Lebanon · Whitestown · Zionsville · Frankfort
There's one lawn on every street that just looks better than the rest. Thicker. Greener. No weeds anywhere you look. That's what we're after on every yard we take on.
We do this with Opti-Rate technology, which lets us put down the right amount of treatment at the right time. No over treating. No excess. Just the optimal amount to get optimal results.
6
Visits between spring and fall
1
Person on your yard, every time
Our work
Real properties on our route here in Boone County. No stock photos, no borrowed before and afters.
What you get
You're not really buying six applications. You're buying how the place looks in July, and how little you had to do to get it there.
Why it works
Every company in this business can buy more or less the same materials. What separates one lawn from the next is whether the right amount actually made it to the ground, evenly, across the whole yard. That turns out to be harder than it sounds, and it's the part we went after.
Our sprayer meters what it puts out down to the square foot, so your grass gets what it needs and nothing past that. We also run at low pressure, which makes the droplets heavier. Heavier droplets drop onto the turf instead of drifting off into your beds and vegetable garden.
The same amount lands on the first foot of your yard and the last. No light strips where weeds work their way back in, no heavy overlaps that stress the grass and show up as streaking once the heat sets in. Consistency is what makes a lawn look finished.
Our machine has a system on it called Opti-Rate. It came out of agricultural spraying, where this has been standard for years, and it's still pretty new on the lawn side. As best we can tell we're the only ones running it in Boone County right now.
This is the technical section. If you just want a good looking yard, skip it and go look at the programs. If you're the sort of person who likes knowing what's actually going on out there, here it is.
01 / How much comes out
On most sprayers there's one way to put down less, and that's to drop the pressure. Trouble is, pressure also controls how big the droplets are. Take pressure out and the spray turns into a fine mist that blows wherever the wind is going. Leave it in and you're putting down more than the lawn needs.
Opti-Rate gets around that. It leaves the pressure alone and pulses the nozzles open and shut instead, changing how long each one stays open. The droplets stay the same size the whole time. The only thing that changes is how much comes out. That's how we can run light and still hit the rate we're supposed to.
The pulse length sets the rate. Pressure never moves, so the spray never turns to mist.
02 / Going around things
When a sprayer swings around a tree, the far end of the boom travels a lot farther than the near end does in the same couple of seconds. On a normal machine that means the far end comes up short and the near end gets doubled up. Every turn. Every time.
A yard is mostly turns. Around the beds, around the mailbox, at the end of every pass. Opti-Rate adjusts each nozzle on its own the whole way through the turn, so both ends of the boom put down the same amount. When a lawn greens up patchy, this is usually what's behind it.
Flow steps up toward the outside of the boom so both ends put down the same rate.
03 / Speed
The machine puts out more when it speeds up and less when it slows down, on its own. Tight around your landscaping we're barely moving. Out in the open we're moving right along. What lands on the grass is the same either way.
Nothing gets guessed at and nothing gets adjusted on the fly. It reads ground speed and corrects itself while we drive. The rate printed on the label is the rate your lawn gets, which is where the name came from.
*Opti-Rate is a trademark of Steel Green Manufacturing.
Speed and output move together, so the amount landing per thousand square feet holds steady.
How a season runs
A lawn program is a schedule more than it's a one time job. Here's how ours goes.
01
Your property gets measured before we quote it. Satellite tools come up short more often than not, and a yard that measures short is a yard that gets treated short.
02
The rate gets set for your grass, your soil and where we are in the year. Not one setting run across every yard on the route because it's easier.
03
The machine holds that rate through the turns, the slopes and everything in the way. Mixing happens inside the enclosed trailer, not out on your driveway.
04
Six visits between spring and fall, each one timed to what the lawn needs at that point in the year rather than to a date on a calendar.
The machine
The Steel Green is a stand-on unit and it turns tight, so a small lot in a subdivision and a two acre property both get the same accuracy off the same machine. Nothing gets swapped out for a hose and a hand wand when the yard gets small or awkward.
Everything gets mixed inside the enclosed trailer instead of out in the open. And because Opti-Rate lets us run at low pressure, the droplets stay heavy enough to land where we point them.
Season programs
Pick your yard size and we'll show you what all three programs run for the whole year. Every application is included. Nothing gets billed per visit.
Not sure? Most subdivision lots run 8,000 to 15,000 sq ft. Pick the closest one. We verify it on site.
Put in your details and your pricing shows up right away. We'll follow up with an exact number once we've measured the property.
Pick a yard size above and we'll show pricing for it.
No obligation. We don't sell your information and we won't call you five times a day.
5 visits / April through September
See pricing
pricing shows after you pick your yard size
6 visits / April through September
See pricing
pricing shows after you pick your yard size
6 visits / Season long protection
See pricing
pricing shows after you pick your yard size
These are season totals, not per visit prices. We confirm the final number after we measure the property. Satellite estimates come in low more often than they don't, and we'd rather tell you that now than surprise you later. Pay in full and take 8% off any program.
Beyond the lawn
Any of these can be added onto a season program. We're already on site six times a year, so most of them don't cost you anything in scheduling.
