So you signed up for a lawn care program and you can’t wait for the crews to show up with mowers, blowers and a truck to haul away all that yucky yard debris.
If you’re excitedly wondering when they’ll show up, we have some bad news: never.
You should have hired landscape maintenance services, which go beyond boosting your lawn’s health to tend to landscaping tasks, like mowing, weeding, pruning, mulching and yard clean-up.
What is the difference between lawn care and landscaping? Lawn care is a pretty targeted service, focusing on tasks like fertilizing, weed control, grub control and aeration — everything your lawn needs to be healthy and green.
Meanwhile, landscape maintenance is designed to care for your total landscaping, from mowing your lawn to trimming shrubs to weeding flower beds to delivering mulch.
Landscape maintenance and lawn care are both important elements of an impressive yard. But they’re not the same.
Keep reading to learn more about lawn care vs landscaping.
A great lawn care program
is one crucial part of your total landscaping care, making sure your lawn is the healthy green star of your impressive yard.
You might have noticed your lawn is pretty needy out there. It needs a lot of attention to thrive. Like what? What do lawn care programs include?
Fertilizer is the meal plan for your hungry lawn. It’s a key component of a good lawn care program.
Timing is important here. There’s a whole fertilization schedule that has to roll out by May and continue right through fall.
Partner with a great lawn care service in Boise and Idaho Falls and your lawn will get quality fertilizer at just the right times throughout the year. No worries for you.
Weeds are the worst. And they’re kind of a pain to control, with different weeds raising their ugly heads at different times of the year, and some weeds so stubborn they even give pros a headache.
What do lawn care programs include? Skilled, targeted weed control, with the pro-level knowledge and products it takes to keep the evil weed villains away.
It’s kind of complicated, including knowing exactly when to apply pre-emergent weed control, designed to target the weed seeds before they sprout. This is especially important when tackling that weed king, crabgrass.
Post-emergent products will kill weeds once they already exist. Both types of weed control are really important to zap a whole host of annoying weeds that show up throughout the year.
A good lawn care program will include pre-emergent weed treatment in the spring to battle weeds before they sprout; broadleaf applications to hit weeds like dandelions and clover; and spot treatments when pesky intruders sneak in.
Pro tip: What weeds hate most is a healthy lawn. Dense, thriving grass crowds out weeds, making them struggle to take root.
The great thing about a lawn care program: it keeps your grass thick, lush, and healthy, making it tougher for weeds to sneak in and cause trouble.
Grubs are gross, and if you haven’t taken a close enough look out there to know this, trust us.
These squishy little villains feast on your lawn’s roots, causing whole sections of it to turn brown and die.
Then they turn into beetles that lay eggs that turn into more grubs. The fun never stops.
The trick is to kill grubs before they hatch, so look for lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls that include preventive lawn grub control to nip them in the bud.
Aeration might not be included in a basic lawn care bundle of services, but it’s an important add-on that a good lawn care service will offer.
It can make a huge difference in your lawn’s health and how it looks.
Maybe you feel like you’re doing everything right out there, but your lawn still looks thin and patchy. It might be compacted, and aeration can be just what it needs.
When your lawn is compacted, its roots can't take in water or nutrients, which weakens your turf and makes it vulnerable to weeds, damaging insects and disease. That’s a bad trio.
Lawn aeration uses a machine to pull out plugs of soil, creating spaces so that air and water can get through, which leads to healthier roots.
Lawn aeration also helps break down thatch, that layer of dead grass and stems that sits between the grass blades and the soil.
What often comes next? Grass seed, which the lawn care pros call overseeding. Those holes created by aeration are perfect new homes for grass seed to settle in and sprout.
When you get on board with a great lawn care program, most of these must-have services are often bundled together in one handy package, with others available as convenient add-ons.
Maybe you have a lawn fungus. Or aphids. Maybe your trees aren’t thriving and need a boost. (Sorry if this is starting to get depressing.)
The good news? Lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls might offer other services you need, too, like:
Your plants need pro-level care, too, from weed control for garden beds to treatments to keep insects like aphids from munching the leaves.
Your trees and shrubs are going through a lot out there. Harsh winters. Hungry bugs. A weird nutrient deficiency called “iron chlorosis” that keeps leaves from turning green.
What do plant health care services include? Partner with a company that offers plant health care to prevent diseases, battle bugs, and feed your precious trees and shrubs so they’re strong and healthy enough to stand up to whatever Idaho dishes out.
Sometimes trees need extra help. Deep root fertilization injects nutrients for your tree directly deep into the soil, rather than spreading fertilizer over the top.
By injecting the fertilizer with high pressure, the nutrients can reach the deepest tree roots fast, feeding your tree from the roots up with an immediate nutrition boost.
Then, over time, the nutrients make their way to the rest of your tree, making it healthier and more vibrant.
That great landscaping around your house makes it easier for bugs to make their way into your home. What do lawn care services include? Look for one that offers perimeter pest control to create a bug barrier.
Technicians apply this outdoor barrier spray around the perimeter of your home and yard to keep landscape insects from making their way inside.
Pros typically treat about three feet up on the house and six feet out, creating a wide protective barrier around your house that includes the landscaping and lawn directly around your home.
The spray leaves a residue on surfaces that kills insects and continues to work for about three months. Once those three months have passed, you’ll want another treatment, depending on the time of year. From spring through fall, landscape insects are lurking here in Idaho.
Your goal here? One company, several must-have services. Partner with a lawn care service in Boise and Idaho Falls that offers core lawn care services in an easy and accessible bundle, plus add-ons as you need them.
That removes a lot of the stress and hassle of taking care of your lawn.
Now that you’re set up with pro-level lawn care to keep your lawn green and healthy, and a few other key services like plant health care and perimeter pest control, you might want professionals to swoop in every week to mow, edge, trim and prune, and to offer seasonal services like delivering mulch, spring and fall clean-up and tree pruning.
That’s landscape maintenance. It’s a whole different array of services than standard lawn care.
Does landscape maintenance include lawn care? That depends on the company. And it’s important to check before you sign up, so you know exactly what to expect.
Lawn Buddies in Boise and Idaho Falls offers expert lawn care and several key plant health care services, but doesn’t offer landscape maintenance like mowing, trimming, yard cleanup or pruning.
But its affiliate company in Idaho Falls, Outback Landscape, does. Outback offers full-service landscape maintenance as well as landscape design and installation. That means they install plants, design and build patios, create outdoor kitchens and do big-scale landscape renovations.
Maybe you need that. Maybe you just wish your lawn was green and healthier.
What’s the difference between lawn care and landscaping? It’s pretty significant. So you need to make sure you partner with a company that offers the services you need, and offers clear information about what they do and don’t provide.
While it can seem complicated to sort out what landscape maintenance and lawn care services you need and who offers what, Lawn Buddies makes it easy.
The first step is to sign up for our 6-step complete lawn care program.
Choose lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls that make it easy, bundling your yard’s most-needed treatments into one convenient, no-fuss plan.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started. Just fill out the form on this page, call us at (208) 656-9131 or read more about our services. Then, you can kick back and relax in your healthy, thriving yard.