Education

Your lawn plays a crucial role in the exterior beauty of your home, so its maintenance is imperative. Hiring a professional to care for your grass will help avoid patches, browning and pests or diseases. On average, homeowners spend about $160 on lawn services although that varies based on the types of treatments a lawn needs. Here are some cost considerations when you're looking at services.

Average Lawn Mowing & Maintenance Prices

Are Lawn Mowing Services Worth It?

Advanced Lawn Care Services

Green Lawn Care Services

Landscape Curbing

Fertilizing Your Lawn

Aerating the Yard

Lawn Mowing Services: Worth the Price?

Choosing a Lawn Mowing Service

Pros & Cons

Independent Lawn Mowers

Cleaning & Maintaining Your Yard

Spring Maintenance

Watering Tips

Winterizing the Lawn

Removing Weeds & Leaves

DIY Lawn Care Ideas

How Much Does an Average Lawn Mowing or Maintenance Service Cost?

The national average estimate for lawn mowing and maintenance is between $214 and $322. It will often include a cut, weeding, trimming and pesticide treatment. Some services will price individually, while others will have monthly or weekly packages.

Professional standard services might include:

Assessment: They will examine your lawn and create a treatment plan to keep your grass in good condition.

Fertilization: They will use fertilizer so your grass is green, beautiful and healthy.

Insect and weed control: They will use organic or non-organic pesticides and insecticides to protect your lawn.

Additional services: Some may include aeration and overseeding.

Are Lawn Mowing Services Worth the Cost?

Investing in a service is worth the cost if you're busy and don?t have the time to do it yourself. Lawns mowed to an acceptable length--two to four inches--can handle climate stress, grow fewer weeds and will retain moisture. Prices will vary by location and whether the service is for a commercial or residential property. Urban landscapes will also cost more to maintain.

Grass cutting rates will also vary depending on the frequency of mowing. If you have your lawn trimmed too infrequently, it will be more difficult to maintain. They are also based on square footage, though there is a minimum cost. It?s also important for lawn care professionals to know if you?ll want the front and backyard trimmed or just one.

Advanced Service Options

Some lawn care services offer fertilizer or weed control application in addition to their standard packages. This is especially important for homeowners who want their grass looking vibrant and well-cared for year-round to avoid brown lawns. In these cases, lawn services not only provide fertilizer but also offer recommendations for the types of grass that work best in different climates and with different soils. A full-care lawn service can even install new grass or lay pallets of sod.

Green Lawn Care Service Options

More services are offering eco-friendly alternatives to standard lawn care. These services utilize organic or natural treatments for fertilizing grass. This has the added advantage of making the lawn child and pet-friendly because the compounds in the fertilizer contain fewer harmful chemicals and synthetic elements. They also use more environmentally friendly equipment or offer to compost lawn waste, keeping it out of landfills and making good use of the nutrients derived from organic sources. These services may also share tips for how to reduce water usage while maintaining a healthy lawn.

Lawn Edging

Edging, otherwise known as landscape curbing, helps to create a visible, yet beautiful line between the grass and bed. Some of the materials you can use include:

Brick

Plastic

Concrete

Wood

Stone

Homeowners who want landscape edging installed should consider matching it to their walkways or patios. It?s also a good way to create a new flower bed in your backyard.

See how much landscape curbing costs.

Fertilization

Fertilizing your lawn is key to keeping your soil healthy throughout the year. The kind of fertilizer you apply must have nitrogen, either fast-release or controlled-release. Lawn care professionals will usually offer a balance of fast and controlled.

You also will have the choice between organic or synthetic fertilizer. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but many invest in organic fertilizer because.

It's less likely to dry out grass to where it could burn in extreme heat conditions.

Compost, one of the popular organic fertilizers, is good for improving soil quality.

Its one con is that it contains less nitrogen than synthetic, so you have to buy more of it to properly fertilize a lawn.

