Fertilization, Weed Control and Pest Control, With a Sustainable Option for Each

You choose how the lawn gets treated. We tell you the trade-offs.

Most treatment companies sell one program: a truck shows up eight times a year and sprays whatever the calendar says. We do it differently. Every service on this page comes in a conventional version and a sustainable version, we explain what’s in each, and you pick. Some clients go fully organic. Some want the conventional pre-emergent in February and organic everything else. Both are fine, and both are applied by a licensed applicator who reads the soil test before the label.

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Fertilization

The sustainable option. Organic nitrogen from composted poultry litter and plant-based sources, humates to open up the clay, and soil conditioner where beds need it. Six applications a year timed to the grass: Bermuda and Zoysia get fed from late April through August; fescue gets fed in fall and early spring and left alone in summer. Lime only when the spring soil test says the pH has dropped below 6. Organic feeding is slower to show and builds a lawn that holds water and shrugs off weeds on its own.

The conventional option. A slow-release synthetic program, also six applications, also by soil test. Faster green-up. We don’t use quick-release nitrogen at all; it runs straight into the creek in the next storm.

Weed control

The sustainable option. Most weed problems are density problems: a lawn cut too short, fed at the wrong time, or thin under trees. So the first treatment is mowing height, overseeding and feeding. On top of that: corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent in late winter, iron-based products for broadleaf weeds, hand-pulling in beds, and mulch deep enough to stop germination. It’s more work and less spray, and it doesn’t get every dandelion.

The conventional option. Labeled pre-emergent applications in February and September to stop crabgrass and winter weeds before they start, and spot-treatment of broadleaf weeds with post-emergent products applied by a licensed applicator. Applied to the weeds, not the whole lawn.

Honest note. If you want a lawn with zero weeds, the conventional pre-emergent in February is the single most effective thing we do. We’ll tell you that, and we’ll also tell you it’s the one application most of our organic-leaning clients keep.

Pest control

The sustainable option. Integrated pest management: we scout before we treat. Beneficial nematodes for grubs and armyworms, horticultural oil and insecticidal soap for scale, aphids and mites on shrubs, Bt for caterpillars, and habitat for the predators (a native bed with black-eyed Susan and butterfly weed does more against aphids than a spray). Mosquito reduction by eliminating standing water and treating breeding sites rather than fogging the yard.

The conventional option. Labeled turf insecticides for grubs and armyworms and ornamental insecticides for shrub pests, applied only where scouting finds the pest, never on a schedule. Mosquito barrier treatments on request.

What we don’t do. Blanket calendar spraying of the whole property. Neonicotinoid applications on anything that flowers. Anything the label doesn’t allow.

Why the choice matters in this part of Atlanta

Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven and Chamblee all drain to Nancy Creek and Peachtree Creek and then the Chattahoochee, and the upper Nancy Creek watershed is already past the hard-surface level where streams degrade. What goes on a lawn on a Tuesday is in the creek by Friday. Sandy Springs is a Bee City USA affiliate with its own integrated pest management plan for city property; we run the same approach on private ones.

The program at a glance

Soil temperature, not the calendar date

Almost everything in a treatment programme is a timing decision, and the biggest one comes weeks before anybody can see a reason for it. Pre-emergent has to be in the ground and watered in before the seeds it is stopping have germinated. Once a weed is up, a pre-emergent does nothing to it at all.

The number that matters is about 55 degrees. Crabgrass starts germinating when soil sitting two inches down holds around fifty-five degrees for a few days running. Around here that usually lands in the last week of February or the first two weeks of March, but it moves. A mild winter pulls it forward by a fortnight and a cold snap in late February pushes it back. We track it rather than book a date in advance and hope.

A folk indicator that is genuinely reliable. Old growers here watch the forsythia. When those yellow hedges along the older streets go into full bloom, the soil is at about the right temperature. It is not a substitute for measuring, but if you drive past a blooming forsythia and nobody has been to your lawn yet, that is a fair time to ask why.

Why we split it into two applications. A single application put down early has usually thinned out by the time the late-germinating weeds arrive, and one put down late misses the first wave entirely. Two lighter applications roughly eight to ten weeks apart cover the whole germination window without piling more product onto the lawn than a single heavy one would.

