When you’re looking to grow and maintain a beautiful yard, the first two things that comes to mind are how you are going to do it and how much it’s going to cost. Between figuring out how to DIY vs. hiring a professional, as well as searching for and buying all the necessary equipment, it can seem like a daunting task.
But what if there was a service that could take care of everything for you? Enter TruGreen. TruGreen is the largest lawn care company in the nation, and it offers different lawn care plans depending on your needs.
So, how much does TruGreen actually cost? Let’s take a closer look. In this blog post, we’ll break down the cost of TruGreen’s services and help you figure out whether or not they are a good value for your money. Stay tuned!
What Is TruGreen?
TruGreen is the largest lawn care company in the United States. They offer a variety of services including lawn care, tree and shrub care, and landscape design. Basically, if it has to do with your lawn, they can help!
They have a team of highly trained and certified professionals who will work with you to create a lawn care plan that fits your needs and budget. Plus, they use state-of-the-art equipment and products to ensure that your lawn is always looking its best.
Having been in business for over 40 years, TruGreen have over 300 locations across the United States and Canada. They also offer a money-back satisfaction guarantee.
TruGreen Company History
TruGreen was founded in Troy, Michigan, in 1973 and is now the largest lawn service business in North America. It is now headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.
For decades, they have been delighted to count many thousands of clients among their long-term customers. It provides upwards of 2.3 million American residential and commercial clients with bespoke lawn care plans, tree and shrub care, and mosquito control and containment services.
How TruGreen Lawn Care Works
As the industry’s leading provider of professional lawn care services, TruGreen influences what constitutes acceptable lawn care practices, offers industry-leading training and education for their personnel, develops cutting-edge application methods, and teaches customers on appropriate mowing and wise use of water.
TruGreen uses a customized approach to grass management that is based on the needs of each particular yard. Their lawn specialists apply a controlled, balanced combination of fertilizers and weed control throughout the year to provide solutions specifically designed for each client’s grass type. Based on current lawn conditions, TruGreen will recommend other services as required to improve the health of your backyard and garden.
TruGreen Plans
TruGreen’s licensed experts start every lawn plan with their patented Healthy Lawn Analysis to identify what your specific lawn needs for its optimum health. Then they create a treatment strategy based on your lawn and garden’s unique requirements.
There are five main lawn care services that TruGreen provides:
- TruHealth Lawn Care Plan
- TruComplete Lawn Care Plan
- TruSignature Lawn Care Plan
- TruMaintenance Lawn Care Plan
- TruNatural Lawn Care Plan
In addition to these five service plans, TruGreen also specializes in mosquito control, tree and shrub designs, as well as irrigation services. It also provides business lawn care services.
TruHealth Lawn Care Plan
The TruHealth plan from TruGreen is their classic lawn care program. This care plan provides full weed and pest protection, essential minerals, and a well-balanced soil that will help your lawn flourish. It also comes standard with 8 visits per year from the TruGreen expert gardeners, who will look after your lawn and step you through each stage of the process.
It does not include aeration and overseeding, which is included in the TruComplete plan, nor does it include Tree and Shrub care, as the TruSignature plan does.
TruComplete Lawn Care Plan
The TruComplete Lawn Care Plan is the best value plan that TruGreen offers. Per year, you get 9 applications per year, including one aeration and overseed session.
The TruGreen gardening specialists will come and analyze your lawn, and then provide all of the necessary services for it to become fully healthy, green, and lush. You can use this comprehensive approach to grow the greenest, healthiest yard possible and provide it with all of the necessary nutrients, protection, organic soil amendments, and lawn aeration.
TruSignature Lawn Care Plan
TruSignature is TruGreen’s most comprehensive and total package. This comprehensive service includes all of the nutrients, protection, organic soil amendments, and aeration that your plants require.
It includes everything that is included within the TruHealth and TruComplete service packages, and adds full tree and shrub care and maintenance, as well as 12 yearly visits from a TruExpert professional gardener.
