Lawn Care and Maintenance: DIY vs Expert Care

With the dearth of information on any topic under the sun that’s available at your fingertips these days, looking after your lawn has never been easier.

You can quickly Google anything you need to know. Want to know when to fertilise your buffalo lawn? How often to mow your zoysia turf? How to prepare your soil for planting seed? It’ll take you two minutes to find the advice you need. And if your garden shed has all of the equipment you need, you’re ready to go.

However, like anything in life, there’s times that you’re going to have to call in the cavalry. When it comes to basic and routine lawn maintenance, you should be right to take care of it yourself (if you’ve got the time and interest do so, obviously, otherwise you can pay a gardener to do it for you). But, sometimes, if things aren’t going quite right you might have to contact your local lawn experts to diagnose the problem and give you the right advice to get your lawn back to A1 condition.

Here’s a quick guide to when DIY is A-OK, compared to when you should seek a specialist opinion.

Choosing a Lawn Variety

DIY when: you know what type of lawn grows well in your area. If your neighbours have a healthy and lush lawn it’s a good bet that the same variety will grow well in your yard. Similarly, if you’ve had a successful lawn in the past it’s a safe bet to go for the same seeds again.

Call for expert help: just to be sure. At this very critical juncture, professional advice is invaluable. With the best selection of lawn variety you may never have any need to call in the experts again.

Preparing, Seeding and Establishing

DIY when: you’ve studied up on how to do it right. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to do it yourself if you follow all the right steps.

Call for expert help: when the seeds aren’t germinating as expected. If there’s areas where they’re not coming through or they’re taking longer than expected, something might be amiss. It’s best to nip any problem in the bud early so that your lawn can get the best start in life.

Herbicides and Pesticides

DIY when: you know what you’re dealing with. If you’ve seen a problem before and are familiar with how to manage it, go for it. If you can diagnose a dollar spot infection or can determine what the weed is and then work out how to kill the pest, you can have a go at ridding your lawn of its ails all by yourself.

Call for expert help: if you don’t know what you’re dealing with. If there’s a weed you’re unsure of or a problem being caused by a pest you’re unfamiliar with, dousing your lawn endlessly with herbicides and pesticides is not going to do it any favours. There are weeds and pests which need to be treated with particular herbicides and pesticides, so it’s best to get a professional to work out what the problem is, what’s causing it, and how to best treat it.

Patchy and Browning Lawn

DIY when: only if you’re absolutely certain what the problem is. Patchy and browning lawn can be caused by a multitude of things and there’s a different solution for each problem. If you are confident that you know how to fix it, go for it.

Call for expert help: as soon as you can. Patchy and browning lawn could be caused by anything from bad weather to incorrect fertilisers to pests, and the solutions can range from replanting to overseeding to using different chemicals. It’s best to get a professional to tell you exactly how to revive your lawn. Throwing lots of extra fertiliser or mowing less frequently might actually be detrimental to your lawn, so it’s not worth guessing the solution.

Call the experts in so they can give you the right information and advice for bringing your lawn back to life. Otherwise you might find yourself making it worse.