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Scotts lawncare products are some great products to use when you want to liven up your lawn. However, you still need to make sure you use their products with care. While doing it yourself is always an option, keep in mind not everyone will acheive the same results.

Some of the results that didn’t work out:

Contracted in 2006 for ten lawn services to improve the grass at a cost of $1107.20. No soil test, some kind of applications were done and the yards began looking worse than ever. Two fall aerations/seedings were done and absolutely nothing, except in two areas I didn’t want grass.

Being a novice to grass and owning a lawn, I contacted Scott’s lawn service. They came out promptly and gave me a fair estimate, with the promise of giving me a lawn without weeds. After 4 treatments, I noticed nothing. So on the 5th service I was home and asked the guy spraying the lawn why I still had so many weeds. To which he replied, you need to resod your lawn if want them gone. He went on to tell me that there was nothing they could have done to salvage my lawn to start with. So when I called to complain, I was told that there was nothing that could be done to rectify the situation and that I was just going to have to live with it.

I contracted with Scott’s Lawn Service last year. First, since the brochure implied that by taking the most expensive service I would receive aeration and seeding, I took that route. Later in the year, I found out that I had to pay $132.00 to receive that part of the service. Instead of weed control, I ended up with crab grass (I never had crabgrass before), some the size of a serving platter. They aerated and seeded in the middle of our August heat and in a drought.

I complained and at some point later in the year, they came and threw grass seed around. I complained to their headquarters twice, the local distributor at least four times. I canceled the service, but early this year, came home to find a notice that my treatments had begun for this year. It took still another call to get rid of them.

I have the worst lawn in 7 years. There are weeds, bare spots, and the only place their seeding took effect was in my flower beds and between my border stones. It will take me years to get the lawn back I had before and I am very angry as well as out several hundred dollars wasted on them and the several hundred dollars and personal time it will take to reclaim my lawn.

Quotes used from Scotts Lawncare Products

Plugging

Planting with plugs, or plugging, is the process of taking 2-4 inch wide pieces of sod and putting them in holes equally spaced throughout your yard. The sod can either be round or square cut, and can be purchased from local sod farms in trays that are pre-cut. You probably won’t need to do plugging unless planting a warm season grass.

Advantages

-Establishes faster than sprigging and seeding

-Less expensive than sod when using holes greater than 3 inches apart

Disadvantages

-Requires a lot of time and effort. Digging small holes throughout your hard isn’t a fun process

-Has to be planted prior to your grasses prime growing season

-Shares disadvantages of sod

Planting

When you are ready to begin planting, either dig small holes or rows in your yard. Rows should be 6-12 inches apart, and should be dug prior to receiving the plugs. Once you have your rows or holes dug, place the plugs in and apply a high phosphorous start fertilizer around the base of the plugs. After you finish a row, fill in any displaced dirt around the plugs. If you choose to do individual holes, a bulb planter will make the planting go quicker than digging each hole by hand.

Once your lawn is planted, water every day for around a month, then every other day for another month. Make sure animals don’t get into your yard and dig up any plugs or disturb your lawn. When your lawn is established (you can’t easily pull up the plugs) you can start mowing the lawn. Do not bag the clippings though, as mowing will help your lawn to spread out faster.

Determining lawn grade

To determine your lawn, you will first do what is called a rough grade. In this step you need to determine slope, soil composition (which you should have already determined) and water drainage.

Grading slope

When grading the slope of your lawn, you should start from your house and move towards drainage areas. This can be difficult if your neighbors lawn is significantly higher or lower than yours is, causing either their runoff to add to your own or your runoff to add to theirs. The general rule of thumb when deciding how your lawn should slope away from your house is 2-3 inches for every 10 feet, or roughly 1 foot every 50 feet. A higher slope will cause water to pool in your yard, and a steeper slope will cause water to run off without property saturating your grass.

Checking slope

To easily determine the rate your lawn slopes, you will need a string, a level, and a stake 1 foot in height. Measure about 50 feet from your home, and drive the steak into the ground so at least 1 foot is above ground. Attach the string to your house and the steak, and make sure it is level. If the string is about a foot off the ground at your steak, you have the correct slope. If it is more or less, then you will need to do some work to fix the slope.

Fixing slope

If you find your lawn slopes too much or too little, you will need to do some work to fix the problem. If your slopes towards your house, you will have your work cut out for you. The proper method to regrade is to remove any excess top soil from the higher areas and put it into the lower areas. This can be a major undertaking if your lawn slopes significantly in the wrong direction, and it might be better to hire a contractor. If there are only a few problem areas, you can probably do it yourself using the process above.

If you run into the issue where your lawn slopes too much (anything over 1 foot for every 4 feet of lawn), then you can do what is called terracing to make sure water saturates the lawn properly. This is simply creating a series of “steps” so instead of a steep constant slope you have a step dropoff every so often with the slope of the lawn in between the drops at the correct rate.

Adding amendments

Now you will need to add the amendments to your lawn. You should already have determined your soil composition, and now you need to get the area ready to plant. For every 1,000 square feet of lawn you wish to seed, the recommendations are roughly two pounds of phosphorus and potassium, 50-100 pounds of lime, and 3-6 cubic yards of manure/compost or peat moss. These are just general rules though, and for best results you should consult a professional in your area (just go to Home Depot or a similar place and ask around) about exact ratios.

Watering and drainage

This is also the time to add any irrigation system to your lawn if you plan to. While you don’t have to add this, if you decide later you want to put an underground sprinkler system in place it is much more difficult to do it after you have planted your seed. The same goes for if you wish to add a custom drainage trench to your lawn. This is usually done by adding an underground pipe that takes water from one area of the yard to another. Make sure that it slopes away from your house though.

Final grade

The final grade is the last step before you being planting. This is where you will need to smooth the area you are planting, remove rocks and debris, and add edging if you want. Edging is just adding brick or wood underground to stop grass at an exact boundary. While it is not a necessary step, it can help make maintenance easier and create a more attractive looking lawn.

Plugging

Planting with plugs, or plugging, is the process of taking 2-4 inch wide pieces of sod and putting them in holes equally spaced throughout your yard. The sod can either be round or square cut, and can be purchased from local sod farms in trays that are pre-cut. You probably won’t need to do plugging unless planting a warm season grass.

Advantages

-Establishes faster than sprigging and seeding

-Less expensive than sod when using holes greater than 3 inches apart

Disadvantages

-Requires a lot of time and effort. Digging small holes throughout your hard isn’t a fun process

-Has to be planted prior to your grasses prime growing season

-Shares disadvantages of sod

Planting

When you are ready to begin planting, either dig small holes or rows in your yard. Rows should be 6-12 inches apart, and should be dug prior to receiving the plugs. Once you have your rows or holes dug, place the plugs in and apply a high phosphorous start fertilizer around the base of the plugs. After you finish a row, fill in any displaced dirt around the plugs. If you choose to do individual holes, a bulb planter will make the planting go quicker than digging each hole by hand.

Once your lawn is planted, water every day for around a month, then every other day for another month. Make sure animals don’t get into your yard and dig up any plugs or disturb your lawn. When your lawn is established (you can’t easily pull up the plugs) you can start mowing the lawn. Do not bag the clippings though, as mowing will help your lawn to spread out faster.