Grasshopper Lawncare was founded in 2002. The aim was to bring some horticultural rigour and genuine expertise to the rapidly growing market for domestic lawncare services.
Today the ethos of the business is the same as it was back in 2002. We deliver a horticulturally correct service; the component parts of our treatment programme are carefully timed to deliver maximum benefit to our customers and their lawns.
We use only the best raw materials, equipment and techniques. We work hard to deliver terrific value and results.
Of course, every lawn treatment company says it uses the best raw materials! unlike most we are entirely happy to provide you with full details of the ingredients we use, we do not hide behind spurious claims that we have some trade secret or other to protect!
We remain an independent business and are proud to have built a team of groundsmen with a huge depth of experience and knowledge.
If you are looking for a lawncare service for the first time, or if you have had a poor experience elsewhere, we would love to hear from you.
Our initial lawn surveys and treatment quotations remain free of charge, no matter how big or little your lawn area is.
- What do we do?
We tend to lawns or formal grass areas professionally! Depending on the needs of the grass, and what you require from it, this could be just a simple programme of seasonal visits to apply the best weed control, moss control and fertilisers at the correct times of year.
Or it could include mechanical treatments like Scarification and Aeration to improve the cultural habitat of the lawn both above and below the soil line.
The results of our work can be further enhanced with Organic, Mineral and Plant Extract Soil Conditioners.
If serious lawn renovation is required, we can combine Aeration and Scarification with top dressing and over seeding to achieve rejuvenation.
See how different jobs and priorities are spread through the seasons.What don’t we do? Routine tasks - like mowing, Autumn leaf clearance and Summer watering. We do not do these because they require no specialised training, licensing, equipment, raw materials or insurance. However, we are always very happy to advise on best practice for these, non-specialised, but important components of general lawn maintenance.
Major Earthworks - like ground levelling, drain installation and Turf Laying. These are services best provided by a landscaper, groundworks contractor or Turf Specialist.
Who uses Grasshopper Lawncare? Anybody with grass areas whose health and appearance are important - We work for many thousands of home owners throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, and Suffolk as well as numerous Business premises, Retirement Homes, Wedding Venues, Hotels, plus a few Sporting and Educational facilities.
Why do home owners use Grasshopper Lawncare? We think the question should be why on earth would they not! Our customers lawns are treated with the very best fertilisers, weed killers and moss control available anywhere. All Grasshopper groundsmen are full time employees, they are experts at what they do, and they take pride in their work. The price of our regular seasonal treatments is directly comparable to the cost of the inferior DIY alternatives. Why a home owner would prefer to do the work themselves, with lower quality materials and results is certainly a mystery.
Why do commercial premises owners and managers use Grasshopper Lawncare? Don’t they have gardeners anyway? For all the same reasons that Home owners do: they want their properties to look great!
But increasingly we are hearing that their need to comply with the rules set by Health and Safety Executive – Chemical Regulation Division are also a considerationhttp://www.hse.gov.uk/crd/index.htm
For many years we have been grateful to count a number of commercial properties as regular clients. Increasingly we are taking on work that used to be done by casual employees / general gardener type contractors and in-house maintenance teams.
Not only do we do a better and highly cost-effective job, but the premises owners and managers also get peace of mind that all the relevant rules and attendant paperwork are being properly implemented. They know they are not taking any risks with their obligations regarding chemical use, public safety and record keeping.
Crucially, they have peace of mind that they are not accidentally voiding any elements of their insurance.
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Best of all, their Grass Areas and Lawns start to look great, providing a pleasant experience and positive impression to all who visit their facilities.Can I pay monthly? We do have a monthly payment scheme for customers who want to give their lawns the benefit of our full-service package*. For details of how this works and to get set up, please give us a ring or send us an email.
