I would love to tell you why one lawn looks better than next door. If one could they would be a very rich person. Our new neighborhood has good bad and ugly lawns most we’re builder start with Massey. We had the questionable lawn, once pool was completed new sod looked 100% percent better then the field weeds at build

Had Massey. They almost killed my lawn. Went to ACE and they gave me a sheet of paper for St Augustine. Followed the sheet verbatim. Lawn looked great!

Sunniland Weed and Feed for St A. Most important part Grub Killer year round in FL. Every three months I put granules specific to grubs. Some places say no grubs year round... bs in FL. Brown patches most likely grubs or chinch bugs.

Dollar weed and fungus = too much water. T V isn't the best on drainage as they rush through putting in cookie cutter villas and lawns can get over watered by neighbor spray. So treated to keep neighbors issues at bay.

Moved. Went back to ACE and picked up their sheet on Zoysia grass. Following verbatim.

I remembered with first house how Massey "aeriated" my lawn 2x a yr with a machine that took a chunk out of my sidewalk. Online I found something to aeriate with.

Lol I look like a dork but I bought these metal 3" long spike platforms you put on your shoes to aeriate the grass in early spring. There was a learning curve walking in them but after getting the hang of them I walked the lawn this week and put down Spring weed and feed Sunniland for Zoysia plus Grub granules. I'm sure my neighbors got a good laugh out of watching me walk in these things. Only got stuck a couple times, lol. But hey, it was good leg lift excercise.

Materials to diy is about $150 a year I'd say. Sure beats looking out the window watching your yard die while you pay of Massey who would be at the house a total of 5 min.

I did look for exact ingredients that they put down as well. Termite prevention Termidor SC. I laughed because thats what I used prior to moving to T V. I buy it on Amazon for about $80 and it lasts for years as it is highly concentrated. Spray eves and perimiter of the house 2 x a year have had ZERO bugs since 2015 in all my houses. Great stuff.

DIY is possible you just have to research and be good at using a calendar. Lol and have balance when wearing and walking in 3 inch nail aeriating shoes.

(Another concept to consider relative to how yards look right now is that the sun is being blocked via stratospheric aerosol injections - a known concept to some who look up, iykyk. The lack of sun is effecting plants, trees and grass causing yellowing.

Plus it is still dormant grass season so grass can be brown depending on type. Hopefully the sun will be ALLOWED to shine again soon and plants can recover.)

NOAA CSL: 2023 News & Events: For Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, All Strategies are Not Created Equal

An Ethical Evaluation of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection - Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

DIY-ER here, knock on wood, have great lawn. Lol where can I pick up the $$$$ ? :)

Oh boy.

You have to first decide whether you are going to maintain the lawn yourself or have someone do it for you. The big con to doing it yourself is you will need to put down some chemicals for the bugs and at our age it's probably best to stay away from that. Also, you will eventually have some issue where you will need to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out then apply the necessary treatment.

After many years of DIYing my lawn, I'm done with that. I didn't retire and come to the Villages to maintain my lawn so we use Arrow and never had a problem. They are slightly more expensive than the competition but they know what bugs or problems are occuring in different areas of the Villages and apply the proper application to your lawn all year long. If you develop a problem where they need to apply a special treatment, they will do it at no cost and keep applying it until the problem is solved. So far they have been very responsive.

As many have said, fertilization and bug treatment is only part of the process. Most important is you need to be watering properly. I strongly suggest getting a Rachio irregation controller. It connects to the local weather service via your internet and will water based on the actual weather occuring in your local area. It automatically adjusts for the time of year as well.

Finally, you need a good irregation system person to keep your sprinklers working properly. There are many available here in the Villages or thats something that you can do yourself.

Hope this helps.

We just hired them after a year with Superior. Superior pretty much ruined our lawn so hoping Fertigator can resuscitate it, and keep it alive moving forward.

Do NOT hire DEANS - they are scammers and their reputation is very low - claim to do work and have been caught living as evidenced by pics - EVERYONE HAS BEEN WARNED!!

I can’t help you with a lawn company because I do my own lawn care.
What I can tell you is that anyone who does their own lawn care, like your neighbor, me and a few other responders here, knows how much and how often to irrigate and fertilize their grass. They also know what weeds, insects or fungi may be present and how to treat them. They’ve probably done a soil test at some point to see what their particular patch of grass is lacking. That’s how they select a fertilizer and any micronutrients that are lacking.

One other key factor that DIY lawn care folks do that keeps their grass looking healthy after mowing is sharpening the mower blades regularly; not once or twice a year but monthly.
When grass is cut with dull blades it tears the blades of grass rather than making a clean cut. The grass blades will be frayed at the tips and they turn brown or gray soon after mowing as the tips die.

A commercial company mowing several lawns a day may not get their maintenance done as frequently as necessary to keep the blades sharp.

And another important difference between us DIYers and the commercial mowing companies is that we’re only mowing our own lawns. That means no weeds coming in from previously mowed lawns.

If you’re on good terms with your neighbor go talk to him/her and mention how great their lawn looks. Ask a few questions about what they do. Everyone likes the compliments and will likely help you with their secrets!

Good luck.

Bingo!!!! Scotts Southern S is safe for St Augustine and their whole seasonal program keeps my yard lush and thick. Most people don’t water their yard enough if they have St Augustine which is what’s used south of 44 here. I signed up online on Scott’s website and they ship the products that need to be used on my yard when they are ready to be applied, so no storing product.

GREENSMITH’s. Excellent

Aeration really isn't really necessary for most yards in TV.
Sandy soils do not compact like clay, or heavier soils etc. and compaction is why you aerate.
A dethatch occasionally, followed by a top dressing, would be more beneficial.

I had very good results with Massey, not so good with Trugreen.

I have a problem with dollarweed, Pros recommend Atrazine. I used 3 applications of the liquid concentrate with no results. 10 days ago I putdown Scotts type S weed and feed w/atrazine. No results on any of the weeds in the lawn. The neighbor behind me has terrible dollarweed. They say its caused by overwatering and the root system travel like crazy, spreading. This guys sprinkler company came over for startup and has his timing for 2 times a day, and its just feeding the problem. How do you talk to the neighbor about weeds that wont **** him off.

Sadly, I do not have one to recommend but I can suggest that you avoid Landsculpture. My yard looks substantially worse than one year ago when I hired them. And I have pics and videos from then and now as proof. I'm going back to doing my own. It will probably take me a year to get it back to what I had before I hired a 'professional' to do it.

Hi Joey,
Do you use anything for mole crickets? Thanks for all the other info. We recently fired our company and are going to do our own lawn too.