If you want a beautiful, healthy lawn then you need to take care of it. But lawn care can be a hassle at the best of times, and impossible at the worst. That’s why hiring a lawn care service is a natural choice for many people trying to keep up with their lawn and landscaping maintenance. Two of the most popular services are Lawn Doctor and TruGreen. We decided to look into both and determine which is better–Lawn Doctor vs TruGreen lawn care.
Lawn Doctor
Lawn Doctor was created in the 1960’s in the east coast town of Matawan, New Jersey. The business was born out of a local need for reliable lawn care as people began to live busier lives. After its inception, the company began to expand. Rather than staying local, they decided to expand their reach.
Today, Lawn Doctor maintains residential and commercial lawn from over 450 locations around the country. No matter where you are, there’s a good chance that Lawn Doctor is helping one of your neighbors with their lawn services.
Pros of Lawn Doctor
Custom Care Plans
One of the most appealing aspects of using Lawn Doctor is that they provide each customer with the opportunity to create a custom care plan. Every yard is different, so it makes sense that a quality lawn service will approach each landscape with a new approach.
Lawn Doctor will factor location, climate, even things such as rainfall and local pest risks into your custom plan. Although they will make recommendations, you can tailor your list of services down to a plan that makes sense for your outdoor space.
Large Variety of Services
Another reason Lawn Doctor leads the pack in provided lawn care is the amount of services they provide. They deal with invasive weeds like crabgrass, and pests such as mosquitoes. Lawn doctor also tackles yearly fertilization and aeration.
In fact, you can get almost everything you need accomplished out of the way with one service. Their services extend beyond grass. Lawn Doctor can help you care for your trees, and advise preventative care for other plants in your yard, as well. This makes them a one stop shop, and a great choice for busy homeowners.
Good Reviews
A lawn care service can offer as many services and plans as they want. However, if reviews are not positive, there’s no reason to trust or use them. However, Lawn Doctor has risen to the top of the pack for a reason. Across the internet, Lawn Doctor has gotten consistently good reviews for their business.
Customers appreciate their reliability, consistency, and the overall results of the service. It does seem as though their professionals take the time to think about what is best for each lawn they care for. As people who rely on reviews over good marketing, it’s great to see a service experience match what is advertised.
Customer Service Emphasis
Perhaps a reason for so many good reviews, Lawn Doctor puts a real emphasis on the customer service experience. The main way they emphasize customer satisfaction is with their “No Nonsense Guarantee”. Customers note quick response times, availability, and knowledgeability. Lawn Doctor’s guarantee pledges that, if customers are not satisfied, the company will go out of their way to make it right.
Cons of Lawn Doctor
Services do not include lawn mowing.
The biggest drawback to using Lawn Doctor is that they do not offer lawn mowing services. For homeowners with limited mobility or large plots of land, this can be a deal breaker. However, if you are comfortable mowing your own lawn, or hiring a third party to do it for you, the rest of your services should be covered.
Costs vary
Some homeowners prefer to know what they will be paying before they reach out to a company for service. At Lawn Doctor, costs will vary depending on your care plan. This can be a setback for those who are trying to budget for lawn care in advance.
TruGreen
TruGreen’s motto closely aligns with our own. We want you to live in your backyard, and TruGreen is dedicated to encouraging customers to live life outside. This is what inspired the company’s founding all the way back in 1973.
Based out of Memphis, Tennessee, TruGreen actually began in Michigan. They didn’t stay small for long, though. Like Lawn Doctor, they began to rapidly expand. And expand they did–across the entire country, including services offered in Hawaii and Alaska. Pros of TruGreen
Service in All 50 States
As mentioned, the largest benefit of using TruGreen is the sheer volume of service locations. TruGreen maintains bases in every single state in the US, including Hawaii and Alaska. There aren’t many lawn care services that can say this. No matter where you are, if you need lawn care assistance, you can find a TruGreen provider.
A variety of plans to choose from.
While TruGreen may not have built its reputation on the customization of its care plans, they do offer quite a few to choose from. Their plans offer eight lawn visits a year, and address issues from aeration to lawn grubs. TruGreen professionals can do a lawn analysis and handle weed control.
Straightforward cost estimates
TruGreen beats out Lawn Doctor by a hair when it comes to estimating how much service will cost you. The first service in a 12 month plan will cost you just under $30, with similar costs for the proceeding services. If you’re looking to budget for your lawn care, TruGreen services may be simpler to plan for than Lawn Doctor.
NALP Member
More and more, homeowners want to do their part to live more green. If you choose to maintain a lawn, then you need to keep in mind what chemical treatments are being used on your property. TruGreen does this for you. TruGreen is a member of the NALP, or National Association of Landscape Professionals.
NALP honors companies who they feel have sustained a significant commitment to enhancing and protecting the environment. Being recognized by NALP is an indication that the company is conscious of their impact on our environment.
Cons of TruGreen
Services vary by state/location.
While TruGreen operates in all 50 states, the services they offer are not blanketed over all locations. This inconsistency can be challenging. At first glance, it can be difficult to tell which services are offered in your state, and which are not. If you are relying on a single lawn care service to provide care, only to find out that it is not offered at your location, that can be frustrating. We encourage customer’s reach out to find out what services are offered in their location.
Do not offer mowing.
Like Lawn Doctor, TruGreen does not offer mowing. It seems that many lawn care services do not offer mowing. We can not speak to exactly why this is the case. Perhaps they do not have the workforce needed to spend many hours mowing large lots, or perhaps maintaining and replacing lawn mowers is expensive. Whatever the reason, you’ll need to look elsewhere for your grass’s next haircut.
Lawn Doctor VS TruGreen–which is better?
So, which service is better? That depends on what you’re looking for. Lawn Doctor wins for customers looking for highly customizable plans, offering an extremely wide variety of services. However, for the widest reach, some homeowners may find themselves looking to TruGreen sheerly out of availability.
Whichever service you pick, however, it’s important to do your research before paying for care. Look into local services, and understand what the most important and pressing needs for your lawn are. Knowing what needs to be done, and what can wait, is half the battle in getting affordable and effective lawn care services.