See more at Treatment PlansCan you kill my drive and patio weeds? If you use us to treat your lawn already, or if you intend to, we can certainly undertake weed control on non-lawn areas and will be happy to give you a quote. However, we are unlikely to be able to do `hard surface` weed control as a stand-alone service.
My Gardener says he can `do the lawn` And it could be true! Some gardeners do hold the correct qualifications and insurance to charge you for using chemicals in your garden, but the majority do not. If that does not bother you, it is certainly none of our business, but we suggest that it is worthy of your consideration.
Even Gardeners who can legally do this type of work for you, will be unable to purchase the range or quality of raw materials and equipment that we use. They simply do not have the economy of scale, purchasing power or relationships with manufacturers that we have.
Quite frequently we are called upon to undertake work on lawns at properties where the gardens enjoy the most thorough attentions of highly qualified professional gardeners. Often this is because the gardeners themselves have recommended us, or called us in themselves.
You can get your general gardener to do lawn work for you, they might even do it without breaking any laws. But in most cases, it would not be a logical, economically sound or results driven choice.
Choosing a lawn treatment service There are a lot of lawn treatment companies these days, so it does make sense to choose carefully. The marketplace includes operators of all sizes. From big franchised chains to the `man in a van` sole trader types.
Grasshopper is an independent regional business, wholly owned by its directors all of whom work full time in the business. We started in 2002 and have grown steadily since then, we have been lucky enough to employ some truly excellent people along the way and have spent time, money and effort training apprentices from scratch.
The total number of years spent in the Lawn Treatment / Turf Management business by our staff, will shortly pass the collective 100-year mark!
From the outset our goal was to provide a quality service at a sensible price. Key to that has been employing the best staff available and using the best raw materials and equipment on the market, and always utilising them to best effect, with a horticulturally correct and disciplined set of working practices.
We are not perfect, but we do our best every day, to try to be. Ultimately your experience of whichever Lawn Treatment service you use, will be largely down to the individual groundsman who attends your property. His / Her performance will depend on training, experience, equipment, materials focus and attitude. We are fortunate and proud to have a strong team spirit among our grounds staff, they take pride in their work and understand that we only thrive by being a customer focused business.
- Evolution
With knowledge, care, proper horticultural technique and rigorous product selection, impressive results can be achieved in the fields of Turf Management and Lawn Treatment. But the world changes fast with products constantly being removed from sale and others introduced to ensure they meet ever more demanding environmental considerations.
Weed ControlHerbicides have recently been through a large set of regulation changes. These have had widespread effects on the products available, the rates at which they may be applied and the frequency at which they may be used.
Getting good weed control results within the confines of the new regulations is increasingly complex and has been the focus of considerable effort and investment on our part. We expect this to be an ongoing challenge and have the systems in place to ensure we continue to deliver the best results to our customers.
Grass health and nutritionThrough our memberships of various professional bodies, we go to several conferences each year. It is apparent that the turf management industry, like many others, is very aware of its responsibility to promote and adopt working practices that are increasingly driven by: Accountability, Traceability, Sustainability, and Stewardship.
We have always been very proud of our sound horticultural practices and lawn fertiliser programmes. We have continuously spent a far higher percentage of our revenue, than the market average on the nutrition of our client’s lawns. Rather unusually, we have always been entirely open about exactly what ingredients our fertilisers contain.
We embrace the industry wide moves toward a more horticulturally sympathetic set of working practices because they will energise manufacturers to provide increased choice in their product ranges. The day when we can offer clients a completely organic lawn treatment programme that is truly effective and affordable, is starting to get closer.
TrendsWe think the development of products and methods which derive their origins from the age-old traditions of soil stewardship will gather pace.
In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in demand from customers who wish to maximise the benefits that can be gained from cultural improvements to their grass through mechanical treatments such as Scarification and Aeration. We think this trend will continue to build.
We believe that potential restrictions on chemical inputs will encourage the industry to evolve toward increased organic and mineral based treatment inputs. We intend to be at the forefront of that evolution.