Lawn
All-in-One Lawn Calculator
Rather than running four calculators separately, enter your lawn size and grass type once and get the full picture, seed, nitrogen for the year, water per week, and what the whole thing costs to maintain.
Updated
Your lawn
Turf only, exclude beds and hardscape.
Area = length × width
Your lawn's character
Deep roots make it the most drought-tolerant cool-season option. Bunch-type, so thin areas need reseeding rather than filling in on their own.
Mid-size metros and most suburban markets.
Enter your lawn size and grass type.
Build my lawn plan
Describe your lawn and the assistant will turn these numbers into a month-by-month schedule for your climate and grass type.
Written by AI from the figures above. The quantities themselves are calculated deterministically and are never generated by AI. Check anything consequential, permits, utility locates, and chemical labels especially, before acting on it.
How this is calculated
What this pulls together
Each number here uses the same formula as its dedicated calculator, this page just runs them from one set of inputs so the figures stay consistent with each other.
Seed comes from the species rate per 1,000 sq ft. Nitrogen comes from the species annual range, split into applications capped at 1 lb per 1,000 sq ft. Water comes from the depth-to-gallons conversion. Cost comes from the service pricing model.
| Output | Formula | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | (area ÷ 1,000) × species rate | Grass seed calculator |
| Nitrogen | (area ÷ 1,000) × annual lb N | Fertilizer calculator |
| Water | area × inches × 0.6234 gal | Irrigation calculator |
| Mowing | Growing season ÷ cut interval | Species growth rate |
| Cost | Service rates × visits × region | Lawn care cost calculator |
Reading the annual picture
The most useful thing this produces is not any single number, it is the comparison between doing the work yourself and paying for it. Material cost for a DIY lawn program is usually a small fraction of the service equivalent, and seeing both side by side makes the trade obvious.
The gap is labour and equipment. Twenty-eight mowing visits a year is a genuine time commitment, and mower, spreader, and trimmer purchases are real costs that DIY totals often omit.
Worked example
A 6,000 sq ft tall fescue lawn
A typical suburban lawn in a national-average cost market, maintained to a normal standard.
- Overseeding
- 6 × 5 lb = 30 lb of seed per year
- Nitrogen
- 6 × 3 lb = 18 lb N, split over 3 applications
- Water
- 6,000 × 1 in × 0.6234 = 3,740 gal per week
- Mowing
- ~28 cuts per season at weekly intervals
Roughly $250–450 a year in materials doing it yourself, against $1,800–3,200 for full service in an average market.
Frequently asked questions
Related calculators
Lawn Area Calculator
Almost every other lawn number depends on this one. Break your yard into simple shapes, subtract the parts that aren't grass, and get a square footage you can use for seed, fertilizer, and quotes.
OpenGrass Seed Calculator
Seeding rates differ by species by a factor of twenty, bermudagrass wants 1 lb per 1,000 sq ft, perennial ryegrass wants 8. Pick your grass and whether you're starting fresh or overseeding.
OpenFertilizer Calculator
Turf guidance is written in pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft, but fertilizer is sold as a percentage analysis. This converts between them for any bag you have, enter the three numbers on the front.
OpenLawn Care Cost Calculator
Build a service plan and see what it costs per visit, per month, and per year. Mowing usually accounts for most of the total, and lawn size matters less than people expect.
OpenIrrigation Calculator
Find out how much water your lawn or garden actually needs each week, in both inches and gallons, and how to split it across the week for your soil type.
OpenGuides that go deeper
- Pacific Northwest Lawn Care: What to Do, When, and WhyHere’s how to actually keep a lawn alive and healthy in the Pacific Northwest, from moss battles to the best time to overseed and water.
- How Often Should You Overseed a Lawn?Overseeding isn’t a yearly chore for everyone. Here’s how to decide if, when, and how much to overseed,plus the steps that actually matter.