Measure Your Lawn: Why Guessing Leads to Bad Results

Most homeowners have no idea how big their lawn is—and that's a problem. Fertilizer and herbicide rates are calibrated per 1,000 sq ft. Guessing leads to over-application (burned grass, runoff) or under-application (weeds persist, thin turf).

Pacing it out works, but a smartphone app that lets you drop pins at corners and calculates area would be ideal. Until one exists, measure manually: break the lawn into rectangles, circles, and triangles, calculate each, and sum them. Your grass—and wallet—will thank you.