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Originally Posted by fcgiii
Newbie here too. We have a guy that does a good job on the lawn, mows and trims, $60 per month. Augustyne's :awn Care, 352-480-9494.
Back in Virginia we fertilized our lawn twice a year, sprayed weeds as they popped up, put down insect killer. That worked well.
But this is a different climate and different grass. We have been here 3 months and done nothing except mow. We haven't even turned on the watering system. Lawn looks OK, same as everyone else on the block.
What services are really needed? Can we do everything ourselves?
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Suggestion. First determine what type of grass you have. Likely either St Augustine or Empire Zoysea. The care is different. As to proper care you will find endless conflicting advice. I would look it up on the internet. As far as Virginia, you may want to attend one of the lectures from cooperative extension. We've lived here for roughly 9 years. I still remember an introductory lecture about lawn care. The speaker said how many of you are northerners? His punch line was forget everything you knew.
My suggestion, first thing to do is a soil test. You go to cooperative extension and they have bags for samples and an instruction sheet. If, I recall the test was like $7.00 and the full test is like $14.00. Most of the villages is sandy clay with a lot of lime stone.
PH in places is as high as 8 alkaline. A lawn should be 6.5. Cooperative extension will help you as far as what to do.
Yes, you can do it yourself. Re: Twice a year fertilizer. We get a lot of rain. Slow release fertilizers last roughly 6 weeks. Twice a year sounds like Kentucky blue grass it grows in cool weather spring and fall and goes dormant in summer heat. What we have are southern grasses. To steal his punch line, you likely need to forget everything you knew or a lot of it. I'm not familiar with Va but, for us it is a bit of a shock there are no dandelions here. That is good news and bad news. No shortage or weeds we did not have before we moved to Florida.