There is also winterizing fertilizer for warm season grass, like bermuda and turf. Winterizing turf should be done in the fall. Unlike regular fertilizer, this has a lot of phosphorus and potassium but will increase a lawns hardiness against the cold months

Aeration

Lawn aeration is essentially poking holes in the soil so air, water and nutrients can get to the roots. It also helps the soil to move. How do you know when it?s time to aerate your lawn? Here are some signs:

When the yard is being heavily used by children, pets and family

When it?s part of a newly constructed home

Has a spongy feel or seems dried out

Has sod as the bottom layer with soil layering atop it.

The best season for aeration is spring, so your grass can heal after having the holes poked in it. The best tools to use are either a spike aerator or a plug aerator. With a spike, you will poke holes in the ground with a tine or fork. Plugs will remove cores of soil from the grass. The plug will often work better because it removes soil rather than poking holes.

Dethatching or power raking moves away dead grass, excess grass and putting holes in the ground and is considered another method of aeration that costs less. It can cost between $100 and $200 depending on the size of your lawn. See how much lawn aeration costs if you have it done professionally.

Lawn Mowing Prices

Average lawn mowing prices range from about $30 to $80 per visit, depending on square footage, and large cutting projects can cost more as a result. Most lawn care services charge a flat rate per visit for lawn cutting and additional fees for extra services like edging, leaf-blowing or seasonal cleanup visits. You can determine how often the service comes, like once per week during the peak growing season. In terms of seasonal cleanup, a final autumn visit can include mulching or bagging leaves. An early spring visit may be needed to clear winter debris prior to regular mowing.

Each service determines its own rates, and it can vary depending on many factors.

In suburban communities, the lot size may be a factor in the cost as well as distance.

Their estimate might also include labor and materials for the job plus upkeep for the equipment.

Maintenance costs for a mower may exceed those for a personal mower due to the higher level of usage, but a company that maintains its mowers will do better quality work than those who do not.

Choosing a Lawn Mowing Service

When looking for a lawn care service, you should choose based on factors like price and eco-friendly options. You should also look at:

Range of services offered

Reputation

Location

Insured or not

Experience

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Advantages and Disadvantages

Hiring a lawn service has many advantages for the homeowner.

The service will save time, particularly during the summer. A lawn service can potentially save two hours of work each week, adding up to as much as an entire day of extra time over the course of the summer.

A professional lawn service does not cost as much as it may seem when compared to purchasing, servicing and fueling a lawn mower. This may be especially true of full-service lawn care companies, which offers many services that a homeowner would be ill-equipped to do for themselves such as aeration, fertilization and installation of large quantities of grass.

Many lawn care professionals have years of experience, training and even education that can they can put to work to create and maintain the ideal lawn. In some areas, it is not uncommon to find technicians who have a background in turf management or other fields relating to lawn services in addition to their experience and on-the-job training.

In terms of disadvantages, hiring a lawn care service can require some time and research. You have to be willing to ask for references, look into their reputation and carefully consider how the service options offered fit into a budget. Failure to do so may result in hiring a service that does not sufficiently meet your needs.

Independent Lawn Mowing Contractors

A budget-friendly option is hiring independent contractors, such as neighborhood teens who cut grass for a small fee during the summer. These individuals will generally have their own equipment and transportation and typically charge lower rates. They do not have as much experience or offer the range of services that lawn care professionals do. The quality of work is extremely varied, although word-of-mouth will often let homeowners know who provides the best service.

As a final cautionary note, independent contractors that do not have insurance can be a liability to the homeowner if they are injured on the job. Homeowners should be familiar with their own insurance policies and weigh the possible risks and rewards carefully prior to hiring a neighborhood teen or other uninsured person to mow their grass.

Yard Clean Up & Maintenance Costs

Hiring a lawn care service to clean and maintain your yard can save you time. This way you can spend time doing more important things than mowing, watering and pulling weeds. Before getting estimates, you should make an itemized list of everything you would like done.

