Thursday, April 2

it's lawn time

We've owned this house for a little over 3 years, and our yard - especially the grass part - is a mess. REALLY, a mess. So when the TruGreen people came to our house with an offer for a free estimate, well, we were happy to have them estimate away.

Honestly, if it was just our yard and would be forever, we wouldn't care one lick. I would be all hippie about it and just let the green weeds grow. I might even plant wildflowers in the front yard and roll out the hammock. Or I'd plow the whole thing up and plant tomatoes and watermelons. But we are on a (hopefully!) five year plan, and that only leaves 2 years left for yard rebuilding for resale. These Midland people are super particular about the lawn, and we want a decent chance at selling. The perfect house wouldn't be perfect without a nice lawn.

So we said yes to the chemicals and yes to the fertilizer, yes to the pest control and grub treatment. It was a lot more reasonable than we thought it would be. We really need some grass in the front yard, and by the end of the summer we are hoping to level out the back yard with some pretty large loads of topsoil, so we'll need grass there. They are only going to fertilize the front yard while we take care of the back.

We are going to wait until fall to seed, what with all our big plans to renovate the back yard. Then we will probably have TruGreen seed for us too. We'd had a highly recommended local company come estimate seeding and lawn care last year, but they wouldn't guarantee anything unless we had a sprinkler system installed. TruGreen guarantees the seeding as long as we water.

2 comments:

Rosemary said...

YIKES!! I guess that you have to do that in order to make the place resellable to 'chemical city' residents. Maybe when you have your dream place in the country, you can have a nice safe organic, chemical-free environment for you and your kids.

Shelldell said...

When we lived in Elmwood which was in town the real-estate agents kept emphasizing the importance of curb appeal. Nice lawn, flowers, no weeds.
When it came to selling our home it was the curb appeal that got people in the door and the condition of the home that sold it.

Now we live in the country so I'm going to grow squash in the front lawn and I don't plan to move till we can't manage this place any longer.

At our new business location because we are a professional business. We hired a landscaper to put in the sprinkler system, lawn, trees, and bushes. Then we hired a lawn maintenance crew to manage it. It looks like a public park. Nice to look at when you at a computer and answering phones all day.

I think your right you have to know the area and the purpose of what your trying to achieve with your landscape.