How to Fertilize Your Lawn
Fertilizing your lawn is a fairly simple process if you know all you need to know. It can really help your lawn grow to its fullest, healthiest potential. It can help control your weed growth, restore your lawn from foot traffic and pest damage, help keep the nutrients in your grass, plus many other benefits. If done wrong, though, it can burn and kill your lawn. Here’s the basics on how to fertilize your lawn.
1. Before you even try to figure out what kind of fertilizer you need to buy, figure out what kind of grass you have. Cool-season grass flourishes when winter and the heat waves of summer are over and warm-season grass grows when it’s hot outside, like in the summer.
2. If you have applied fertilizer to your lawn before, a slow-release type of fertilizer is probably best. It will last longer on your lawn and deliver a consistent amount of nutrients over a few weeks period. Fast release fertilizers are often cheaper but can burn your lawn easier. They are good for plants that need nutrients at certain times though.
3. Once your grass type is decided, it’s time to find some fertilizer. In general, don’t use a fertilizer that has too much fertilizer when it’s too warm outside. The three numbers on the outside of the fertilizer bag will let you know how much nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are in it. These chemicals are represented by the letters NPK.
4. Now you need to have a spreader for the fertilizer. The fastest spreader would be a rotary spreader compared to a drop spreader. Don’t fill the spreader on the yard, and make sure you are already pushing when you turn it on. REMEMBER: Always wear gloves when dealing with fertilizer, that starts with loading it into your spreader.
5. The best time to begin fertilizing is in the early morning when the grass is still damp with dew. When pushing the spreader, it’s best to overlap the edges of each line you make.
6. If you have flower gardens you should be careful using fertilizer around them. You might even want to use a drop spreader around the beds to avoid spreading fertilizer in them.
7. When you’re done spreading the fertilizer around your yard the last step is to thoroughly wash the spreader. Be sure to do this after each use.
Theses are all of the basic things you need to know about getting your grass greener. You can always ask a store associate for help when choosing your fertilizer and it never hurts to do a little extra research when trying to keep your yard healthy. Of course, these are the first steps to keep in mind!
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