Prepare Your House For Sale

Hydroseeding Costs For Your Lawn

I know,  what in world am I doing talking about hydroseeding when snow storms are hitting everywhere?  Well,  everyone was so busy during the summer so maybe some people will like to learn about the wonderful benefits of a hydroseeded lawn.  The new lawns that’s are put in via hydroseeding start growing in the first week.  The hydroseeded lawn in the 3rd to 4th week can be cut, that’s right a full lawn in 4 weeks!  The blend of seed, fertilizer, mulch and bonding additives give a high quality blend of mixture to give a great lawn.  The only faster way to get a new lawn is to use grass sod.  The cost of a hydroseeded lawn is 8-18 cents a square foot depending on your part of the country and how big your yard is.  Contractors can even get it for less as they normally volume discounts,  I have heard as low as 5.4 CENTS a square foot.

The Midwest areas, especially in the greater Milwaukee areas of Wisconsin have not even heard of hydroseeding.  Most of the builders are still using roll out straw blankets and seed on commercial developments!  These straw blankets contain plastic mesh inside of them unless they use the environmentally safe weaved blanket,  which at $80 a roll for cost to installers then add mark up,  you can see the problem here.  The roll only covers 900 hundred square feet and the above figure does not include seed or fertilizer!  A small hydroseeding machine will cover 4000 square ft with only 1 tank full!  This only shows me that the builders are not even aware of hydroseeding otherwise they would not be paying so much money for a low quality product and still get much less.  The paper mulch type used by some hydroseeders,  is safe to all land and animals, besides providing a erosion barrier that the EPA calls for on construction sites now days,  this mulch combined with a bonding agent provide  the required  erosion protection.  The best part the paper mulch degrades and then feeds the new grass!  No, plastic mesh and safe for the environment.  This only shows me again that builders and home owners in this area are not aware of hydro-seeding.  This stuff only costs pennies,  how much more economical can you get and still be safe for the environment.  Going green cannot get any easier here!

This year I cannot even say how much of the straw roll out blankets, I saw.  It just makes me shudder at the thought of all that plastic being laid over our top soil surfaces,  never to dissolve.  The thought of that is just horrible.  The next question is why?  Why is this horrible stuff being used when a environmentally safe alternative of hydroseeding is available at such a economical price.  I could use this stuff and make lots of money, but I just cannot lower myself knowing that it is such low quality and still costs more then hydroseeding.  What are people thinking here?  I would rather only install 12,000 square ft of lawn via hydro seed a week, then put in 40,000 square feet of straw and seed and get paid 4 times as much for the straw.  I just cannot lower myself,  even when the there is such large amounts of money to be made from straw and seed applications.     The way they are using the straw/seed in Wisconsin, greater Milwaukee area you would think they were giving it to the builders for free.

The hydroseeded lawns and erosion barriers are highly economical and green to all.  The true problem is just educating people to the fact that hydroseeding opposed to straw/seed application even exists.  They say knowledge is power, so let’s try to educate people and help to move out of the dark ages and into the present.  

If you have any questions or would like to help spread the word about hydroseeding please leave a comment and I will get back to you.     There are many quality hydroseeders out there,  stick with ones in your area that are listed with professional hydroseeder associations.   These people are showing they are committed to being professional and keep the high standards.  Don’t be fooled by just being listed on a turf machine site, some list people just because they bought their equipment from them.  The actual professional association members will have a member symbol by their names.