Quote:
Originally Posted by Laker14
The Massey guy was here doing his thing and he made a recommendation for having the lawn aerated. A service they, of course, provide. $190, for our corner lot, which doesn't seem outrageous to me for the service, but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to lawn care.
It's a St. Augustine lawn.
I'm curious to hear some opinions from more knowledgable folks. Is this a service that one would expect to need to be done from time to time?
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Like most things there is no shortage of different OPINIONS. Like everything else that is true of lawn care as well. Most if not all of the lawn service companies are in the business of SELLING YOU something. We have the cooperative extension and the advice, the OPINIONS are free. They are not all as qualified but often if, they don't know they know who to ask.
The Villages is huge and the soil is not the same throughout the villages. I would suggest a soil test, cost is around 6-$20 to know what your parcel of land is.
Typical lawn aeration, they run a machine over your lawn and remove plugs of grass and soil. They if, you look at what they remove, They go down 1 or 2 inches and give you a bill. The roots of your lawn should be down 6-8 inches.
We all of us expect, demand instant results. Lawn, a garden does not work that way. It is a long term adventure. Most of the villages is sandy, clay with a lot of limestone in it.
Adding organic matter to the SOIL improves the drainage, the ability to hold water and reduce the fact that most of our lawns are built on sandy. clay with a too high PH-alkaline soil. Organic matter it takes quite a bit and it needs to be incorporated into the soil. Laying it on top does nothing.