Commercial Landscape Consultant
If you are a residential property owner, please skip down below the video.
Typically, MDU and HOA commercial property managers are looking for horticulture or landscape consultants to help them fix problems with their landscape's overall aesthetics or guide them through the review and vetting process when hiring their next weekly commercial lawn care service. We also receive requests for disease testing and soil testing, along with requests to help with sunlight issues on older properties.
For commercial turfgrass consulting and landscape consulting projects at sports fields, MDU, or HOA commercial properties, we will travel to most properties in Texas that Southwest Airlines flies directly to from Love Field. Commercial landscape consultant projects work off of an hourly retainer. And to quote you the retainer needed requires a detailed scope of the acreage, issues, goals, deadlines, and various contractors (and prior applications) involved. You can email that information to us, or we can set up a Zoom call to discuss. Please go to our Contact Us page to start the process.
Residential Grass Lawn Expert & Lawn Specialists Near Me
Residential homeowners usually don't search for landscape consulting or a lawn consultant on Google. They typically search for a lawn expert or lawn specialist near their home. And they usually don't start a search like this until things have gotten really bad with their lawn or they failed with new sod installation 2-3X. Usually, it is a brown, dying, thinning, or fungus disease-related problem that they have tried to solve for several years while working with a few different jack-of-all-trade yard guys to try and figure it out.
At DFW Turfgrass Science, our Director has a Golf Course Management & Turfgrass Science degree. And while we know degrees don't count as much as work experience, we also have that covered. Our Director spent his early childhood years splitting time working at his mother's farm and at the various golf courses his dad was a superintendent at in Kansas. That said, he has spent the last 25+ years living in Central & North Texas, learning the unique challenges we have with our alkaline clay soils, rock, fire ants, disease, chinch bugs, irrigation coverage problems, humidity, and blast-furnace summer heat. You can read more about our Director here: About - DFW Turfgrass Science LLC.
Our residential lawn consultant package includes the following services:
#1 Photosynthesis 101(most important) - Sun vs. Shade Evaluation - including neighbors' homes, privacy fences, all trees, and determining dense shade vs. full shade vs partial shade levels. Further, I will help you figure out the puzzle of what kinds of turfgrass or groundcover will live in the various light pockets (or lack thereof) on your property. And what trees should you have removed vs. trimmed?
#2 Drainage Evaluation—I will visually evaluate your drainage issues and provide general recommendations about the most cost-effective way to get rid of the excess water. Note: This is not an engineering drainage/grade service or anything related to retaining walls. I do not provide architectural plans, schematics, or drawings, as I’m not an engineer or an architect.
#3 Inspection of the Turfgrass, Mowing Height, and Weeds.
#4 Professional Soil Testing: Pull soil cores and send them to the LSU, Texas A&M, or Oklahoma State soil lab. Testing is done for N-P-K, PH, and all micronutrients. Note: One soil test covers 5000 sqft. Additional testing requires additional charges.
#5 Professional Disease Testing—Pull rhizomes, roots, and stolons and send them to a separate disease testing lab for growth and evaluation. Further, they use a microscope and may biopsy the plant material to determine the exact diseases you have (as, just like with various illnesses people get, there is not one antibiotic/shot/vaccine that cures it all). Note: One test covers 5000 sqft. Additional testing requires additional charges.
#6 Measurements – I will measure your “treatable” lawn area with a measuring wheel. This allows you to properly purchase the correct amount of lawn treatment chems without wasting money.
#7 30-Minutes of Additional Time – after the lab reports come back, you will receive 30 extra minutes of consulting time to use as you see fit. Example: you can ask for a call to discuss the various labs and reports emailed to you. You can send me bids from your landscape vendors (like for sod replacement) to review, or you can email me a few questions whenever you need them.
The base rate for residential consult services #1-7 is $450. This covers up to 5000 sqft, if the property is within 10 miles of 9720 Coit Rd, Plano, TX 75025. You will receive approximately three hours of consulting time, which is broken down like this: 1:45 on-site, 45 minutes for evaluating labs and writing reports, and 30 minutes of additional time. For properties outside of the 10-mile radius, there is a small trip charge of $2.10 per mile (one way, not round trip). It is based on your address but here are some general trip charges for cities we have traveled to: Wichita Falls = $263; Bonham = $85; Waco = $240; Denton = $50; Ft. Worth (downtown) = $71; Colleyville = $44; Southlake = $39; Arlington = $63; Highland Park = $27; Lakewood (East Dallas) = $37; Oakcliff (South Dallas) = $48; Rockwall = $67; Garland = $29; Flowermound = $29; Carrollton = $10; Frisco = $0; Allen = $0; Lewisville = $10; Richardson = $14; Sherman = $67; Tyler = $231.
