment Service
A blog title you probably weren’t expecting from us! It's true - a lawn treatment service isn't for everyone...
This article discusses why a lawn treatment service may not be for you. If you can't make it to the bottom of the post then you might not be a good fit for lawn treatment. I hope this content helps in your decision making!
Not use a Lawn Treatment Service? Are you mad?
In the UK we love our lawns. Even in the face of the increase in plastic lawns and hard landscaping solutions, the vast majority of us have some grass to care for. For around a million homeowners, they see the benefits of a lawn care service bring to their property.
You’re probably expecting me to bang on about the reasons why you should be using our lawn treatment service and the results that our customers see every day. But you know all of that already.
However, a lawn care service is not for everyone. In this article I’m going to work through 5.5 reasons why you shouldn’t use a lawn treatment service!
The Kingsbury Lawn Care Dream Team March 2024!
1. Cost
I’ve detailed in this article example costs for using a lawn treatment service. While a lawn treatment service is going to cost less than a lawn mowing service across the year, it is still a cost that you may feel is not right for you. Regardless of the value a lawn care service could bring to your home, if you’re not looking to invest into your garden for the long term then it’s not going to be for you.
A lawn care service is an additional layer of maintenance for your garden. It’s not a case of a few treatments, or just 12 months and the lawn will be looking great, forever. Much like looking after your own health and fitness, it has to be sustainable. If cash is tight, hold out until you can commit to get the best return. We all know, deep down that fad diets don’t work!
2. Access to the Lawn
In order to use a lawn care service, they need to be able to access your back garden on weekdays during the day, possibly while you are at work. Along with this, they will need side access of at least 64cm (just over a couple of foot in old money) to get the narrowest of professional kit onto your lawn.
Typically, customers will leave the bottom bolt off a side gate for the day of a lawn care visit to allow access, or sometimes there is a gate code that can be saved onto a password protected in-house system. We don’t hold customer keys, however a key safe is a quick and easy install if it be for the lawn care service, gardener or window cleaner.
We’re aware that you be security conscious (we are too) but if you need to be there for your own peace of mind while we are on your property, it may make the scheduling of treatments difficult. For example, you could wait in all day (take a day off work even) for the day to need to be moved to the following week due to high winds, frost or a waterlogged lawn for example.
As basic as it is, if the lawn treatment service can’t get in, or you can't be accommodating with access given scheduling and weather factors then they can’t help you and your lawn.
3. Pets
Personally, I love mad dogs. When a meeting a customer who says ‘Are you OK with dogs?’ I think I’m as excited as the dog. If they could save the skidding on the lawn and eating the grass for the local park rather than the lawn though that would be great!
In terms of if lawn treatment is worthwhile, the answer is largely yes. Without treatments the recovery of the lawn from play (if it be dogs and / or kids) will be much slower and less successful. If however, you have more than one dog, on a small lawn, that isn’t well maintained anyway, then maybe lawn care isn’t for you at the current time. However, as the saying goes - where there is a will, there is a way…
When it comes to treatment safety, we advise that pets are kept off the lawn for a minimum of 2 hours following a liquid application. This allows our treatment to dry / absorb as intended. If your dog needs a final chance to go then we can always treat the front lawn first or post a couple of cards to neighbours!
A lawn treatment service is more troublesome if you have a grazing pet such as a rabbit or tortoise. These pets cannot use the lawn for a period of 14 days from treatment. Some customers have a fenced off, none-treated area for this, otherwise a lawn care service might not be for you if this is likely to cause too much hassle.
Information regarding pets is a common question for us and we would rather you knew now rather than be disappointed later.
4. You don't mow enough...
Mowing! This is the part of the job that is in your hands. At the total bare minimum to see an improvement in your lawn, your lawn will need to be cut every 10-14 days for much of the growing season (March – into November). Ideally, this should be increased to once (maybe twice) per week when needed.
Only taking a maximum of a third of the grass with any one cut is vital to not stressing the grass. To achieve a height of cut of 30mm and this means mowing every week then the lawn should be cut weekly for the best results from a lawn care service.
We love mowing ourselves. The smell of freshly cut grass and the stripes from a roller mower is fantastic. However, if frequent lawn mowing is just something that you can’t get into, then the popularity of robot mowers continues to increase…
We continue to bang on about how frequency mowing is the foundation to a great lawn. Robot mowers are showing it. They will cut the lawn as often as daily, recycling the nutrition applied by the lawn care service given the tiny clippings aren’t being collected. There is always some concern that this could leave to more thatch, but as the clippings are so small they are naturally composting at a good rate.
The cables in the lawn are a bit of a pain when it comes to mechanical work though!
A lawn treatment service only needs for you not to mow for a couple of days either side of a treatment to gain the best results from that visit. A lawn care service will be happy to advise, but if you can’t commit to your mowing then honestly – you’re not going to get the best value from a lawn care service. My advice is to invest in a mower first. Speak to us and we may be able to advise.
5. You don't have much patience
When a lawn treatment service works with your lawn, they’re working with a natural product, impacted by the conditions, and the goings on it your garden in the 359-360 days of the year that they are not there.
Dependent on the current condition of your lawn, some additional patience may be needed. When we carry out a lawn repair and renovation, results will take weeks, with the best of the results taking months to achieve. When seeding a lawn, just gaining germination is just the start, with those individual grass plants needing care, time and the correct conditions to thicken up and thrive.
Renovations, and scarification calls can throw up the challenges of waste and the shock of a thinner, scruffier lawn following dependent on the intensity of the work. They can be big jobs.
A lawn care service isn’t for you if you’re looking for overnight success. If this is the case, then re-turfing is the best option for you. Turf that will after 8-10 weeks require treatments to keep it at it’s best!
5.5. Are you getting results at current and do you enjoy it?
Ultimately, are you currently happy with what you have? Do you enjoy picking up garden centre products and get a buzz (like us) out of doing what we do? If so, they it’s highly doubtful that a lawn care service is for you!
There are things that only a professional can do, such as the legal application of professional products. This includes difficult to control weeds or the control of lawn grubs – leather jackets and chafer grubs. Without certification, this also includes gardeners applying DIY products in a professional capacity.
There are things that it would be uneconomical for a homeowner to do such as purchase, hire and transport professional scarifiers and aerators, but a lesser method to get by again may well be a passion of yours – that we tip our hats to!
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