Do it your own:
Lets start off with “do it your own” all too often property owners will fertilize, cut and water their lawn, usually, the wife has a honey do list, and, if you live in an HOA they always seem to frown on high grass and weeds, nearly every homeowner I’ve spoken to has received a letter from the HOA to ‘cut the lawn’ or ‘pull the weeds’. The problem with most honey do lists is that most Saturday’s are lazy day sleep-ins, recouping from a long weeks work, and Sunday’s are for football. There are so many reasons why doing it yourself is not always feasible. It’s too hot, I don’t have enough gas, we don’t own a lawn mower, my dog ate the fertilizer, the list is long.
However, doing it yourself will provide you with self gratification. I’ve asked fifty men, what reward do you get out of servicing your own lawn? The
Pros: of doing your own lawn has provided the following answers. Saving money is the number one reason followed by, feeling accomplished or completing an item on the ‘honey do list’ or because you’ve just received a letter from the HOA insisting you remove the weeds and cut your lawn, can you think of anything else?
Cons: When we do things on our own we tend to over think what we’re doing, so we spray an herbicide on weeds without following the instructions, too much herbicide could be harmful and end up killing your beautiful Bermuda or St. Augustine grass.
Pouring gas into your lawn mower while the mower is on the grass is a recipe for disaster, drops of gas land on the grass then you’re left with a brown spots all over the lawn. Or, you have this huge brown spot in the middle of the lawn and think it’s some kind of disease when in-fact there’s a chinch or grub bug problem.
Pay as you go:
‘Pay as you go’,
Pros: no contract, someone else does the job instead of you, you get to watch your Sunday football, you pay for only the application you receive,
Cons: usually there’s are no incentives, no discounts, no savings, you basically are paying full price each and every time.
Annual maintenance:
‘Annual contract’,
Pros: experience company, someone else is doing the job instead of you, you get to watch Sunday football, incentives, discounts, savings, satisfaction guaranteed, free repeat applications if you’re not satisfied, free soil testing, monthly visits.
Cons: annual contract.
Whether you’re doing ‘it your own’, ‘pay as you go’ or enter into an ‘annual contract’ really all depends on the following questions. What do I want my lawn to look like? What is most important to me about my lawn? And, do I want a healthy looking lawn all year long? In many cases an annual contract that can provide the right plan for your lawn which outweighs ‘do it your own’ or ‘pay as you go’ simply because of the higher cost in pay as you go vs a monthly maintenance that already has incentive packages, discounts and savings built in, whereas, pay as you go means just that, you’re paying for a full service without any discounts or savings. So, there may not be a plan that’s goof proof, certainly one could argue which is better, however, you have to ask yourself, what is it that’s most important to me about my lawn, and, do I want a healthy, beautiful looking lawn all year long without inheriting the task?
