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 overplanted trees, alkaline clay soils, rock, fire ants, seven different fungal diseases, chinch bugs, scale, rampant 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 & 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, and some are not curable, just manageable). Note: One test covers 5000 sqft. Additional testing requires additional charges.
#6 Watering Schedule - You will receive a detailed watering schedule, broken down by seasons of the year.
#7 General Irrigation Consult (not repair) – I will have you turn on your irrigation and cycle through the zones. Then give you an Irrigation 101 crash course about proper nozzle sizing, overlapping between heads, difference between rotors and mist heads, along with talking to you about heads/nozzles that need to be fixed or changed. Further, we will measure the water output of some of your heads to get an average water output for the design. Note: I cannot repair your irrigation as part of this consult. And you are required to turn the system on for me and cycle through the zones.
You will receive approximately four hours of consulting time, which is broken down like this: 120-180 minutes on-site, 60-120 minutes for evaluating labs and writing reports, 15-30 minutes of additional time for follow-up questions.
Please submit the webform on the Contact Us page to receive an exact quote for travel to your property location.
Frequently Asked Landscaping Soil Consulting Questions in Texas
#1 I just need to get my soil healthy. 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 existing issues that the super-majority of lawns in North Texas have. If you only want bare-bones soil and disease lab testing (without a consult) you can read about it 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 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/TAP 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 My family only does “clean eating,” and we only purchase organic produce. Therefore, I only want organic 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).
#6 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).
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.