Landscape and Turf Maintenance By Jennifer Lemcke
Marketing your Lawn Care Services
How to educate your customers about the benefits of a healthy lawn
L
ike any lawn care professional, you understand that the benefits of a healthy lawn are copious. Unfortunately though, many homeowners are not aware of the various services their lawn requires in order to remain beneficially green and plush. For example, properly maintained lawns can help residents
stay cool during the summer months. It is estimated that eight healthy front lawns have the cooling effect of 70 tons of air conditioning, which is enough for 16 average homes. Additionally, a healthy lawn improves the environment as it produces enough oxygen for a family of four. Services such as fertilization, weed control, aeration, grub treatments, overseeding and top dressing each play an intricate role in maintaining a healthy lawn. As a lawn care professional, it is crucial that you not only educate your customers on why these various services will benefit their lawn, but also ensure that you properly market your services. The following are some of the benefits of each professional service mentioned above, as well as ways to market these services.
Fertilization and Weed Control In order to maintain growth, it is neces-
sary for soils to contain various amounts of nutrients. Just as we may require vitamins to replace nutrients our body may be miss- ing, lawns that are missing nutrients require fertilizers. Fertilizer assists in promoting a healthy lawn by relieving the stress of aging, neutralizing any damage done by lawn disease or pests, eliminating the com- petition for nutrients with weeds, and re- placing nutrients lost by the removal of grass clippings.
In addition to stressing the importance
of fertilization and weed control, you want to ensure that your customer programs in- clude four to five fertilizations per year. The appropriate number of times per year though will obviously depend on the cli- mate of your region, the type of fertilizer being used, and the type of grass.
Aeration The benefits of aeration are two-fold.
The process of removing small cores of soil and thatch from the lawn will open up air
18 Landscape and Irrigation July /August 2011
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