Lawn Care Guide

seidfrembes asked:


I am having some lawn companies come look at my yard for the first time. Our usable lawn is about half-acre, is slightly compacted, needs dethatching, liming (due to the acidity of pine trees), and regular fertilizing. What is a fair price for these services in the Northeast?

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Robin Larson asked:


If you doing the right lawn care program for your yard, then you will be full of pride to in your home. A lot of folks realize that maintaining a nice looking lawn and garden is exactly what they require to have gratification in home ownership. You can accomplish this in many ways, and performing the appropriate lawn care program can make the job much easier.

A few of the more essential topics for you to think about is having the correct tools on hand. First of all you need a good lawn mower. This fundamental tool ought to supply you with the correct power for your lawn. Think about a lawn tractor for a bigger yard, however you should stick with a push mower if your yard is smaller. As for mowing, this is one lawn care procedure that you can’t go without. The lawn must be kept mowed so that the grass will keep on growing well. Certain wild grass types must be kept longer, naturally, nevertheless you still have to manage them properly.

Lawn watering is a procedure that baffles many folks. Don’t underrate the significance of keeping your lawn well watered. A decent quality lawn sprinkler system is vital because it will facilitate watering a large area on a regular basis. You may not need this if your climate has wet enough weather patterns. If your lawn gets too much water, be certain to check for the growth of mushrooms since that is something common in those conditions. Make sure that all of your landscape plants get enough water. Once you have new grass and plants, they’ll require more water as their root systems continue to grow.

One more lawn care program to take into account is that of aerating your lawn. This makes small holes or removes plugs in the grass area. This step must be performed in the spring time. This lets more air penetrate the ground and helps to get nutrients and moisture to the root system. You might also think about thatching the lawn in the spring. This eliminates all of the dead or dying grass and promotes healthy new grass to grow instead.

As soon as you use these lawn care programs, you enhance your talent to have a well maintained, and attractive yard. All it takes is keeping up these programs to see noticeable improvement in the way your lawn looks.



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J.E.M. asked:


The advantages of starting and running your own lawn care business are significant. Your “office” can simply be your desk at home; there is no need to rent or own any commercial space to conduct business. This is a huge money-saver! When you have to follow-up with clients or print marketing material, your commute is measured in minutes – from your bedroom to your home computer.

Assuming you take on jobs that are relatively close to your residence, your commute time to jobs is also relatively small. When you are at work, you are not confined to sitting behind a desk all day. You get to enjoy the fresh air and freedom that comes with working in the lawn care industry. You will benefit from the physical exercise that comes with mowing lawns or pruning bushes.

Finally, another advantage – and this is perhaps the most important one – is not having a boss to answer to! You control your own time, your own schedule, and your own income. You can show up at work (i.e. a neighbor’s backyard) essentially anytime during the daylight hours, leaving you plenty of freedom to schedule other activities during the day.

However, like all businesses, the lawn care business is one that requires hard work, dedication, and skill. You must be physically fit enough to handle heavy machinery for long periods of time. You must be able to occasionally lift equipment onto and off of trucks. You must be reasonably proficient at mowing lawns, and performing other routine maintenance tasks. Of course, if you intend to hire laborers to do all the actual physical labor for you, well, then you do not need to lift a pair of pruning shears, and you can just focus on the management and supervisory aspects of the business.

Recent studies have shown that there are tens of thousands independent lawn care service providers in the United States. However, the number of people actually in this industry is probably significantly larger, since many of them may not be reporting their income on tax forms. These people may be accepting cash as payment, which is hard to track, and therefore, they may not be included in some of the figures that are reported nationally.

So, you might wonder how big is the need for a lawn care business? Who would your potential clients be? Well, they include:

Individuals who cannot handle the equipment to maintain their lawns Homeowners wishing to sell their home and need to increase their home’s value by improving its curb appeal People who migrate to warmer climates during the winter months but do not want their yards to be neglected Commerical real estate property managers who have huge amounts of green space to be maintained (golf courses, gardens, colleges…)

Of course, like all businesses, this one requires hard work, dedication, and a continual commitment to obtaining new customers. However, starting a lawn care business provides fantastic opportunities to be your own boss and earn a substantial income. With solid business planning in place, the potential for success in the lawn care industry is unlimited!   



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Bob Smith asked:


Lawn care marketing is getting tougher and tougher these days. In today’s economic times running a successful, small business can be exceedingly difficult. Especially, if it requires your customers to have to spend a portion of their discretionary income in order to pay for your services. Everyone is cutting back on paying for products and services that are not essential for day to day living. If you run a small business, such as a lawn care maintenance service your business could be in danger. Developing a lawn care marketing plan can help you save your business from going under. A marketing plan can help you keep the clients your have while adding new customers. Your plan will help your business succeed in any economy.

