We Tested Sunday’s Custom Lawn Care Kits on 2 Withered NY & CA Yards—And the Photos Speak for Themselves

Anyone who’s wandered the lawn care section of Home Depot knows how easy it is to get overwhelmed by options, polling employees while frantically Googling packages to figure out what, exactly, you need. That’s the first pro of using Sunday: You answer a quick questionnaire about your yard and its location—which is as easy to follow as a Buzzfeed quiz—to get product recommendations based on your lawn’s climate and needs. From there, we signed up for the Smart Lawn Plan, aka a year of seasonal boxes that include things like lawn nutrient packs, weed control sprays and grass seed.

Within a week, our boxes arrived in New York and California, along with a soil test kit. Our first task: Dig up bits of sand, omitting any rocks or greenery, and send it off to Sunday HQ to be analyzed, so that future shipments could be even more specifically tailored to our yards’ needs.

“I didn't have to wait to get my lawn healthier, since there were a couple pouches of lawn nutrients that I could attach to my hose and just spray over the lawn,” says senior editor Dana Dickey, whose LA yard served as our second test subject.

My New York lawn needed a bit more love, so my kit included a dandelion killer and weed control, which I needed to spray on each bloom a week before I could spritz my lawn with the nutrient packs to feed the existing grass. So, on that note…

Does It Take Care of Weeds?

It sure does. The morning after using Dandelion Doom (an actual product, not a Marvel supervillain…yet), the weeds in my yard had wilted and yellowed. Previously, they were the only thing that could thrive. Other weeds and crabgrass slowly died off too, leaving me worried my lawn would be patchier than ever. But that’s where the nutrients kicked in.

Like Dickey mentioned, it’s all a matter of attaching it to your hose (much like you would any spray nozzle) and watering your yard. Each kit comes with clear, easy-to-follow instructions that make the process—and timing of each step—practically foolproof.

Yeah, But How Green Does It Make Your Yard?

From there, we sprinkled the grass seed over our lawns. “I was amazed at how grass was able to grow in bare patches that had been too sun-scorched and sandy (i.e., bad soil) for anything to emerge before,” Dickey added (and I second).

I had paid lawn services in years past to fertilize and maintain my lawn, but my patchy areas remained, well, patchy. I was borderline convinced I’d need to resod to see the results my neighbors had, but now? Let’s just say the grass is finally greener (though not quite as full) on this side of the fence.

My lawn needed so much work—the Smart Lawn Plan, plus five pounds of Fescue Rescue grass seed (an amount they calculated based on my lawn’s size) and a mixed pack of weed control sprays—that it cost $181. (Full disclosure: Sunday covered this cost as part of the review.) However, considering I’ve spent more than that on professional services with far poorer results—and that I won’t need to spend as much to maintain my lawn going forward—my family is sold on continuing the investment.

Less than $200 a year feels incredibly reasonable for the results we’ve gotten, particularly given the peace of mind that we’re not loading our lawns with pesticides (so the kids and dogs can romp around carefree). Plus, you also have instant access to their pros to combat whatever Mother Nature—or whatever aphids or mealybugs—throw your way.

“Going forward, I'll reach out to Sunday via the open invitation and 800 number to ask how to deal with the upcoming hot, hot SoCal summer, in light of recent water rationing,” Dickey told me. “I expect that, as my lawn life coach, Sunday is going to help me, and my lawn, work not harder but smarter.” Hear, hear.

(Oh, and psst: Right now, you can use the code GET40 to get $40 off a Smart Lawn Plan.)