| (And see better results from our service!)
1. Communicate with us.
If you experience problems with your lawn, or have too many weeds pop up in between treatments, call us or e-mail us so that we can come out to provide a free service call. You see your lawn every day, and we are only out every 6 weeks on average. We can solve most problems, answer most questions, and make you happy if you call us.
2. Water your lawn consistently and properly.
Oklahoma turfgrass requires about 1-2” of moisture per week to perform well. During summer especially, Mother Nature doesn’t help much. Water deeply to wet the soil to a depth of 6-8”. Fescue needs more watering during the summer months. Don’t water lightly every day.
3. Mow your lawn properly.
Never remove more than 1/3rd of the leaf blade with mowing. At some times, that means mowing your turf every 5 days or so. Use a sharp blade. Mow a little higher on Fescue turf—never shorter than 2.5”. During the summer and late fall, raise your mowing height, unless you have a shorter Tiff variety of bermudagrass.
4. Don’t mow weeds down before a service call.
If your lawn has just been mowed, it’s difficult to see weeds in the turf and hard to get enough herbicide on the weed surface for good control. Nutgrass especially is nearly impossible to control if the lawn has just been mowed. Wait several days after mowing to allow weeds to grow higher and then call us. We’ll be out within one day to treat the weeds then. You can then mow a day or two after that, removing the top parts of the dying weeds.
5. Have realistic expectations and be patient.
Customers need to know what we can do and what we cannot do with our service. With lawncare, you can’t just write us a check and expect everything to go perfect. Turfgrass is a living, dynamic collection of plants that is subject to many environmental, cultural, and biological factors which we often cannot control. If a lawn has declined, with thin turf and heavy weed infestation, it will take time to allow our service and mother nature to allow the turf to recover.
6. If you have shaded conditions, overseed fescue every fall.
Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass will not grow well in shaded conditions. As trees grow, and more shade develops, fescue is your only alternative for turf. Being a cool-season grass, fescue sometimes has a difficult time surviving Oklahoma summers, so overseeding every fall will help rejuvenate fescue areas.
7. Aerate your lawn every other year.
Most golf courses aerate 2-3 times annually. Most golf courses have a much larger budget than homeowners though. If you could aerate at lease once every other year, your root system will be healthier and your turf will perform better.
8. Refer other customers to LawnAmerica
We don’t spend a large part our budget on advertising, and we don’t have an army of telemarketers constantly preying on homeowners. Our money is better spent on keeping and training great employees, using quality materials, providing useful educational materials, and using the best equipment to name a few. By doing a great job for our existing customers and encouraging them to refer others to us, we can grow our company and be even more productive without overspending on advertising. Plus, you’ll save $20 for every customer you send our way!
9. Follow your invoice instructions.
All of our regular lawn treatments need to be watered into the soil to be effective, whether it’s a pre-emergent herbicide or a fertilizer. Usually, they don’t need immediate watering--just within a few days. It varies according to the season and the treatment, so you’ll need to follow our instructions. If a granular fertilizer has been applied to your turf during the summer, it’s not going to do any good until it is watered well into the soil.
10. Pay your bills on time.
It’s sometimes easy to put the bill to the lawncare guy on the bottom of the pile. However, we need cash as much or more than other companies in order to pay our employees and vendors and provide a great level of service. Collecting money takes away from our time and money which could be better spent on providing better service to our customers. When bills are not paid on a timely basis, it holds up your scheduled services, which throws the schedule out of sync and causes your lawn to go downhill. It really helps us when customers pay on time!
|
