I cut it really short last year before the winter since I only planned on cutting a couple of times before this season.
This first cut I left pretty high (around 3") and plan on leaving the mower deck this high for the rest of the year. I don't bag the clippings as I have a mulching mower and it seems to work pretty well from what I have seen in the limited uses.
I had estimates from a few different companies one of which was Scott's who wanted almost $800/year for their services, needless to say I turned them down pretty quick. The lawn guy came with great recommendations from a person at my girlfriends work and while I don't have anything against doing it myself, right now it just works better having someone come out to do it for me until I can get more into the routine of actually having a yard to do stuff in now after having lived in an apartment for the last 9+ years.
I'm hoping that between his trips out I can spot kill some of the weeds and get everything ready to seed this fall, right now there is too many of those damn purple weeds that once they are all gone I will have plenty of bare spots that will need attention. No point in trying to seed now since the weed killer will probably stop the seed from germinating and just be a waste of my time and money.
We have been getting quite a bit of rain so I haven't had to water I plan on setting up a watering schedule though to help things out, and putting in a sprinkler system just isn't an option at this time, however could work itself into the mix in the next couple of years.
FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamium_purpureum
red or purple deadnettle.
Now to kill this shit.