A lawn program is just a short list of decisions made in the right order, at the right soil temperature. The branded versions charge you $475 to $1,000 a year for those decisions. These are the same decisions with the same chemistry, written down, for free.
There are six programs here — four live, two on the way. They’re built on two questions: what kind of grass do you have, and how much of a lawn person are you willing to be?
Which one is you?
- The Minimalist doesn’t want a hobby. Two or three passes a year, nothing that needs a sprayer, lawn looks fine.
- The Rationalist wants a clearly better-than-average lawn with bounded effort. Six good decisions a year, one Saturday morning each.
- The Nut wants stripes, PGR schedules, and fungicide rotations — and enjoys it. You know who you are.
Not sure which grass you have or where your lawn actually stands? Take five minutes with Where Are You Now? or get a personalized route through the lawn plan quiz.
Warm-season programs (bermuda, zoysia, St. Augustine, centipede)
The Rationalist Program — a full year for about $200
Six soil-temperature-triggered rounds: pre-emergent splits, cheap nitrogen done right, spot-spraying instead of blanket-spraying, and the honest fungicide question. Same active ingredients TruGreen sprays, roughly a fifth of the price. Start here — this is the middle program on purpose.
The Minimalist Program — 3 passes, $60 to $100 a year
The shortest defensible path to “lawn looks fine.” No sprayer, no growing degree days, three Saturdays. Start here if you want green grass and your weekends back.
The Nut Program — coming soon
PGR scheduling, foliar iron, fungicide group rotation. While you wait, the PGR guide and the products list cover the deep end.
Cool-season programs (fescue, bluegrass, ryegrass)
The Rationalist Program — a full year for about $200
Six rounds, and the calendar flips: fall is the big season here, not spring. Spring pre-emergent, the September fork between overseeding and fall pre-emergent, and the two fall fertilizer passes that carry most of the year’s nitrogen. Same active ingredients TruGreen sprays, roughly a fifth of the price. Start here — written for tall fescue, the transition-zone default.
The Minimalist Program — 3 passes, no sprayer
Two fall nitrogen passes and one granular pre-emergent, all spreader-applied. No sprayer, no mixing, about $76 the first year. Start here — the shortest defensible path to a fescue lawn that looks fine.
The Nut Program — coming soon
Fungicide group rotation, cultivar-level disease resistance, the full soil-temperature calendar. While you wait, the Rationalist program covers the same six windows with less precision.
How these programs are built
Every program follows the same rules: active ingredients are the product and the brand is the markup, chemistry goes cheapest-pro-grade and equipment goes mid-tier, soil temperature beats the calendar, and every recommendation says why. Where a branded convenience product genuinely earns its premium, the program says that too.
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