Everybody loves saving money.
You’re not the first person to ponder, “Should I pay someone to fertilize my lawn, or should I do it myself?
Let’s learn more about lawn fertilization prices, including:
What does DIY lawn fertilization cost? You can buy a 17-lb bag of lawn fertilizer for $33, but your lawn needs more than just fertilizer to thrive.
Professional lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls start at $50 a visit for a 5,000-square-foot lawn, including six visits that include fertilizing, weed control and grub control.
Read on to learn more.
You can buy a 17-lb bag of lawn fertilizer for $33 that covers 5,000 square feet of lawn.
When you add up the cost of the bagged fertilizer in your cart at the big box store and compare it to the average cost of professional lawn fertilization in Boise or Idaho Falls, of course the bags in your cart will be cheaper. You don’t have to be good at math to figure this out.
But here’s an essential factor when it comes to lawn fertilization prices: You’re just buying fertilizer. A professional lawn care service offers comprehensive, expertly planned programs to address all your lawn’s needs — not just fertilizer.
Most lawn care and landscaping services in Boise and Idaho Falls don’t offer just fertilizing. They know — and will happily explain — that your lawn needs more than just fertilizer to be green and healthy.
Of course, fertilizer is really important. It’s food for your hungry lawn. But it should be just part of a comprehensive lawn care plan that also battles weeds and deters grubs that can destroy your lawn.
Many homeowners interested in DIY lawn fertilization costs choose a 4-part program they buy all together at the home and garden store.
It consists of four bags of product to apply from early spring through fall. It is designed to prevent crabgrass and other weeds, fertilize, and control some insects.
The four bags will cost you $100-$150 for a 5,000-sq ft lawn.
Lawn care and landscaping services in Boise and Idaho Falls vary in price, depending on the size of your lawn and the number of services included.
Plan on spending between $300 and $1,000 yearly for a 5,000-square-foot lawn.
Lawn fertilization in Idaho Falls kicks off in early spring, adding crucial nutrients to your hungry soil and giving your grass a nice pop of green.
Plan for mid-to late April once the soil temperature reaches 55 degrees.
When to fertilize your lawn in summer? Plan on mid-May, around the end of June, and in early to mid-August.
The final fertilizer treatment in fall includes necessary slow-release granular fertilizer that feeds your hungry lawn for the winter and helps it pop back up, ready to impress, in the spring.
If you go this route, it’s a lot less hassle for you.
Let’s say you decide the cost to fertilize your lawn is cheaper if you tackle this chore yourself.
So you hop in the car and head to the fertilizer section of the home and garden store. (Don’t get distracted by the paint samples. That’s a project for another day.)
Yikes, figuring out lawn fertilization prices is just part of the task. You’re faced with a ton of fertilizer choices. Plan to do some not-so-light reading of package labels.
One bag of fertilizer says 10-10-10. Another says 24-8-16. Still another is labeled 22-0-4.
These numbers represent Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) in that order, and using the right blend of N-P-K for your lawn is important.
Hmmm, this isn’t the quick grab-and-dash trip you planned. Hopefully, you ate before you headed here.
How many bags do you need? Did you measure the square feet of your lawn before you left?
Do you know how to calibrate your spreader to ensure you’ll
apply the fertilizer at the correct rate? Too much can damage your lawn. (More on this in a minute.)
You have a spreader, right?
Or should you use liquid fertilizer instead of the granular form so you can spray the fertilizer instead of spreading pellets across your lawn?
Hmmmm.
Is DIY fertilization cost cheaper? Maybe. But it suddenly seems a lot easier to pay lawn care pros to figure all this out so you can enjoy your weekend.
The right fertilizer blend gives your lawn the mix of quick-release and slow-release fertilizer, delivering immediate and long-term results.
Here at Lawn Buddies, we might use 25 percent quick-release and 75 percent slow-release fertilizer for your summer lawn fertilizing schedule.