Pulling cores opens up packed soil so water, air and fertilizer can get down to the roots instead of running off the top. Seeding right behind it drops new grass into those openings while the ground is still warm.
Why fall: Seed that goes down in September gets established over winter and comes up thick in spring. On a thin lawn it's the best money you can spend.
We treat a barrier around the foundation, doors, windows, eaves and any outbuildings. That takes care of ants, spiders and the general crowd that starts looking for a way inside once it cools off.
How long it lasts: Six to eight weeks per treatment. Two treatments gets most houses through the season.
Treatment across the turf and along the shaded edges where ticks live. Fence lines, the base of trees, and wherever the yard runs into landscaping or woods.
Who needs it: Anybody with dogs, kids, or a tree line on the property. Ticks don't stay in the woods.
For the summer diseases that show up in Indiana humidity. Brown patch, dollar spot, and the heat stress that lets them get a foothold in the first place.
Timing: Fungicide does a lot more good before you see symptoms than after, which is why it's built into Complete and Total.
Grubs work on the roots underground for weeks before anything shows up on top. By the time the turf pulls back like carpet the damage is already done and you're starting over with seed.
Included: Grub control comes with Complete. Total steps it up to season long coverage that takes care of surface feeders too.
Fungicide and insect treatment for ornamentals, foundation plantings and smaller trees. It's the part of a property that usually gets ignored until something starts dying.
Coming in 2027: We're working on it now. Ask about it when we come quote the lawn.
Who shows up
I farmed for a long time, and the part I liked best was never the seat time. It was sitting down with the crop consultants after harvest and going through what worked, what didn't, and why.
A lawn is that same puzzle on a smaller piece of ground. Soil, feeding, timing, pressure from weeds and bugs. A hundred small calls that either add up to a yard people notice or they don't.
When I put this program together I didn't just order what a supplier told me to order. I spent about a month going through several of them, comparing what was actually in each one, what the research said, what it cost, and whether there was something better out there. You can't see any of that from the curb. But it's the difference between a program somebody built on purpose and one that got handed to them.
The equipment was the same story. Variable rate spraying has been normal on the farm side for years, so I went and found the machine that does it for lawns. Then I named the company after the part that matters.
Jay Slipher
Owner, Exact Rate Turf
Boone County, Indiana
Every yard is different. Different soil, different history, different weed pressure. What doesn't change is that if your lawn isn't coming along the way it should, we're back out there before you have to ask twice.
Where we work
We keep the routes tight on purpose. Less driving means more time on your yard, and it means we can swing back through when something needs another look.
Questions
Everything we put down has a rate printed on the label, a specific amount per thousand square feet that's been tested to work. The hard part in this business has always been holding that rate while the machine speeds up, slows down and works around obstacles. Ours reads ground speed and adjusts each nozzle to match, so what's on the label is what ends up on your grass. That's the whole company in a sentence and it's where the name came from.
Because it doesn't work, and my name is on the result either way. Crabgrass prevention has to go down before it germinates. Feeding has to line up with how the grass is growing. You have to keep pressure off it through the summer. One visit in June treats what you can see that day and that's about it, and by August the lawn looks about how it would have anyway. I'd rather tell you that up front and pass on the job than take the money and have you unhappy.
It's the rate control system on our sprayer, built by Steel Green along with CapstanAG, who brought this technology to farming years ago. Short version: most sprayers change how much they put down by changing the pressure, and pressure is also what determines droplet size. That's where drift and uneven coverage come from. Opti-Rate leaves pressure alone and pulses the nozzles instead. What that means for you is even coverage, no fine mist blowing into your beds, and the correct amount on the yard instead of an average of too much here and not enough there.
Everything we put down is labeled for residential lawns and applied at label rates by a licensed applicator, which is exactly what the rate controlled equipment is for. You'll get a clear time on when it's fine to be back on the grass, usually once it's dried. Everything gets mixed inside the closed trailer, not out in the open on your driveway.
Then we tell you before we start instead of after. Satellite measuring tools run low. We've seen properties come in twelve or thirteen thousand square feet under what was really there. The pricing on this page is a starting point. The real number comes after we measure it, and you'll see it before anything gets scheduled.
You're signing up for a season, not a decade. Pay as you go through the year or pay it all up front and take 8% off. Nothing rolls over automatically and there's no cancellation fee buried on page four.
First treatments go down in April and the program runs through September, with aeration and overseeding in the fall. If you're signing on partway through we'll build a schedule around what's left in the year. The earlier you get started, the better it looks going into next spring.
Jay does. It's an owner operated business, so the person who quotes your yard is the same one out there treating it and the same one who answers the phone when you've got a question about a spot in the back corner. That's on purpose, and it's the main reason we grow at a pace we can keep up with.
For most subdivision lots in Lebanon, Whitestown or Zionsville, a full season runs a few hundred dollars depending on which of the three programs you pick and how much grass you have. Use the calculator above for a real range on your yard size, then we confirm the exact number after measuring the property.
Get started
Send us the address. We'll come measure it, put real numbers together for all three programs, and tell you straight which one your lawn actually needs. If it doesn't need the top one, we'll say so.