Developing a lawn care marketing plan is not as difficult as it sounds. You have probably been doing some form or marketing already. All your marketing plan needs to do is place your marketing efforts in a strategic plan. The first step is to develop a plan that includes both external and internal marketing items. External projects are items that are targeted toward new prospective clients. Internal projects are targeted toward your current client base. Internal project’s main goal is to improve your relationship with your clients, and to encourage customer loyalty.

The second step in developing your lawn care marketing is to devise a detailed calendar of events. A good marketing plan will include monthly, bi-weekly and weekly marketing efforts. This should include all marketing efforts; such as, mailings, networking, Chamber of Commerce meetings, print ads and fliers. Before you add any event your marketing plan, you will need to thoroughly research the activity. You will want to weigh the benefits against the cost to verify that it will benefit your business.

Step three is the most important part of any and all marketing plans is to track your results. You will want to make sure you have a system in place that will enable you to track all incoming responses. You will want to set up your tracking system to track responses by project or activity. This way you will be able to make immediate changes to your lawn care marketing plan. If any of your marketing efforts, are not producing a positive return on investment you will want to eliminate them from your lawn care marketing plan

The final step in your plan is to follow through on all incoming responses. Even if you can have the best plan in the world, but if customers are not happy with your customer service you might as well shut your doors before they even open.



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me asked:


My husband has had a small lawn care business now for a little over 5 years. The business is truly expanding. Right now he has a total of roughly 75 clients, but also has a full-time job. He is beginning to think he’s ready to take his business to the next level and go full time. Lawn Care Business Owners, what type of advice will you be willing to give to my husband before making this decision. All of his clients are residential clients only, he’s wanting to venture into commercial now as well.

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Bob Smith asked:


Lawn care flyers are usually the first thought many individuals think of when they first think of marketing their lawn care business. Big Mistake! Lawn care flyers seem attractive due to the perceived low cost in relation to other landscape marketing methods. Is this really the case?

Are they really inexpensive advertising? How do you gauge the cost of your lawn business marketing campaign? The first measure you need to use is return on investment (ROI). Your “investment “is the money and, just as important, the time expenditure of your advertising. In this regard, flyers fall short due to “targeting.”

The most effective advertising places your message in front of people already looking for your service or product. These people are your “target”. Lawn care flyers are highly un-targeted as you are placing your message in front of consumers that are not looking for your service. Standard returns on direct mail (of which category a flyer falls under) are between 1-2 %. This means that your marketing is at least 98% ineffective. This relates to lawn care door hangers as well.

Now let us take a look at your ROI. Say you spend $25.00 to print 500 flyers (lawn care door hangers are more). 500 x .01 return would be five calls (your return). For example we will say it took two hours to design and print the flyer. Now let’s say you walked around a neighborhood putting these lawn care flyers on people’s doors and it took you eight hours. At this point we have to put a numerical value on your time. If you average $50.00 in your mowing business, that would be ten hours total time invested or $500.00 plus the $25.00 for printing, for a grand total expenditure of $525.00 for a ROI of five phone calls.

That is, drum roll please; a cost of $105.00 dollars per call. If you close 20% of all your sales call (average) you will get two jobs. Each job will have cost you $262.50 in advertising alone.

Does that seem like a wise business decision to you? I hope not. If it does so you won’t be in business for long.

So what is the alternative? The yellow pages? Although the yellow pages are highly targeted, there are two problems with using them. The first is cost. Even though your ROI will be far higher using the yellow book, your initial investment will be high as well. And here is the second problem: nobody reads them anymore.

In their 2008 report on consumer advertising, Neilson Media (the advertising rating company) found that 80% of all customers looking for a local service used internet search engines first. What this means to you is that if you are not “findable” on the internet when some types into Google “lawn care Your City State”, you will not even get the chance to bid on 8 out of 10 jobs available.

This however is good news for you! If you know the simple tricks and tips for getting listed highly in the search engines, even a brand new company with limited funds can compete against the largest well financed competitors and win!

So leave the lawn care flyers at the printers, and get your company on the first page of Google. That is the best ROI of all.



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Silka Sage asked:


It was not that long ago that home lawn care was a matter of having a goat, a few cows and maybe some other live stock roam freely in your yard. These living grass cutting machines could chew and mulch your grass and fertilize it too. But in this day and age, unless you live on a large farm where cows will still do the job of trimming your grass for you, there are some more advanced grass cutting tools that will make any routine yard care task easier and faster.

The modern day workhorse for cutting grass is of course, a lawnmower.  Homeowners can be very passionate about the appeal of their lawn and a good regular cut is actually healthy for your grass.  A reliable lawnmower with a sharp blade is your most important piece of yard care equipment.  If you’re in the market for a new mower you’ll find that prices can vary greatly for a range of mower types and by brand name. But you don’t have to break the bank to get a good cut.