September matters as much as March. Annual bluegrass germinates in autumn, sits quietly through winter and then makes a lawn look patchy and unkempt in February exactly when everyone starts noticing their yard again. It is stopped in September and it cannot be fixed in February. Anyone who only treats in spring is treating half the year.

What happens if the window is missed. We will tell you. Missing pre-emergent by ten days is the difference between a clean lawn in June and one that needs repeated post-emergent work all summer, which is more product, more visits and more disruption. It is a much better conversation to have in February than in July.

What we will not do, and why

A treatment programme is as much about restraint as it is about products. Here is what we leave out, because it is the part most companies do not put in writing.

No weed and feed. Combination products broadcast a herbicide across every square foot the fertiliser lands on, including the ground above your tree and shrub roots, which are shallower and wider than most people think. On top of that, the right time to feed a lawn and the right time to treat a weed are rarely the same week, so a combined product is compromising on both. We keep them separate and apply each when it works.

No insecticide on a hunch. A lawn with a few grubs in it is a normal lawn, not a problem. We dig and count before anything gets applied, and we treat when the count justifies it rather than because it is August and August is when people sell grub treatments.

Nothing broad-spectrum on anything in flower. If a shrub is blooming it is being visited, and a broad insecticide does not distinguish between the pest and the bee. Treatment gets moved until after bloom, or a targeted option gets used, or it does not happen.

Fire ants get bait, not a drench. Baits are carried into the mound and deal with the colony. Drenching the top of a mound mostly moves it three feet to the left and puts a lot more product in the soil to achieve that.

Nothing goes down ahead of a storm. Product applied the afternoon before heavy rain ends up in the street, then in a creek, and not in your lawn. If the forecast turns we move the visit and tell you why. It costs us a scheduling headache and it saves you paying for something that washed away.

And nothing goes on a lawn we have not looked at. Every visit starts with a walk. If the problem turns out to be shade, compaction or a mower blade rather than something a treatment fixes, we would rather say that and lose the sale than sell you a season of applications that were never going to work.

Questions people ask

Is organic lawn care worth it? For soil health and for anyone with kids, pets or a creek downhill, yes. It takes two seasons to look as good as a conventional program and it costs a little more per application.

Does organic weed control actually work? It thins weeds out; it doesn’t eliminate them. If you want a weed-free lawn, keep the conventional pre-emergent and go organic on everything else.

Are your products safe for dogs? The sustainable products are safe once dry. Conventional applications are labeled for re-entry times and we flag the yard and tell you.

Do you need a license to apply weed control in Georgia? Yes. A company needs a Pesticide Contractor’s License and the person applying needs a Commercial Applicator license (Category 24 for lawns and ornamentals). We hold both, and we’ll show you the numbers on request.

Can you do just the fertilizer if I mow myself? Yes, and a fair number of people do. We work the treatment dates around your mowing so nothing goes down on wet or freshly cut grass, and you get a note the day before each visit telling you what is being applied and how long to keep pets and children off it.

Do you treat commercial properties? Yes, and the sustainable option is written into every commercial proposal.

How much does it cost? It depends on lawn size, grass type and what the soil test shows, so we quote after a free site visit rather than off a price list.

Can I switch between options mid-year? Yes, and most people do fine-tune after the first season. The usual move is to start conventional on a lawn that is genuinely in trouble, get it stable, then shift the feeding across to the organic programme once the soil is doing more of the work. It happens the other way too: if an organic year has not held a particular weed and we can see why, we will say so rather than sell you another year of the same. The one thing worth keeping in mind is timing, because the pre-emergent window in late winter and again in early autumn is the part of the calendar you cannot move.

Where we work

Treatments run on the same calendar across Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Doraville and Peachtree Corners; the city pages have the local particulars. Worth reading alongside this one: drainage, French drains and grading, for the wet corners where nothing will grow no matter what you feed it.

Get a treatment quote

(404) 369-0989 · info@oakavelandscape.com · book a free site visit · see also eco-friendly lawn care