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Spring Lawn Care

Spring lawn maintenance is key to preparing for new plant growth. You should remove old and dying branches, cut back any flowers and shrubs and fix any patches or brown spots. Some other major categories include:

Flower bed preparation

Planting

Pest control

Weed control

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Watering

Watering your lawn should be done periodically but not so much to drown it or not enough to dry it out. Some signs of dried-out grass include:

Blue-green color

Curled blades

Footprints staying in the grass

The best time to water your lawn is the morning to avoid evaporation or wind. Usually grass needs at least one inch of moisture a week. A good tip to lawn watering is following drought restrictions. They can be hard on the environment and your grass, leading to damage. You can also prevent runoff water by monitoring your yard for puddles.

Sprinkler systems are an easy, effective method for keeping your lawn green. The top four sprinkler types are portable, stationary, rotary and oscillating. Portable and stationary sprinkler systems are good for specific areas. Rotary and oscillating sprinklers are better for medium to large lawns. Consult with a professional to determine if one type or a mix of two works best for your lawn

Winterizing Your Yard

How you winterize a lawn depends on the grass type. Warm season grasses go dormant as temperatures drop in the fall and don?t awake again until the spring. Cool season grasses take on many nutrients throughout the year and require additional nutrients in the fall to survive. Here are the different approaches:

Cool Season: Apply a traditional lawn winterizing fertilizer twice, first at the end of summer and then at mid to late fall.

Warm Season: Apply a potash (K20) fertilizer containing low nitrogen and high potassium.

Weed & Leaf Removal

Weeds are any plant that grow out of place. Some types of weeds you might remove are:

Dandelions

Crabgrass

Wild onions

Weed seeds are especially hard to remove because they are easily spread by wind, animals, garden tools and water. They can also remain dormant for years before starting to grow. The usual response to weeds is spraying herbicides but can be dangerous for your plants, pets and children.

Along the same lines are leaves that have to be removed every year before the winter starts. Otherwise you can have dead spots and patches. You can control those patches with chemicals but run into problems. Leaf removal is crucial in environmental control of weeds as well, as they can kickstart their growth. Some essentials tools for leaf removal include:

Leaf rake

Leaf tarp

Leaf blower

Yard vacuum

Some are better for smaller lawns while others for large acres. Lawn care professionals will know which tool to use, but you can also purchase them if you plan to DIY.

See how much leaf removal costs.

DIY Lawn Maintenance Tips

For homeowners who choose to pursue lawn maintenance as a DIY project, here are some essential tips:

⅓ Rule: Never remove more than ⅓ of your grass, or it will be stressed out, have a difficult time thriving and look burnt out.

Long grass blades: Longer grass blades means deeper grass roots, which allows for withstanding drought, pests and diseases.

Mower blades: Your mower blades should always be sharp, or your grass will not recover as quickly.

Fertilizer: Fertilizer is essential, so apply it on a regular basis.

Apply pesticides & insecticides: You need to protect the grass against pests and diseases, so apply organic or synthetic defenses as needed.

Watering: Your lawn needs moisture to stay green, so at least one inch of water is crucial on a daily basis.

Mow and Maintain a Lawn Project Cost

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Hire a Landscape Designer Project Cost

Seed a Lawn Project Cost

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INVASIVE PLANTS TO AVOID

Autumn olive

Plants

DescriptionElaeagnus umbellata is known as Japanese silverberry, umbellata oleaster, autumn olive, autumn elaeagnus, or spreading oleaster. The species is indigenous to eastern Asia and ranges from the Himalayas eastwards to

Japan.

Scientific name: Elaeagnus umbellata

Callery pear

Plants

DescriptionPyrus calleryana, or the Callery pear, is a species of pear tree native to China and Vietnam, in the family Rosaceae. It is most commonly known for its cultivar 'Bradford', widely planted throughout the United States and increasingly regarded as an invasive species.

Scientific name: Pyrus calleryana

Norway maple

Plants

DescriptionAcer platanoides, the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia, from France east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran. It was brought to North America in the mid-1700s as a shade tree. It is a member of the family Sapindaceae.

Scientific name: Acer platanoides

Bamboo

Plants

DescriptionBamboos are evergreen perennial flowering plants in the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. The word "bamboo" comes from the Dutch or Portuguese languages, which probably borrowed it from Malay.

