Both your lawn and your landscape are critical components of your Northern Virginia property. Your lawn is the stage on which you enjoy life’s outdoor memories. You want it lush, green, and healthy.

Meanwhile, if you think of the lawn as the stage, then the landscape is the backdrop, providing all of the beauty and appeal that helps you enjoy the outdoors even more. After all, a stage would be pretty barren if it didn’t have scenery to go along with it.

Both the lawn and the landscape complement one another and you want to keep them both in the best possible shape. A beautiful lawn might be less appealing if you have dead or dying plants in the background.

On the flip side, you wouldn’t want discolored grass or bare spots in your lawn to take away from your landscape’s beauty.

This is why you need both lawn care and landscaping services. There are many valuable benefits to incorporating a variety of services into your customized property management plan.

But sometimes people ask us, what’s the difference between landscape maintenance and lawn care? In this article, we’ll dive into what these different services include and why they’re so important.

Lawn Care Vs. Landscaping

Under our general “Maintenance” umbrella, we have services divided into three categories:

• Landscape Maintenance
• Lawn Care Programs
• Plant Health Care

All three are important and we’ve tried to make homeowners’ lives easier by breaking our services into programs and plans. We know that most people are looking for a hassle-free experience and would rather not have to constantly think about scheduling services.

They’d rather invest in a program or plan that they know has everything covered.

That being said, we can always customize every plan to our customers’ exact needs. We know that every property is unique (as well as every homeowner) so the wants and needs are going to differ.

Let’s look specifically at lawn care and landscape maintenance.

What is Lawn Care?

You want a lush, green lawn that you can enjoy. The best lawn care results can be achieved with services like fertilization and weed control. These services are at the heart of a good lawn care program.

To simplify your experience, we’ve grouped our services into three lawn care packages that fit a variety of budgets and needs.

Lawn care services include:

• Weed control
• Fertilization
• Pollinator-safe grub control
• Limestone application
• Core aeration and overseeding
• Power-seeding (with our “Knight” program)

We can also add our weekly mowing service to our “King” program.

People sometimes ask if it’s really worth paying for professional lawn care when they can handle a lot of these tasks on their own. While DIY lawn care is certainly possible with store-bought fertilizers, weed control products, and more, there are some good reasons (detailed in that article), why it is a wise investment to work with a pro.

Lawn care mistakes can be incredibly costly and are quite common. Homeowners commonly overfertilize their lawns or apply at the wrong time of the year, which can lead to fertilizer burn.

There’s a lot more to it than just dumping products around your yard and hoping for the best. When a professional is handling your lawn care, they’re making calculated and strategic decisions in regard to applying products.

Plus, lawn care professionals are using higher quality, commercial-grade products. That equates to better results.

Of course, you’re not only paying for better products but also knowledge and experience. When you work with a trained lawn care professional, you’re getting an expert visiting your property.

By hiring a professional, you also let go of the burden of having to handle these tasks on your own. We know you have better things to do with your free time than work on your lawn.

For all of these reasons, investing in professional lawn care can be a wise choice.

Landscape Maintenance

While lawn care is all about turf services, landscape maintenance is primarily about your property’s plant beds (though we also list weekly mowing under the landscape maintenance umbrella).

Landscape maintenance is all about keeping your property looking neat and tidy so that it remains stress-free while also maintaining curb appeal and value.

Landscape maintenance services include:

• Weekly mowing
• Flower bed weeding
• Mulching and edging
• Seasonal flower installation
• Leaf removal plans
• Gutter cleaning plans
• Power washing
• Pruning

Many of these services can also be offered as plans so that you don’t have to worry about repeat scheduling.

As we mentioned, it’s all about making your life as easy as possible. A messy landscape can sneak up on you. But when you’ve signed up for one of our recurring plans, you’ll know that help is coming!

So, What’s Plant Health Care All About?

While we wanted to help explain some of the differences between lawn care vs. landscaping, we do also have a third category of Plant Health Care services, under the maintenance umbrella.

Just like your lawn needs fertilization and disease and pest management services, your plants can require similar care.

Our Plant Health Care services include seven rounds of treatment that control insects and disease while also providing your plants with the vital nutrients they need for optimal health. This will result in more profuse blooms, greener plants, and foliage that is much more lush, as well.

Homeowners often don’t realize how many potential problems are lurking in the landscape. But our region experiences a number of common pest and disease concerns.

These include (but are not limited to):

• Scale insects
• Japanese Beetles
• Spider Mites
• Lace Bugs
• Anthracnose
• Apple Scab
• Bagworms
• And many other issues!

Because of this, ignoring plant health care can end up being a costly mistake. Many homeowners choose to add Plant Health Care services to the lawn care and landscaping services they’re using to achieve the best results.

Investing in Landscape and Lawn Care Services in Northern VA

Hopefully, this article gave you a better understanding of the different types of services that are available to care for your property and how they’re often grouped.

It’s important to know that different companies are going to group their offerings in different ways but at the end of the day, it’s more about making sure a comprehensive array of services are available to you.

At Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape, we have all of the possible services that your property will need to keep looking and performing its best. And though we have these grouped into various programs and plans, we will fully customize your maintenance plan to be exactly what you need.

It is always our goal to make your experience with lawn care and landscaping as stress-free and enjoyable as possible. When you’re paying for a service, you deserve to feel good about the results AND the experience. After all, you’re investing your hard-earned money.

When you choose to work with Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape, we are ready to be your helpful guides. Soon, you’ll be enjoying your Alexandria, Arlington or Springfield, Virginia property more than ever.

Are you ready to ditch the worries and hassles associated with keeping your entire property well-maintained? Get started today! Request a quote, get your customized plan and relax as you let us get to work.