It also includes one aeration session and one overseed per year, as well as specific tree and shrub visits. Because it is so overarching, this is also the most expensive lawn care plan provided by TruGreen.
TruMaintenance Lawn Care Plan
The TruMaintenance Plan from TruGreen is their starter, entry-level package. It provides 7 visits from a professional TruExpert per year, which is a lower amount of visits compared to other packages, although it might be more than enough for your needs.
Your lawn is protected and fed with a slow-release fertilizer, which is applied at key points throughout the year and combined with pre-emergent and targeted weed control for year-round protection. It includes the Healthy Lawn Analysis and patented Healthy Lawn Guarantee.
TruNatural Lawn Care Plan
TruNatural is the natural approach to lawn care from TruGreen. They use 100% organic fertilizer, which stimulates robust grass development and gradually thickens your grass. The TruNatural Plan does not employ conventional weed killers, and it aids in the growth of strong, healthy turf by assisting in the crowding out of weeds on the lawn.
If you become a TruNatural customer and request an additional, hand-detailed weed application with traditional pesticides to control broadleaf weeds, it will be provided for free. Chief among the advantages of using TruNatural are 100% natural fertilizer, low environmental impact, and vascular absorption. You may also get weed control on demand for free.
Add-on Packages
In addition to its comprehensive lawn care plans, TruGreen also offers a variety of add-on packages that can be tacked onto any plan for an additional cost.
These packages include shrub care, tree and shrub deep root feeding, mosquito defense, and lawn aeration.
Aeration
Aeration is a process of perforating the soil with small holes to allow air, water, and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots. Aerating your lawn is done by driving spikes or long metal rods into the ground all over your grass, removing soil plugs that aid in the breathing and water reaching of your grass.
This helps the lawn become more drought-resistant and less susceptible to disease. It will also thicken up your grass by delivering vital nutrients, oxygen, and moisture deep into the soil.
Multiple TruGreen plans – the TruComplete and TruSignature – contain aerating as part of the process already. However, you can get it as an add-on amendment to the more basic packages.
Soil Amendment and Analysis
This is an excellent service to have completed before any kind of fertilization. The pH levels in your soil will be tested by TruGreen experts, and they will raise or lower it so that it reads between 5.5 and 6.5. Soil analysis and amendments aid in the retention of nutrients in your soil and support the growth of your grass. It also helps prevent disease from weeds and pests. TruExperts will monitor your lawn’s progress every 4 to 6 weeks.
TruShield Tick and Flea Control Plan
In addition to your TruGreen lawn care plans like the TruHealth or TruMaintenance packages, you have the option of adding the tick and flea treatment. This treatment also targets bugs like chiggers, spiders, earwigs, and sometimes ants. However, you should be aware that ant control is not available in all areas, so first double-check with your local sales rep.
Grub Prevention and Control Services
Grubs are the larvae of beetles, and they dwell beneath the earth and consume grass roots in your lawn. If left unchecked, they may induce bare and brown spots in your grass and make it more susceptible to illness. Any grubs that are found residing in your lawn are often eliminated before they cause harm with this service.
Perimeter Pest Control
TruGreen pest control professionals don’t have to enter your property to keep insects and pests out. They also offer a perimeter spray of pesticides around your property. Cockroaches, ants, spiders, earwigs, and more are among the species targeted by these treatments. There are four applications per year as part of this add-on.
Mosquito Defense
TruGreen Mosquito Defense’s yard treatments are the answer to eliminating mosquitoes from your garden and saving yourself from their itches and stings.
With their Guarantee, TruGreen Mosquito Defense can help you avoid the discomfort and risk of mosquito bites. Targeting mosquitoes where they breed and controlling their populations within just 24 hours, TruGreen professionals will apply a professional mosquito repellent to your property.
TruGreen offers science-based mosquito control products that are suited to your outdoor living area’s needs, no matter where you reside, throughout the mosquito season.
