Paying for your lawn to be looked after?

[Ian H]

Mines looking a bit shabby and soon i’ll be turfing the other half.

I looked at lawn feed the other day and couldn’t decide between them all, my missus put some on our kast lawn and it burnt it. When I got home I saw an add for Greensleeves in the local adds book.

I phoned them and for 120sq/mtrs they would charge £105/year to make 5 visits and apply their own weed/feed products. I could pay £8.75/month on direct debit.

Seems a good deal but I wonder if it’s worth it because the lawn gets used for football. What do you think? I’m thinking less effort and they probably use a better product than I could buy.

 

[lostinthelight]

Personally I would be cautious of a company that gives a £5 discount for submitting a review...but thats just me.

 

[banjodeano]

paying someone to come and feed your lawn? jeeez, some people have too much money

 

[Ian H]

If it would cost me £20 for some stuff from the garden centre or £21 for them to supply and spread it then it’s a win win.

 

[Brigadier]

Seriousl , if you're playing football on it, you can't expect it to look like velvet.....

.... unless you can afford to re-lay it every couple of months

 

[Keithmac]

Two kids and a dog (soon to be two) have seen our lawn off!.

I just put up with it now, looks fairly green in summer when the weeds get going!.

 

[sodthisforfun]

I wouldn't worry.. my grandad had a beautiful green lawn, lovely, lush and healthy - picture perfect. Only we were never allowed to walk on it let alone play when we visited as kids.. gardens are supposed to be enjoyed imo! Perhaps you'll have a perfect lawn when your kids have grown up and left home

 

[lostinthelight]

Perhaps you'll have a perfect lawn when your kids have grown up and left home

Dont know about that once Grandchildren come along, we seem to let them get away with more

 

[Ian H]

I’m not after perfection, just better. My missus thinks it’s a waste anyway so she can look after it

 

[sodthisforfun]

I’m not after perfection, just better. My missus thinks it’s a waste anyway so she can look after it

I thought it looked ok myself.. bit patchy but not bad.

 

[Brigadier]

A damned good raking never hurts a lawn.

It'll look terrible for a couple of days afterwards, then greatly improved.

 

[MMarve]

Having been in this exact position myself when we moved into a new house last year, I can give you my experience.

This is a picture of the garden soon after we moved in.

I spent the first half of last year trying to learn and improve it myself but in the end turned to a professional. Though I did avoid the big franchises that advertise heavily and found a good honest local guy who came round and gave me about 45 minutes of his time and advice where I probably learnt more than I had in all the months previously. His basic annual package is to come and apply the right blend of weed and feed (depending on the time of year) 4 times a year. Then after that he gives advice and obviously charges if you want to go ahead with things like aeration or scarifying etc. We had him aerate the whole lawn towards the end of last year and apart from that it has just been weed and feed and regular cutting. We have 2 small children who play on the lawn all the time so it gets well used and abused but from this picture here, I think you will agree it looks a lot better (you may also notice how much my son has grown!)

So although I do tend to agree with the sentiment that if you are paying someone to feed your lawn then you have too much money (I don't!) but for me it has been nice to have one less thing to worry, think about and do yet clearly see a much better result. It is good to know he is there and will advise me on things like scarifying and aerating as well. I appreciate he is running a business but by avoiding the big franchises that have high sales targets to meet etc, I hope to have found a chap who is as honest as can be and will advise me accordingly.

 

[Ian H]

Yours looks great

I think i’ll give them a go for a year. I’ve got a load a paving and walling to do so I think it’s worth a try.

 

[Ian H]

They said to call them back 3 months after I finish the other half of the lawn so last week I fed it with Miracle Grow and have watered it regular and it looks much better already.

From this to this in a couple of weeks:

 

[Brigade77]

Pop down to your local cricket or golf club & buy the greenkeeper a pint.

They can tell you what to do & when to do it. Mine even pops 'round the house occasionally to check on the lawns condition (& drink more of my beer).

Best secret he ever told me was to pre-germinate the seed !