This strategy provides some instant green on established lawns that homeowners love to see, but it avoids big spikes in growth, so you’re not mowing every time you turn around.
However, we might use 50 percent or 60 percent quick-release fertilizer for a new lawn to nudge the lawn to get established and 40 percent slow-release so the plants continue receiving nutrients over time.
Yay, more numbers to calculate. Another good reason to leave this to the experts.
Maybe you’ll do your research, calculate everything just right, calibrate your spreader perfectly, fertilize your lawn like a pro and still have time to catch a movie.
Maybe you won’t.
It’s pretty easy to make a mistake. One common one? Assuming your lawn needs more fertilizer than it does.
Yes, there’s such a thing as too much fertilizer. You can’t follow your “if one cheeseburger is good, two are even better” rule here. The same nutrients that make your lawn green and healthy -- nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium -- can hurt your lawn if you apply too much.
Many homeowners either apply too much fertilizer or apply it at the wrong time of the year.
Over-fertilizing, especially with high levels of nitrogen, will cause lots of pretty green blades of grass but not enough root growth. Too much nitrogen causes fertilizer “burn,” and can kill your lawn. That’ll cost you a lot more in the long run.
Applying too much fertilizer harms the environment, running off and entering the groundwater.
Lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls know precisely how much fertilizer to apply and when to use it. And because you’re on their calendar, they’ll arrive at just the correct times to treat your lawn.
Everybody has good intentions about fertilizing their lawn. You think about it as the spring thaw finally melts the snow. Maybe you jotted a reminder in your phone or even checked for the best sale price on lawn fertilizer.
Oops, that weekend flew by. When did life get so busy? Another weekend sails by. Hmmm, did you miss the best window to put this stuff down?
Meanwhile, your lawn is hungry out there.
It’s worth a lot.
Do you want to spend a beautiful Saturday morning in the crowded lawn care aisle, puzzling over fertilizer ratios? Then, toiling in your yard, cleaning up, and finding a place in your garage to store what’s left?
Think about all the things you could be doing instead. Just about anything else would be more fun.
When you pay for lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls you’re not just paying for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
A big part of what you’re paying for is expert knowledge, skill, training and experience.
Excellent lawn care pros aren’t out there scratching their heads wondering which fertilizer ratios to use, pondering the benefits of liquid vs granular fertilizer, and remembering what time of year crabgrass control should go down.
They’ve had years of training and experience. You’re pondering the instructions on the back of a bag and hoping for the best.
Meanwhile, you have expert eyes on your lawn during every visit. That means pro-level attention and advice.
Are you on the alert for weeds when you’re out there lugging fertilizer around? Hoping you get done in time to catch the game? Grubs? Insect damage? Signs of lawn disease?
We are.
Lawn Buddies technicians are trained professionals, so we catch things early — before they turn into worrisome and expensive problems.
When you hire Lawn Buddies, you don’t just get fertilizer as part of your lawn care pricing. You get a premium, six-visit lawn care program that includes everything your lawn needs to grow healthy and green.
You can also access valuable extra services, like aeration, plant health care and perimeter pest control.
Taking good care of your lawn is a whole big thing. Figuring out lawn fertilization costs is just a tiny part of it.
Of course, you can figure it out. But don’t you have better things to do on a sunny Idaho weekend?
We’re happy to take the hassle off your hands. Leave it to us.
If you want simple, hassle-free lawn care that offers quality core lawn care services for a healthy green lawn, it doesn’t get easier than Lawn Buddies.
Fertilizer, weed treatments, and grub control are all wrapped up in six visits, each perfectly timed throughout the season, so your grass is green and strong and resists weeds.
Choose a professional lawn care service in the Idaho Falls or Boise, ID area that bundles your yard’s most-needed treatments into one convenient, no-fuss plan.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started. Fill out the form on this page, call us at (208) 656-9131 or read more about our services. Then, you can kick back and relax in your healthy, thriving yard.