This Defense plan also comes with the TruGreen guarantee, which is: They will re-treat you at no cost if you’re not 100% completely happy with the results.
TruGreen Price Estimates
Now that we’ve gone over the different types of plans that TruGreen offers, as well as some of their add-on services, let’s take a look at how much TruGreen actually costs.
The following prices are found to be the approximate annual fees for a 5,000 and 22,000 square foot lawns in a Southern or Midwestern US state.
To get a personalized cost estimate, simply go to their website, enter your zip code, and click Get Started. From there, you’ll be able to select the size of your lawn and what services you need. After that, TruGreen will provide you with a price estimate.
5,000 Square Feet
TruHealth Lawn Care Plan: $570
TruComplete Lawn Care Plan: $780
TruSignature Lawn Care Plan: $1,000
TruMaintenance Lawn Care Plan: $485
TruNatural Lawn Care Plan: $1,000
Lawns that have less than 5,000 square feet of space can qualify for reduced prices. Additionally, first time customers can potentially get up to 50% off pricing.
22,000 Square Feet
TruHealth Lawn Care Plan: $730
TruComplete Lawn Care Plan: $1,000
TruSignature Lawn Care Plan: $1,300
TruMaintenance Lawn Care Plan: $640
TruNatural Lawn Care Plan: $1,300
Keep in mind that 22,000 square feet is about .5 acres, which is a very large property. In the United States, the average homeowner has about 1/5 of an acre of land.
What Do Customers Have to Say About TruGreen?
In theory, an all-encompassing bundle of services can sound appealing. In reality, however, it may not go off without a hitch as neatly as the company website claims. Many current and past clients of TruGreen provided various feedback about their encounters.
Positive reviews tended to highlight the talents of exceptional workers, those TruExperts who went above and beyond by providing extra advise and analysis to clients. Some clientele were also very pleased with certain pest control services, such as the TruCare Mosquito Defense plan.
The majority of the problems TruGreen clients reported concerned a lack of communication when they had issues with the service. Other consumers also ran into trouble when new services were incorrectly added to their invoices. Given what TruGreen actually cost them, this is fully reasonable.
The service’s automatic renewal each year also created some problems. This implies that you must continue to pay for it (even if you don’t want to) unless you notify the company ahead of time that you’re no longer interested in the service.
DIY vs TruGreen: What Will You Choose?
There’s nothing wrong with hiring a professional for lawn maintenance, and lots of people do so. If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, why not outsource the job of looking for suitable lawn care solutions and visiting the shop to acquire all of the required supplies and equipment?
Additionally, if you’re not happy with your TruGreen Plan or decide you don’t want to use them as your lawn care service, you may cancel your membership by email or phone at any time.
At the end of the day, how much money you’re willing to invest in maintaining your grass is crucial. If you have the time and inclination to work on your lawn yourself, then by all means go for it! No one will ever care as much about the look and health of your own lawn than yourself.
If the DIY route is for you, there are many free or paid options through which you can learn how to best care for your lawn. Also, feel free to reach out to us! Whether it’s something as simple as planting grass seed, or as labor intensive as tilling and cultivating your garden, we can provide easy-to-digest information, as well as answer any questions you might have.
Summary
So, how much does TruGreen lawn care cost? The company offers a variety of plans with different pricing options, so it really depends on what you need. If you are looking for a one-time lawn care service, then the price will be higher than if you opt for one of their annual maintenance plans.
On average, depending on the size of your lawn and what services you need, it can range from as low as $40 a month to upward of $100 per month. For a well-maintained and great looking lawn, that’s a lot cheaper than hiring someone to do it yourself or relying on mother nature. And don’t forget add-on packages like aeration and tick and flea control are available at a discount when added onto one of their lawn care plans.
No matter which plan you choose, though, you can be sure that the team at TruGreen is knowledgeable and experienced in providing quality lawn care services. And if you’re still not sure whether or not to DIY or hire professionals, read our thoughts on the subject and make your decision. Which TruGreen plan do you think is best for your home?
