7 of the Best Lawn Care Services in Minneapolis (an Honest Review)

What you are actually shopping for

Strip away the marketing and most homeowners want three things: a company that shows up when it says it will, technicians who know how to make a lawn thick and green and can handle the weeds that come with Minnesota soil, and communication that reduces the number of things you have to manage rather than adding to it. Keep those three in mind while reading the list.

Lawn Works

Lawnworks offers a broad range of lawn care across the Twin Cities, from fertilization and weed control through aeration and overseeding, plus mosquito control and seasonal cleanups. A useful fit if you want treatments and cleanup work from one provider.

Weed Man

Weed Man has more than 300 franchises across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and has been in business for 50 years. The Minneapolis branch serving the Blaine area is locally owned and operated. The company offers a wide range of lawn treatments plus flea, tick, and mosquito control.

The franchise model is worth understanding. You get a national brand's program structure and materials with a locally owned operation delivering it, which means the service experience depends considerably on the specific franchisee.

Biolawn

Biolawn markets environmentally focused practices and has served Twin Cities customers for 15 years. The company says it uses organic and natural products where those produce acceptable results and falls back on traditional products as needed. Many treatments include organic components, but they are not 100 percent organic. Services include lawn care, mosquito and tick control, mole and vole control, and tree care.

If reduced synthetic input is a priority, they are worth a call. Ask specifically which applications are organic and which are conventional, since partial is the norm across the industry and the word organic gets used loosely.

Fertilawn

A family owned business for the past 45 years, Fertilawn offers lawn care, mosquito control, and holiday lighting, and custom blends its products in house. In house blending is unusual and means fertility programs can be adjusted to local soil conditions rather than built from stock bags.

Showcase Lawn Care

Showcase is family owned and operated, founded in 2018, though the founders have worked in lawn care since 1984. The company offers residential lawn care, mosquito control, and commercial snow removal. A newer business name with a long operating history behind it.

West Metro Lawn and Snow

Based in Maple Grove, West Metro offers lawn care and residential snow removal along with shrub and perennial maintenance, mowing and edging, mosquito control, and lawn cleanups. The mowing and residential snow combination makes them a fit for homeowners who want one company handling week to week yard work year round.

RainMaster Lawn Systems

In business since 1999, we provide comprehensive lawn care across Minneapolis and Eau Claire, along with irrigation, commercial snow removal, and lawn pest management, from offices in both markets. You can find our locations on the locations page.

Our view of the work: lawn quality is decided below the surface. Healthy soil produces healthy roots, healthy roots produce thick grass, and thick grass crowds out most weeds without help. That is why aeration, soil pH correction, and soil structure sit inside the programs rather than being sold as extras.

Who shows up at your house

Our team includes specialists with horticulture degrees and decades of field experience. Most of the industry staffs seasonally. We hire year round, and the off season goes to coursework, certifications, and webinars with turf professionals from around the world, which is how we keep up on disease and pest pressure, products, and practices.

You can talk to any of us, including the specialist who services your lawn. Many of our clients have their specialist's mobile number. Most of our technicians have been here for years and know their customers by name. The office is local, so a call reaches someone here.

Programs, not visit counts

It is easy to shop on how many visits a company promises, and it is the wrong metric. A visit where the wrong product goes down in the wrong week accomplishes nothing. We assess the lawn and then build the program around what it needs.

Three tiers with published prices. Healthy Habitat is the basic plan covering what a better lawn needs. Terrific Turf is the mid level option and our most popular, built to grow a thick green lawn and handle most problems. Luscious Lawn is the proactive high end program for a lawn that needs real repair.

At every tier you get granular fertilizer rather than the liquid most competitors apply. Granular costs more and releases over weeks, feeding steadily instead of in a spike, and our blends include organic matter along with the nutrients. Our grub control is chosen to be easier on pollinators than the cheapest products on the market and to stay active through the season, so it is still working when larvae hatch in late summer.

How to pick between them

• Get the program broken down by application. How many rounds, in which windows, and whether grub prevention, pH correction, aeration, and seed are in or extra.
• Ask about the grub control. Whether it holds into late summer, and its effect on pollinators. Products differ substantially on both.
• Ask who applies it. Seasonal or year round, certified or not, and average tenure.
• Ask what you get after a visit. A call, a written summary with recommendations, or just a bill.
• Ask about granular versus liquid fertilizer. Liquid is cheaper and more common. Granular feeds longer. Know which you are buying.
• Ask what happens when you call. Local office or call center, and how fast someone is on the property.

Be confident in the choice

Every company here can put product on a lawn. The ones worth hiring can explain why your lawn needs that product in that week, and will tell you when it does not need anything at all.