Scientific name: Bambusoideae

Butterfly bush

Plants

DescriptionBuddleja, or Buddleia, commonly known as the butterfly bush, is a genus comprising over 140 species of flowering plants endemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Scientific name: Buddleja

Sacred bamboo

Plants

DescriptionNandina domestica commonly known as nandina, heavenly bamboo or sacred bamboo, is a species of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia from the Himalayas to Japan. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Nandina.

Scientific name: Nandina domestica

Japanese Privet, Chinese Privet, and Common Privet.

Identification: Privets are evergreen shrubs that may reach 30 feet in height. These shrubs have opposite, leathery, oblong leaves that terminate with a pointed tip. ... These invasive shrubs colonize by root sprouts and seeds that are dispersed primarily by birds.

Scientific name: Berberis vulgaris

Spiraea japonica

Plants

DescriptionSpiraea japonica, the Japanese meadowsweet, Japanese spiraea, or Korean spiraea, is a plant in the family Rosaceae. Synonyms for the species name are Spiraea bumalda Burv. and Spiraea japonica var. alpina Maxim.

Scientific name: Spiraea japonica

Burning bush

Plants

DescriptionEuonymus alatus, known variously as winged spindle, winged euonymus, or burning bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to central and northern China, Japan, and Korea. The common name "burning bush" comes from the bright red fall color.

Scientific name: Euonymus alatus

Chinese wisteria

Plants

DescriptionWisteria sinensis, commonly known as the Chinese wisteria, is a species of flowering plant in the pea family, native to China, in the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Yunnan. Growing 20–30 m tall, it is a deciduous vine.

Scientific name: Wisteria sinensis

Myrtle

Plants

DescriptionVinca minor is a species of flowering plant in the dogbane family, native to central and southern Europe, from Portugal and France north to the Netherlands and the Baltic States, east to the Caucasus, and also southwestern Asia in Turkey.

Scientific name: Vinca minor

Vinca minor commonly know as vinca or periwinkle is one of the most popular and widely used ground covers. Trailing stems with smooth, evergreen leaves (to 1.5" long) root at the nodes as they go along the ground and quickly spread to form an attractive ground cover.

Common ivy

Plants

DescriptionHedera helix, the common ivy, English ivy, European ivy, or just ivy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Araliaceae, native to most of Europe and western Asia.

Scientific name: Hedera helix

Japanese honeysuckle

Plants

DescriptionLonicera japonica, known as Japanese honeysuckle and golden-and-silver honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle native to eastern Asia. It is often grown as an ornamental plant, but has become an invasive species in a number of countries. Japanese honeysuckle is used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Scientific name: Lonicera japonica

Sweet autumn clematis

Plants

DescriptionClematis terniflora is a plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. It is native to countries in northeastern Asia. It was introduced into the United States in the late 1800s as an ornamental garden plant, and has naturalized in many of the eastern states.

Scientific name: Clematis terniflora

Trumpet vine

Plants

DescriptionCampsis radicans, is a species of flowering plant of the family Bignoniaceae, native to the eastern United State and extreme southern Ontario and naturalized in parts of the western United States as well as in Ontario and southern Quebec, parts of Europe, and scattered locations in Latin America.

Scientific name: Campsis radicans

Fortune's spindle

Plants

DescriptionEuonymus fortunei is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to east Asia, including China, Korea, the Philippines and Japan. It is named after the Scottish botanist and plant explorer Robert Fortune.

Scientific name: Euonymus fortunei

Bugleweed

Plants

DescriptionAjuga, also known as bugleweed, ground pine, carpet bugle, or just bugle, is a genus of 40 species annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the Ajugeae tribe of the mint family Lamiaceae, with most species native to Europe, Asia, and Africa, but also two species in southeastern Australia.

Scientific name: Ajuga

Japanese pachysandra

Plants

DescriptionPachysandra terminalis, the Japanese pachysandra, carpet box or Japanese spurge, is a species of flowering plant in the boxwood family Buxaceae, native to Japan, Korea and China and introduced to eastern North America.