Your mower is a machine that needs regular maintenance and the better you care for your lawnmower, the better it will cut your lawn season after season.  A well maintained machine will last a long time, saving you money in the long run.  Refer to the mower’s owner manual for recommended maintenance and follow those guidelines.

Keeping the lawn neat involves more just mowing, though.  A trimmer is a good option for cutting over grown grass along walls and fences.  As with mowers, you have many choices when it comes to brand names and features including manual trimmers.  Somehow, a good cut just does not look complete until you’ve trimmed the long grass around decks, fences and patio stones.

Most people go for a power trimmer with a plastic line that needs to be replaced every so often.  The plastic line cuts grass, weeds and small plants with no trouble. You should always wear safety glasses and ear plugs when using one of these bad boys.  And always be certain to operate the trimmer when you are well clear of people or animals.  These machines are relatively inexpensive for most residential lawn care jobs but a gas powered trimmer that is contractor grade can easily run a few hundred bucks.

A spreader or two is vital for evenly laying out fertilizer, weed killer and other lawn treatments that can help keep the lawn weed free and looking lush and green. One sort is like a small lawnmower with no blade, just a tub with small holes and a roller that dispense material. Easy to use and long-lasting, they’re adjustable for a variety of applications.

The second type of spreader is a hand-held unit, usually plastic with a rotary handle. They’re perfect for specialized applications of seed for patching small lawn areas, distributing dry fertilizer beads and so forth.

This might seem obvious but you’ll want a couple of good rakes too.  Rake away heavy amount of leaves in the fall because leaves left on the ground can cause grass to overheat or to get too little water.  In areas that get winter snow, at the end of the season the grass will be compressed into thatch.

If your lawn is not raked when necessary, it can prevent aeration from reaching the soil leading to uneven or patchy growth patterns. De-thatching requires rigorous raking with a sturdy, wide tooth rake. The more malleable fan rake is great for loose grass trimmings and leaves.

Other basic yard care essentials include:

- a long handled fork for turning soil

- a long-handled shovel or spade for a variety of gardening tasks

- a quality garden hose and nozzle

- garden gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs

- a sharpe pair of hand prunning tools

You can get a lot done with just these basic yard care essentials and the better you maintain your tools, the longer your lawn care equipment will last.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money.  If you’re on a budget (and even if you’re not), check out neighbourhood yard sales because you can often find these yard care items in excellent condition and at bargain prices.



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Bob Simons asked:


What are some good neighborhoods in which I can find people to do lawn services for? What are some hot spots?

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Cindy Heller asked:


Weekends are down time for many individuals and not everyone wants to spend their relaxation time taking care of their garden or lawn, this is where lawn car and landscaping services play an important role. It is enjoyable to have a lovely yard but many do not have the time or energy to maintain that area. Lawn care and landscaping services are a great option.

You do not only have to use large, expensive companies but can rely on a neighborhood kid to mow your lawn, or you can have the full shebang done with complete planning, consultation, planting and management of your lawns and gardens. You should make lists and determine which companies will give you exactly what you are looking for and at what price.

Types of Services

It can be difficult to understand how you can transform a messy or overgrown garden or lawn into a beautiful and pleasing space. This is the main advantage to using a landscaper as they will know exactly how to redesign your space into whatever design you desire.

Landscapers have a vast amount of knowledge on what plants grow best in which climates and soil conditions. They know which plants look well placed with other types of plants as well as plants that may need full sunlight or those that prefer shade. Having a well kept and presentable lawn can be a large asset if you are trying to sell your home and a landscaper can help if you are not a gardener. Additionally you can keep costs down by doing much of the labour yourself and simply using the landscaper to design your garden or lawn.

Benefits Of A Lovely Yard

Much of lawn care is very straightforward as for the most part you will have to mow your lawn, or have it mowed, at least once a week. If the weather is cool then you may need to mow your lawn less frequently. However, to achieve that fantastic, eye catching lawn with beautiful green grass that is the envy of the neighbourhood, you will need to do a bit more. Lawn care and landscaping companies will know the proper times to apply fertilizer, kill weeds and aerate your lawn. They provide services to ensure that your lawn is looking its best.

You can compare prices from different companies about lawn care and landscaping services. These services may include, mowing, mulching, pruning and more.

Which Company To Use?

You should investigate a few different companies before you sign on the dotted line. You should check out lawns that you admire or ask your friends which companies they use. You will find lawn care and landscaping companies advertise at other areas than just the yellow pages. The best way is to find a lawn you like and then speak with the company that is maintaining it.

Before using a lawn care and landscaping service you should make sure that they are insured and licensed. You should also get references and testimonials if possible.



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