Ad Hoc—# 8 Residential Irrigation Consultation—$200—We will work with the customer to cycle through every irrigation zone, looking for improper coverage overlap between heads, the amount of water output per minute, clogged nozzles, the length of irrigation needed per week, etc. This covers up to 5000 sqft of irrigation. Larger properties must be disclosed in advance to quote an accurate price.
Frequently Asked Landscaping Soil Consulting Questions in Texas
#1 I don’t need all the consult services listed. Can I just buy a soil test?
Answer: First, why do you assume you only need a soil test? 90% of turfgrass problems in North Texas start with a lack of photosynthesis and end with diseases. Your soil needs to be balanced, but balancing it won’t cure the other issues that the super-majority of lawns in North Texas have. If you want only soil and disease testing (without a consult) you can see the pricing here: Soil Testing Near Dallas - Disease Fungus Testing North Texas
#2 If my lab tests show I have diseases, will you give me a shopping list to take to Home Depot or Lowes?
Answer: No. If Home Depot and Lowes had cheap answers to most of these unique problems in North Texas, these problems would not exist (and you would not be on this website).
#3 I stopped resodding with St. Augustine and just put in Zoysia under my two live oaks. The landscape company told me that they put Zoysia in the shade all the time, and it does not get TARR.
Answer: I hear this a lot. Most sod salesmen are in the same category as used car salesmen, and unfortunately, you were directly lied to. No warm season turfgrass is healthy in less than 4 hours of direct sun, and most varieties require 5-6 (and Bermuda 8-10). Further, Zoysia can be infected with TARR as TARR is in the soil and eats all grassroots without prejudice. Lastly, it gets 4-5 other diseases and does not like our alkaline, clay soil. Zoysia is a great grass, but it is not a "throw it down and forget it" grass for overshaded North Texas properties with clay soils.
#4 I’ve got a weed mess. Can I buy sprays at Walmart to get rid of them?
Answer: yes, for some weeds, no for other weeds. And “get rid of” is a loaded question, as people with severe weed infestations usually have had weeds dropping seeds for several years. Certain weed seeds can stay in the soil for 3-6 years before trying to germinate, which means pre-emergent can’t stop them until they try to germinate (and it does not stop 100% anyway). This means it can take a long time to get on top of weed issues, even for professionals. That said, if you have severe weed issues, it is most likely because most of your grass died due to photosynthesis and disease issues, and then the weeds filled the vacuum. The weeds are the effect, not the cause.
#5 I would like to use your consultant service because I’m tired of resodding, but I’m on a fixed income and cannot afford it. Can you offer a six-month payment plan for me?
Answer: living in DFW is now very expensive, especially since the Covid disaster in 2020. And I wish I could personally afford to do a free radio show like Neil Sperry or do long-term payment plans for people, but I can’t. I’ve got young kids to raise and high property taxes to pay, like almost everyone else.
#6 My family only does “clean eating,” and we only purchase organic produce. Therefore, I don’t want any chems used on my property. Will you design an organic-only plan for me?
Answer: I wish this were a viable solution in shaded North Texas properties, but it is not. Some soil types in full sun, without disease issues, can do alright with only organic products. However, alkaline black clay is more disease-prone as the pH is typically above 7.5 and does not drain well. Then, overplanted trees are thrown in, which adds even more disease pressure and organic fungicides and insecticides don’t stand a chance. Organic fertilizers are generally fine (just expensive).
#7 I want to change my soil to organic material and put down “native grass.” What do you recommend?
Answer: Our “native” grasses grew on the prairie in full sun. If you drive around and look at pastures, you will notice that no native grass is growing under clusters of trees. Buffalo and Bermuda are both our most native grasses in North Texas, and both require full sun (Buffalo requires 10+ hours).
#8 Why do I have to pay for a diagnostic consult or other types of testing? If you are an expert, why can’t you just come to my house and start treatment?
Answer: I believe we are one of the only outfits doing diagnostic work. You can swing a dead cat and hit several companies that will come to your house and start spraying chems, sight unseen. Look up TrooGreen and see how well it works for most of their customers in DFW. Randomly spraying the same chemicals at every person’s house is not only environmentally unsound, but it probably won’t solve the problems at your property. Again, most turfgrass problems in North Texas are set off by improper cultural practices (which have nothing to do with spraying chems). Therefore, if you don't find value in diagnostic work, then it's probably not the right fit.
When you are ready to diagnose the root of the problems with your lawn and turfgrass, including drainage, disease, irrigation coverage, sunlight deficiency, overgrown tree shade, soil deficiency, or other turfgrass-related issues, please visit our Contact Us page to contact us about scheduling a visit your property: Contact - DFW Turfgrass Science LLC.