How To Fertilize Your Lawn

Why is it important to fertilize a lawn some may wonder? Isn't it enough to just water it and mow regularly? Fertilizer provides your lawn with nutrients that soil lacks, keeping your lawn healthy by aiding in the recovery of foot and pest damage,
creating new leaf and root growth, and reducing weeds. All of this works to give you the beautiful lawn you hoped for. Now, how do you fertilize a lawn?

Before you fertilize a lawn, you want to identify whether you have warm season or cool season grass. Most of the US is transitional, so you can tell by warm season grass turning brown after the first frost and cool season grass staying green year round.

The next step to get a beautiful lawn is finding the pH level of your soil. This will help you determine what kind of fertilizer is best for your yard. A pH range of 6.0 to 7.0 are the best conditions to grow quality grass.

The last step is to measure the size of your yard. When you fertilize a lawn you have to know how much fertilizer you will need. The fertilizer package will tell you how many square feet it covers, so you need to determine the square footage of your yard. You can do this by multiplying the length of your lawn by its width, and then subtract the square footage of the house, driveway and all other areas not being fertilized.

If fertilizing cool season grasses, you will fertilize heavy in the fall and lightly or not at all in the spring. When the temperature is between 60-70 degrees, cool season grass grows the best. You want to place the fertilizer so it is effective before severe cold weather comes. If you do decide to fertilize a lawn in the spring, make sure to lay the fertilizer before the warm weather of summer comes.

Warm season grasses grow best between 80-95 degrees depending on the region, so it is best to start growing this grass in late spring and summer. As the lawn begins to turn green in spring, it is the right time to start fertilizing. Make sure to the fertilizer is used up before the warmest part of the summer, and then fertilize again after the peak of the summer to ensure you get a beautiful lawn.

When actually fertilizing a lawn, there are five easy steps to follow. First, make sure the spreader and fertilizer are dry. Next, set the rate-of-flow according to the fertilizer bag, but if you have any doubt it is better to fertilize less then more. Then you close the hopper vent and begin filling the hopper slowly with the spreader placed on a hard surface. As you begin spreading the fertilizer, spread it in a criss-cross manner evenly across the lawn. Finally, clean the spreader thoroughly and you are done fertilizing a lawn that easily.

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