Spring means it’s time to step up with your lawn care program. It’s a good time of year to think about fertilizer.
Your grass gets hungry, especially after a long, harsh winter. You need to feed your lawn periodically. When it’s time to shop for fertilizer, it’s a good idea to choose a slow-release product. You can find these products at local gardening shops or at any of your big home improvement chains stores.
Slow-release fertilizers release their nutrients over time, rather than all at once. This helps prevent your grass from becoming a “fast eater”. Instead, your grass is able to feed itself at a more leisurely pace. As nutrients are released and absorbed into the lawn, the root system helps fill the bare patches of the lawn. This is bad news for weeds, who are deprived of a place to germinate.
Slow-release fertilizer can also mean less actual fertilizing. “Lawn experts say lawns treated with slow-release fertilizer can go six to eight weeks without food, instead of the four weeks usually recommended.
You also want to check the amount of nitrogen in the slow-release fertilizer. One landscaper recommends giving your lawn about two to three pounds of nitrogen over the entire growing season. Too much nitrogen can hurt your lawn and make it easy to burn, so be wary about purchasing a high nitrogen fertilizer.
Consider having your soil tested before you fertilize. This will help you determine things like how much fertilizer your lawn needs.