My lawn looked fine until I paid attention — that's when I realized I needed help

When I moved into my house, I was all excited about working on my lawn. Growing up, I would cut the grass in my yard and enjoyed using the riding mower to keep the lawn looking fresh. I was too naive to realize that's only half the battle when you're trying to have a lawn that looks good. I took care of the mowing and that was it.

There was so much more that my dad did to keep the lawn looking good. One of them was having a service come and treat the lawn for weeds and more. I didn't want to pay for another service when I got my own house. I wanted to do it myself, which is why I enrolled in Sunday, the lawn care subscription company. After two years of using it, I think I'm going to have to throw in the towel.

Sunday sends you treatments for your lawn

I'm not getting the results I want

I enrolled in Sunday Lawn Care in 2025 and learning about my lawn was interesting. It provides you with a shovel and a sample box, so you can take a bit of your dirt and send it to them so they can analyze it to provide you with a better treatment for your lawn. This felt so personalized and useful, as I was trying to have grass fill in better in certain areas and keep weeds at bay.

Sunday sends treatments to my house, based on the acreage and the delivery method that I prefer. You can opt for a liquid solution that you spray on your lawn or a pellet form that you spread with a spreader. I went with the spreader option because I have a good amount of property and I don't have hoses that will reach as far as I want to treat my grass.

Sunday gives you a window throughout the year to apply the spring formula to your lawn to get it ready for growing. I've done that for two years in a row at a time when the winter is ending and the grass itself isn't green to begin with. I will say that my lawn does get green in many areas throughout the year. It looks good enough on the surface that, once it's mowed, it looks like a decent lawn. However, when you look at the surface, it's not the grass that I had dreamed of.

I don't currently mow my own lawn. I got a riding lawnmower and it stopped working shortly after I got it. Rather than try and get it fixed, which was right around the time my wife and I had our first child, I hired someone to mow the lawn and have had them continue to do it for a few years now. Eventually, I will get my own lawnmower again.

I have struggled with keeping a lush lawn

I notice the imperfections

Throughout the year, my lawn usually has things sitting on it. Leaves are a huge issue during the fall for me, as we have large trees throughout our backyard. Raking them is one of my least favorite things and blowing them has been a problem as well.

In the winter, there's usually snow on the ground and in the spring and summer, there are usually kids running around on it. Plus, a dog does his business year round on the lawn.

That being said, I've treated the lawn with certain Sunday products to prevent specific things from happening to it. From Dandelion Doom to Weed Warrior to Pet Patch, they have fun and alliterative names for different problems and you can probably guess what they're used for.

When using any of these options, they haven't worked as well as I hoped. I still find dandelions on my lawn, even when I use Dandelion Doom. There are still weeds in different parts of my lawn, especially clover which has spread more over the past two years than previously.

It's probable that I need to do other things besides relying on treatments I'm doing myself to fix the lawn issues. I might need to dethatch the lawn, water it more, have it mowed higher, or other options (these are the top ideas whenever I Google how to fix my lawn.)

The time I've spent hasn't produced results

It's just not worth the hassle for me

There are dead patches throughout the year which don't seem to be growing as well. I understand that my lawn gets more sun in different areas and the sprinkler system works well but doesn't reach every inch of the grass.

I also know that I don't have the time to pay as close attention as possible to my lawn as it might need. I have a smart sprinkler system that sets the schedule for the watering on its own based on the weather.

I plan to use professionals next year who can come in, assess what might need to be done to have a better and more consistent growing season, and come back and treat the lawn regularly. I have suggestions from neighbors on who they use and I will likely allow someone else to have a crack at giving me the lawn I want.

I had to admit defeat because it hadn't been good enough

I don't like to admit when I'm giving up on something. But I think I'm giving up on trying to treat my lawn myself. I can pull weeds, trim the hedges, and do plenty of other tasks when it comes to yard work. Unfortunately, growing grass and treating weeds within the grass aren't things I want to continue to work on.