So you need to have your lawn fertilized. You’ve gotten that far. Now you are trying to figure out what your options are. You basically have four options. You have your large national companies like Chemlawn or Scott. There is a seemingly endless list of one person operations (one guy and a truck). You can always do it yourself. Or you can work with a boutique firm like Pine Valley Turf and Management.
Each of these options have a viable place in the market. Obviously. Chemlawn and Scott are HUGE companies with national presence. You give up a little in service using them, but they are around and their prices are pretty competitive. A lot of people use large national companies.
There are tons of single person operations out there. You can find them in the yellow pages or on Google Maps or maybe a friend can recommend one. Prices and service with these operations is all over the map. Some of them are very inexpensive and others charge more than a boutique firm. Just depends on who you get.
And, you can do it yourself. For a lot of reasons we do not recommend this option, but if you go to big box retailers, you will find every kind of fertilizer and bug control product you can imagine. Believe it or not, doing it yourself will often be the most expensive option and probably produce the least positive result.
You can also work with a boutique firm like Pine Valley. Boutique firms can be identified by their level of expertise. Often these firms are owned and operated by professionals who have worked for large and prestigious golf courses or estates. They usually have extended education in agronomy or horticulture. They have had extensive training in the interworking relationship between plants, fertilizer, watering techniques, and the weather. They really know their stuff. Oddly enough, when you look at total cost of ownership, hiring these firms is often comparable to using some of the large National Firms and is sometimes less expensive than the one-truck operation guys.
We want you to have a full comparison of each type of company and their strengths and weaknesses. This is by no means comprehensive, but the links that follow should give you a good idea of what each of these companies can do for you and help you make an informed decision. We hope you find this helpful and you can always contact us for specific questions:
CustomerService@PineValleyTurf.com 704.831.8917
Compare different types of fertilization companies:
National Companies
One Man Shows
Boutique Firms
