I used one of the well known chemical lawn services, ONCE!
They had a special deal to attract new customers and don't know what type weed killer they were using, but it killed everything, weeds, grass, and a lot of perennials in my flower beds with the overspray. They aerated and reseeded the lawn, which never came back as well as before, but refused to replace or compensate me for the dead perennials.
Someone in this neighborhood uses them now, and I cringe when I see them pass, hoping none of the vapors from the tank drift onto my garden! Am I paranoid? probably.

Those lawn services have a time schedule to do certain things to your lawn and come he-- or high water they do it and insist their service won't damage anything. Ha!! Our centipede was very stressed two summers ago by drought and heat. They said it wouldn't be injured by whatever was on their schedule and against my better judgement I let them go ahead with it. The next morning the centipede was brown. I was told not to worry- it would be back the next year. Ha, again. Most of it died and last summer not even a single weed came up. I really think the soil was killed or something. I know many people use these services but this was the second company that killed a lot of our grass. So they are not getting any more of our money.

My humble suggestion would be to learn to love the diversity your new lawn dispays; rejoice and plant clover! The bees will love you for it!

The chemicals required to maintain a lawn not native to these parts ultimately sterilizes/depletes the soil, pollutes the groundwater and decimates beneficial pollinator populations. There is no long term upside for anything or anyone, save for the chemical conglomerates. Besides which, the single most important ingredient to a healthy lawn (and excuse these companies will give you for failure) is the enormous amounts of water we have not been receiving naturally these past few years. After spending thousands on a superficially beautiful lawn, the next drought will see it dry up and blow away anyway. There just is no upside, in my view.

I do not judge people on the weeds in their lawn ... mostly I look with scorn upon those WITH perfect lawns because I know how they came to be.

As for weeds, I try to keep any that I have from going to seed. I pluck off every dandelion flower that I see (and put it in my pocket because it turns to seeds if you throw it on the ground). Right now, the "enemy" is hairy bittercress - I walk around with a grocery bag and pull every one I see (they are easily pulled up) before they go to seed. I'll miss some, I know that. But I will have stopped thousands of seeds from hitting the ground for next year. Henbit is also quite easily pulled. Dallas grass is bad, I know. For that, I use scissors to cut it off at the ground and hopefully it runs out of energy one day.

I don't use a lawn service, but then I guess you figured that out by now.

Here is a link that might be useful:

esh_
Do you not have chickweed & Violets? If you need some to make your lawn greener right now, I have plenty to spare!
Also can spare some English plantain, Dichronda, Barren Strawberry and another couple of NOID's!

Mouse-ear chickweed - Cerastium glomeratum

Say the word, and I'll save some for you!
Rb

I was actually looking forward to having weeds last summer- at least they would be green. But I agree that you still have to keep those under control, too. That bittercress has really hit the yard hard this year. I have been trying to pull up all I see but infirmity limits my work. Even crabgrass never grew where the lawn company sprayed- even a year after. With all the rain we've had this year, I think I see a few sprigs of green here and there. We will put in a good-sized island this year but I still like a little bit of grass.

Rb - you have got a healthy crop of those things!!

As far as LAWN weeds go, I have very few because I killed the entire lawn in late 2003 and put down zoysia sod in 2004. The only thing to survive was a bumper crop of green onions (and boy are they noticeable in the spring - right NOW). Oh, a few johnny jump ups have come in, but they are easily pulled.

Outside of the lawn (and in some cases trying to get INTO the lawn), I have creeping wild strawberry (bad), cudweed, wild geraniums (the plain ones, not the good one), some tiny creeping thing with get-the-magnifying-glass-out blue flowers, some plantains, and the non-native chickweed. I might have had a piece of dichondra but I got rid of it easily since it was isolated outside the lawn.

I have used Scotts and Tru Green interchangeably for 10+ years on both fescue and bermuda. The main reason is that I am apparently incapable of applying fertilizer of any kind without stripes and patches. I also think that they do a better job combatting dollar spot fungus and other diseases than I would. They aerate at the appropriate times. I often turn down some of the treatments that they recommend based on a variety of factors, including the drought. The quality of service depends a lot on the work ethic of the person actually doing the applications. I have about 1/3 acre of lawn and use them for convenience.

I think I need to follow up by stating that I do not have "land"... I have maybe a 1/4 acre lot in a HOA subdivision. My lot is a weed... dallas grass to be precise. Granted I am not the only one with the problem in the neighborhood. If If were a conspiracy theorist I would almost say that a certain lawn company planted the weeds because they have been "johnny on the spot" with trying to get me to use their service. I did not have this problem at all last year! For that reason as crazy as it sounds I am avoiding that particular company. I guess what frustrates me the most is that there is barely any grass left and I don't see the point in having a beautiful garden if my small lawn looks horrible.

You might try purchasing some bags of Scotts Weed and Feed...and applying that to your lawn...we have lots of weeds ourselves, and that has been the only thing that we have successfully used...we have bermuda grass..our experience with lawn services wasn't good..still had weeds. be sure to read the directions on the bag before applying,.

I've got plenty of Carolina geranium to share with anyone interested! LOL I can pull it up REAL easily for you! The atrazine I used earlier in the season did not work as well as it has in the past. Chickweed and bermuda grass is rampant too.

FWIW, if your lawn is not that large, have you considered just mulching it in? The root of most turf problems are either to be found in water supply or soil deficiencies. Were you to mulch it in it would aid both of those problems, get rid of dallas grass and look great until such a time as you could till it up and replant those areas that you really want a lawn accent in (not to mention a lot less work in summer).