Scientific name: Pachysandra terminalis

Purple loosestrife

Plants

DescriptionLythrum salicaria, or purple loosestrife, is a flowering plant belonging to the family Lythraceae. It should not be confused with other plants sharing the name loosestrife that are members of the family Primulaceae. Other names include spiked loosestrife and purple lythrum.

Scientific name: Lythrum salicaria

NATIVE PLANTS ALTERNATIVES

Chokeberry

Plants

DescriptionAronia is a genus of deciduous shrubs, the chokeberries, in the family Rosaceae native to eastern North America and most commonly found in wet woods and swamps. The genus is usually considered to contain two or three species, one of which is naturalized in Europe.

Scientific name: Aronia

Eastern redbud

Plants

DescriptionCercis canadensis, the eastern redbud, is a large deciduous shrub or small tree, native to eastern North America from southern Ontario, south to northern Florida but which can thrive as far west as California. It is the state tree of Oklahoma.

Scientific name: Cercis canadensis

Eastern red cedar

Plants

DescriptionJuniperus virginiana, known as red cedar, eastern redcedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, pencil cedar, and aromatic cedar, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Great Plains.

Scientific name: Juniperus virginiana

American Holly

Plants

DescriptionIlex opaca, the American holly, is a species of holly, native to the eastern and south-central United States, from coastal Massachusetts south to central Florida, and west to southeastern Missouri and eastern Texas.

Scientific name: Ilex opaca

Highbush blueberry

Plants

DescriptionVaccinium corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry, is a North American species of blueberry which has become a food crop of significant economic importance. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern and southern United States, from Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south as far as Florida and eastern Texas.

Scientific name: Vaccinium corymbosum

Sweet Joe-Pye-weed

Plants

DescriptionEutrochium purpureum, commonly known as purple Joe-Pye weed, kidney-root, sweetscented joe pye weed, sweet Joe-Pye weed, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the sunflower family. It is native to eastern and central North America, from Ontario east to New Hampshire and south as far as Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.

Scientific name: Eutrochium purpureum

Native asters

Native asters come in a variety of hues from deep blue to pink to white, and shades in between. ... Other asters prefer wet “feet” and occupy marshes and wet meadows and woods, such as purple-stemmed aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum), zig-zag aster (Symphyotrichum prenanthoides) and late purple aster (Symphyotrichum patens).

Scientific name: Asteraceae

Silky dogwood

Habit of silky dogwood.

Silky dogwood is a large to medium-sized native shrub with creamy white spring flowers , dark green foliage, and reddish stems and burgundy fall color. A great 4-season plant for naturalizing, in mass, and in the shrub border, especially in moist sites.

Botanical name: Cornus amomum

Arrowwood viburnum

Plants

DescriptionViburnum dentatum, southern arrowwood or arrowwood viburnum or roughish arrowwood, is a small shrub, native to the Eastern United States and Canada from Maine south to Northern Florida and Eastern Texas. Like most Viburnum, it has opposite, simple leaves and fruit in berry-like drupes.

Scientific name: Viburnum dentatum

Western wild ginger

Plants

DescriptionAsarum caudatum is native to rich moist forests of western North America from British Columbia to California and as far east as western Montana. It is an evergreen with flowers that develop from March to August.

Scientific name: Asarum caudatum

Shadbush

Plants

DescriptionAmelanchier, also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, or just sarvis, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum or wild-plum, and chuckley pear. is a genus of about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the rose family.

Scientific name: Amelanchier

Mountain mints

Plants

DescriptionPycnanthemum is a genus of plants in the mint family. They are commonly known as mountain mints, though "the mountain mint" may also be any locally common species in particular. Some are known as koellias, after an obsolete genus name. All of the species in this genus are native to North America.

Scientific name: Pycnanthemum

Witch-hazel

Plants

DescriptionWitch-hazels or witch hazels are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with four species in North America, and one each in Japan and China. The North American species are occasionally called winterbloom.

Scientific name: Hamamelis