As a northern New Jersey homeowner, you know that regular home maintenance and repairs have a big impact on the appearance and value of your home. A well-maintained lawn also has a big impact on your home’s curb appeal, but keeping it looking good can be quite a challenge, especially with a large property.
By hiring a landscape contractor to provide professional lawn care services, you can stop worrying about lawn maintenance and know that your property will look great year-round.
Five Important Factors to Consider
1. Your Time
If you’re doing your own yard work, you realize that it’s a tedious, time-consuming job. Even minimal lawn care, like mowing the grass on a weekend, can interrupt important family time and personal commitments. If your job requires a heavy, weekly work schedule with long hours, the thought of spending every Saturday or Sunday doing yard work probably isn’t very appealing. It’s important to consider your daily schedule and how much free time you have to devote to lawn maintenance. Using a professional lawn care service will give you more free time to devote to family, friends and things you really enjoy.
2. Quality Care
Basic lawn care is time-consuming and labor intensive, but quality lawn care requires a different level of skill and commitment to keep your yard healthy and well-maintained. It requires knowledge and experience to understand different soil types, plant growth patterns, proper pruning schedules and choosing the right lawn care products that are best for your property.
Many professional landscape contractors have education and experience in horticulture, so their plant and landscape knowledge is quite diverse. Professional lawn care providers also have proper equipment and a sufficient crew to tackle even the most difficult landscape projects with ease.
3. Maintenance Costs
Regular landscape maintenance brings up the age-old question, “which is more important, your time or your money?” Although hiring a professional lawn service will cost more than DIY efforts, it might be well worth the extra money. Simply mowing the lawn can take hours, especially if you have a large property to maintain.
However, a well-maintained property usually doesn’t involve only mowing the lawn. It also includes trimming trees, shrubs and hedges; removing weeds, leaves and dead growth; planting new seasonal flowers and plants and watering and fertilizing the entire property. When you weigh the costs of professional lawn care against all of these DIY maintenance chores, the costs may seem quite reasonable.
4. Equipment Costs
In addition to your time and labor, DIY lawn care for your Bergen County, NJ home will require an investment in necessary equipment, lawn care products and knowledge. It’s important to weigh these additional costs against professional lawn care costs. Take a look at some basic equipment you’ll need:
- Lawn Mower: You’ll need to invest in a good lawn mower, either gas or electric, that can handle the size and requirements of your property. If you have a large property, you may want to look at a riding lawn mower. A more expensive mower with an attached bag for grass clippings is best. You must consider your property’s terrain, layout and grass type to determine adequate power for a mower.
- Leaf Blower: Unless you want to rake up all of the leaves in your yard each week, you’ll need to invest in a good leaf blower. It’s important to buy one with enough power and size to adequately handle your lawn needs. And one more important thing, unless you want to damage your hearing, invest in a good set of ear plugs to silence the deafening noise of leaf blowers!
- Spreader: To apply necessary nutrients, fertilizer and lawn seed, you’ll need to buy a quality broadcast wide-type spreader that will apply these lawn care products in an even, consistent amount. Depending on the size of your property, you may need to buy a larger spreader that you can attach to your riding lawn mower.
- Lawn Tools: To compete with professional lawn care, you’ll need to invest in a variety of lawn tools to take care of your property on a regular basis. You will need a good quality rake, shovel, hoe, hole digger, grass edger, hedge clippers, tree and shrub trimmers, pruners, a wheel barrow, a sturdy ladder, several buckets and strong, durable yard gloves.
5. Product
- Fertilizer: Very few soils are fertile enough to supply adequate nutrients for a healthy lawn and plants. The soil in most areas of Northern NJ is depleted of most proper nutrients to keep your lawn green and healthy, so fertilizers and other additives must be added. Your lawn will require regular feedings, so you’ll need to spend some time educating yourself on the types of lawn food and the proper time to fertilize your lawn and plants.
- Mulch: You will need to invest in mulch for your landscape to maintain moisture and prevent weeds. You can use less water and improve the health of your trees and plants by using a layer of mulch, but you’ll need to learn about the different varieties of mulch available and determine which is best for your landscape. Instead of having your “yard waste” hauled away, you can create your own mulch from fallen leaves and other plant matter, but then you’ll need to invest in a good compost container.
- Pesticides: There’s a long list of weed killers and pesticides on the market, but how much do you really know about pesticides? Many contain harmful or toxic chemicals that pose significant danger to children and pets when inhaled or ingested. Unless you’re prepared to study up on a complex variety of pesticides, it’s much more advantageous to pay for professional lawn care and deal with experts who are knowledgeable about dangerous pesticides. Many landscape contractors in Bergen County, NJ also offer organic lawn care services.
Benefits of Hiring a Professional Landscape Contractor
In addition to the five important considerations mentioned above, consider the many benefits of hiring a professional landscape contractor for your home:
- Regular Maintenance: Weekly or bi-weekly maintenance will keep your property beautiful, healthy and well-manicured year-round.
- Skilled Crews: Professional lawn care experts offer weekly Spring and Fall cleanups with lawn mowing, weeding, edging and cleanup of all hard surfaces like pathways, walkways and driveways.
- Additional Services: Extra crews can provide additional maintenance services like lawn renovations, installing irrigation systems, pruning trees and shrubs, mulching, fertilizing and seasonal planting.
- Property Analysis: A professional landscape contractor can offer extensive knowledge and solutions for your existing property conditions like soil type, grass type, existing trees, shrubs and plants, drainage conditions, light conditions and existing landscape problems.
- Plant Knowledge: Professional lawn care experts have an in-depth knowledge of trees, shrubs and blooming plants in your area. They will only recommend trees and plants for your home that will thrive in local conditions.
- Organic Lawn Care: Professional landscape contractors offer organic landscape products that produce a healthy lawn and protect the environment. There are no toxic chemicals and pesticides to harm your children or pets. Organic lawn care is a safe, effective way to keep your lawn and landscape green and beautiful all year.
Before you decide to tackle your own yard work, think about the benefits of hiring a professional landscape company. Professional lawn care will take the yard work burden off your shoulders so you will have more time to do things you enjoy. It will keep your yard looking great year-round and save you lots of time, work and money in the end.
