How and When to Fertilize Your Lawn
How & When to Fertilize Your Lawn? Your lawn is an important addition to your home. And a place where you have family gatherings and where your kids play. When it’s healthy, you are proud of it, but like any living thing, it needs the proper care to thrive. After carefully observing it for a few weeks, you realize that it needs attention.
Let’s look at things to consider when deciding how much fertilizer to apply and when is the ideal time to do so.
How To Fertilize Your Lawn
The process of fertilizing your lawn is easy but deciding how to apply fertilizer can be challenging. Your lawn’s appearance and habits are largely determined by the nutrients it gets. There are three primary ways to go about the whole aspect of how to fertilize your lawn:
- The first is applying it with a spreader. This is especially beneficial for large areas where manually spreading fertilizer can result in uneven coverage and burned patches where fertilizer is applied too heavily.
- The second way to apply lawn fertilizer is by using a fertilizer stick or powder. This is great for smaller areas that can be fertilized effectively with less waste (it’s impossible to get the same even coverage as you can through a spreader).
- The third way to apply lawn fertilizer is simply by spreading it by hand on bare patches of grass. While this isn’t going to provide anywhere near the same coverage as a spreader, it’s an easy way to fix small areas of thin, dead grass without spending unnecessary money on extra fertilizer
Additional Tips on How To Fertilize Your Lawn
- Regardless of how accurate your spreader is, it is still a good idea to use some kind of guide when spreading fertilizer. Tape measures will work as long as you cut it down to the length of the spreader. Use pieces of wood or PVC pipe to lay across the lawn and make sure each trip lays down about the same amount of fertilizer.
- Fertilizing a lawn is not hard to do, but you do need to apply the right fertilizer and get it down deep into the soil. When applying fertilizer, you should always wear garden gloves and eye protection.
- After application, thoroughly water the lawn to ensure the fertilizer makes it down to the roots. You’ll also want to water immediately after you spread your lawn fertilizer even if you have used granular fertilizer because it will wash into your lawn as well.
- When applying your lawn fertilizer, make sure that children and pets stay off your lawn for at least a day or two. This is how long it typically takes for the fertilizer to settle completely.
When To Fertilize Your Lawn
For the lawn owner who wants to learn when to fertilize their lawn, there are several factors involved. This includes grass type, climate, fertilizer type, and soil type and application method.
Lawns change with the seasons and sometimes you may think it’s time to fertilize when in fact, it’s not. It’s important to use a soil test kit to measure your lawn’s pH level (acidity) and nutrient levels. Then, you will know for sure if your lawn needs fertilizer or not.
Most lawns benefit from a spring application of fertilizer and that too at the start of their germinating season. Most lawns will also respond well to an application in the fall. Fall applications of fertilizer are typically used to stimulate root growth over the winter months and should be applied just before or after grass begins to enter its dormancy phase in late September or early October.
Hence, spring and fall are the best times to fertilize your yard. This will help increase root growth, which is essential for their health in the long term.
Moreover, choosing a lawn fertilizer can be a little overwhelming when you’re trying to pick out the best product for your lawn. The first thing to remember is that there are three major types of lawn fertilizers: natural, synthetic and organic. And fertilizer labels will also recommend a fertilizer amount per application. This is based on the type of fertilizer and how much coverage is necessary for a particular area.
Are you ready to fertilize your lawn?
Fertilizing has become an important part of lawn care over the years. When done correctly, you will have a greener (and more vibrant) lawn with just the right amount of nutrients. If you skip steps or don’t pay attention to intricate instructions, it can end up damaging your lawn further. Instead of getting that great yard you’re looking for.
Lawn care can be challenging to manage in your spare time, especially with the pressure of a hectic daily schedule. If you’re too busy to feed your lawn, finding a reliable professional can be a great way to save time. We at Grass Gators will make sure that your turf is in good hands. We handle all the lawn fertilization and maintenance for you, so you can focus on your daily responsibilities.