You Don't Need a Spray Service

It's Tuesday morning. The daily school run routine. Driving back into my neighborhood it's clear some yards are real nice, some aren't. Mine - more the latter than the former. I moved to Saint Augustine from the city in 2018. I vowed to not get distracted by outdoor yard work. But the hunger for a green and weed free yard is real. Hiring a spray service is a perfect solution for busy people like me who don't want distractions from their online profession. 

What stopped me? 

My termite bond. I was already paying a monthly subscription of about $60/month on it. With a lawn spray service I would be adding another $60/month minimum. With insurance, water, electric, the termite bond… and this? I balked. 

I decided to go with the $40 Scotts Turf Builder Triple Action from Lowes. “I’ll save hundreds and hundreds,” I thought.

You know how this story unfolds. Many people have been down this path and many end up hiring a spray service in the end. 

Your watering cycle got messed up. You put down too much or too little product. The chinch bugs killed patches. Things go wrong. You fix it, but then it’s something persistent like a fungus that you thought you had under control. Panic sets in.

You surrender. You’ve decided the $60/month is better than the overflow of irritation, worry, … distraction. You ask neighbors who they use. But they have complaints. Those spray services cost more than your monthly baby sitting budget, but they don’t babysit your lawn. Weeds, dead patches, they still have them.

Stop. Stop.. can you stop? Don’t make any sudden moves - but you can drop your hands back down. You don’t have to be captive to a spray service. It’s not over.

You are a homeowner. You have time to learn the fundamentals of a healthy yard. And maybe being outdoors isn’t really a distraction. You chose to live here.

If you are going to surrender anything, give up avoiding the opportunity to learn how to take care of your grass. It’s your yard. Paying attention costs nothing, and you are already doing it. Learning takes less time than you think. With the fundamentals down, cultivating your yard to health costs far less than a spray service.

Let that satisfaction be yours.

Here's what I wish someone had told me: you need a plan. Not a perfect one. Just a calendar that tells you what to put down and when.

January is a good time for it. Make a separate document for it next to your annual goals, or just make this your annual goal. 

Your yard is on a dynamic cycle. Your plan makes it easy to catch on. Your plan doesn’t have to be perfect, but it’s where you need to start.

Grabbing a bag or two of Scotts whenever it seems like you need it is not sufficient. You’ll end up back in the spray service trap.

There will still be a time or two when you notice your yard needs something, but your plan is what makes it all feel panic-free when something goes wrong.

So here’s the 5-part plan for Saint Augustine grass — the default in our neighborhoods.

1. Early spring - about February 15th - Weed and Feed (15-0-4 fertilizer)
2. April / May - 25-0-4 fertilizer
3. June - 24-0-4 fertilizer again, but this time with Iron
4. Mid September - 10-0-14 fertilizer
5. December - January - weed and crabgrass preventer (no fertilizer)

Start with that. This plan costs a fraction of a spray service, and it’s hard to get wrong. Worst case scenario… you have to start over… but that’s what we are doing here… so what do you have to lose?