Hi, we’re the Yard Clinic team.
We’re the people who show up in other people’s yards for a living, and we built this site to share what that work has taught us. For decades, between us, we have run lawn care and garden service businesses across North Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio, trained in horticulture, and spent thousands of hours on our knees in other people’s grass, diagnosing what went wrong and fixing it. This site is where that experience gets written down, properly and honestly, so you can skip the guesswork.
Where this started
Every one of us has the same memory: standing in a yard with a homeowner who is worried about their lawn, looking at a patch of brown grass or a row of small holes and scuffed turf, and explaining for the tenth time that week what older sibling, creature or fungus left this mess behind. Homeowners did not lack for information, exactly. They lacked for information that matched what was actually in front of them. Articles that were photos of a different problem. Advice written for a different climate. Products recommended for a treatment that had not been diagnosed yet.
Yard Clinic is the fix for that gap: identify, diagnose, treat, prevent. The same arc we use on every real yard, written down for yours.
Meet the team
Yard Clinic is written by a small team of working lawn and garden professionals. When you read a byline on this site, that person did the work: they spray, they seed, they cut, they get the call when the misting-system story turns out to be a grub invasion, and they photograph what they find. We are not a content farm. Nobody here writes about work they have not done.
Michael Turner – Founder & Editor. Horticulture-trained, Michael founded Yard Clinic in 2026 after more than two decades working in lawn maintenance and turf renovation across North Carolina. With over 20 years of experience diagnosing lawn problems, improving soil health and restoring damaged turf, he writes the site’s diagnostic guides and oversees the editorial process to ensure advice is practical, accurate and easy to follow.
David Reynolds – Lawn Care Specialist & Field Reviewer. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, David has operated a residential and commercial lawn care business for 16 years. Working directly with homeowners, turf and landscaping equipment every week, he brings hands-on experience to the site’s pest, weed and lawn disease content. He reviews articles against real-world conditions to help readers identify problems accurately and choose appropriate treatments.
Sarah Mitchell – Horticulture & Equipment Editor. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Sarah has a background in horticulture and landscape management, with 14 years of experience in lawn renovation, drainage improvement, soil preparation and turf maintenance. She leads the site’s equipment reviews and buying guides, comparing mowers, trimmers, aerators and other lawn care tools based on performance, durability, maintenance requirements and value for homeowners.
Why you can trust the information
Most lawn advice on the internet is written once and left to rot, or copied from someone else who copied someone else. We hold our work to standards we have to meet on the job:
- Every article carries a “last updated” date. Old advice is dangerous advice when it comes to chemicals, dosage and timing, so we refresh our guides on a schedule and date every update.
- We diagnose before we treat. A brown patch and a grub infestation look similar from the deck and are treated completely differently. Our articles walk you through ruling things out before spending a cent.
- We show you what it actually looks like. Photos on this site are taken by our team from real yards, and tables give you the numbers: square-foot counts, soil temperatures, application rates, dates.
- We name our sources. When something is technical, we link to the university extension service, USDA or manufacturer data behind it, and we link it where it matters, not just at the bottom of the page.
- We say what we do not know. Local soil, climate and regulations vary. Where the answer depends on your state or your region, we say so instead of guessing.
How we make money
Right now, the site costs us our time and our tools and that is how we are running it. As the library grows we may display advertising and, eventually, link to products through the Amazon Associates program, and we will disclose those links plainly when they appear. What will never change: a recommendation on this site is a recommendation because we would use it on our own customers’ yards, never because someone paid for it.
Note: this site is not a licensed lawn care service, and it is not a replacement for one. We are working professionals sharing what we know.
What we cover
- Lawn health and problems: holes, grubs, brown patch, dying grass, soil temperature timing, seasonal checklists.
- Pest and bug ID: the small crawlers, biters and borers of the American yard, with photos and lookalike charts.
- Plant and tree ID: oaks, weeds, poison ivy and the rest of the cast of characters.
- Yard fixes: drainage, grading, edges and the projects that keep a yard healthy.
- Equipment comparisons: mowers and tools compared on price, specs and real use, with dated pricing.
Get in touch
Found a photo of a grub that we missed, a state where the timing is different, or a correction to make? We read everything, and the contact page is open. If you catch a mistake, you are doing us a favor.