TruGreen vs. do-it-yourself

[SeaBull]

Okay, I'm really getting sick of TruGreen coming to my house every 6 weeks to water my weeds. If they get one type of weed to die, another one magically appears - but only in my yard.

For all those do-it-yourselfers out there with the typical St. Augustine, what do you do for that perfect lawn?

I'm gathering info from various sites.

Anyone know of any secrets, sites, books they use?

[crambone]

Allow me to piggy-back on your thread:

I just bought a house, and I will have to re-sod the ENTIRE yard.  I'll have to level out the back as well.

What is the usual price for a pallet of sod?  How much can that cover?  What about fill dirt?  How much does one load cover?  How much money?

Please and thanks!

[SeaBull]

It gets a little pricey....just to give you a sense of the figures, I landscaped about 40 sq ft and it cost roughly $50 for everything if I remember correctly.

My neighbors had theirs re-done by professionals and it was like $2k or $3k but it looks really nice. I figure they have about 2k sq ft.

If you do it yourself remember that you'll most likely need fertilizer and bug granules too.

I'm going to slowly re-do the back in 100 sq ft intervals or so. I heard the best time to do it is early spring though   :-/

[Who'sYourData?]

Sounds about right.  We had thejust the front done and it cost us somewhere around $700  with labor, but it was done by friends and they gave us a steep discount.  (Of course, we gave them a generous tip since we knew they gave us an very generous price).

On the TruGreen, I liked them ok, but I've switched to Scott's at our new house.  Mainly because the Scott's guy stopped by before the TruGreen guy.  I didn't mind TruGreen because I had started with a local service that was cheap, and they got bought by TruGreen so they kept our prices low for a while.  You can certainly save money doing it yourself, but you've got to remember to put down all the different stuff they do and at the right times.  I find it stays greener and less weed if they are doing it than if I am.