Cultivate a happy , levelheaded lawn all year long with a nutrient hike before block weather condition pass .
gain sure your lawn has all the nutrients it needs will go a long way towardkeeping it healthy and green . You may have heard that it ’s a dear estimate to apply a winter fertilizer to your lawn to help it brave the colder months and come back strong in springiness . While that may be honest in some face , it depend on thetype of grass you haveand where you live . That ’s because you need to add up food when Mary Jane roots are develop . For cool - season bluegrass , meadow fescue , or rye whisky grass , their most fighting root maturation happens in early twilight , and for warm - time of year grasses such as Bermuda grass , zoysia , and St. Augustine , they do better with a fertilizer rise in spring . Once you know your grass type , you ’ll be able to figure out exactlywhen your lawn take fertilizer .
Kelli Jo Emanuel / BHG
Credit:Kelli Jo Emanuel / BHG
When to Fertilize Cool-Season Grasses
Use this warm dominion of thumb for the good fourth dimension toadd winter fertilizerto your lawn : utilise in September , unless you live in the southerly third of the U.S. That ’s because the northern two - thirds of the U.S. is home to lawns withcool - season grassesor " transition " lawns with both cool - season and affectionate - season forage . Throwing a circle of fertiliser on your nerveless - season lawn in July is a waste material of money because in gamey summer , those grass roots are just biding their time , waiting for the temperatures to go back down so they can spread out some more . In addition to feed in September , you could add together a unaccented portion of plant food in spring and that should be all your cool - season lawn demand for the twelvemonth .
Best Fertilizer for Cool-Season Turfgrass
Nitrogen is plausibly all your lawn needs . N - P - K are the letter you ’ll see on fertiliser labelsand they stand for the key nutrients : Nitrogen ( N ) , phosphorus ( phosphorus ) , and potassium ( K ) . betting odds are your soil has plentifulness of P and potassium . In fact , in some states it is n’t even sound to buy lawn fertilizer with all those ingredientsunless you have a soil testto prove you need them .
Excess phosphorous can have major problem in waterways by encouraging algae , which throws off the equilibrium of the ecosystem that keeps the water clean-cut and fish and other aquatic life good for you . Dose your lawn with aslow - release nitrogen plant food ; the plant food bagful showing of N - phosphorus - K should have a adult issue in the first shoes and either zero point or smaller numbers for the other two nutrients , like 32 - 0 - 10 .
How to Apply Fertilizer to Cool-Season Lawns
Do n’t inseminate a dry lawn . or else , expect until the mean solar day after a pelting , when the soil is dampish . It ’s also skillful to clock time yourfertilizer applicationso there ’s at least a few days before the next rain so your fertilizer does n’t get washed away before it gets absorbed into the territory . Calculate how much fertiliser you ’ll call for for your lawn . Use a broadcaster or broadcaster , walking your lawn in a regular pattern to scatter the plant food as equally as possible .
State Laws About Fertilizing Lawns
Maryland protects the Chesapeake Bay from pollution by setting a crosscut engagement forfertilizing lawn : There is no lawn fertilizing allowed between November 16 and March 1 . Many states set atomic number 15 in lawn fertilizers , to bring down down on the phosphorus alga bloom that pollutes stream , river and lake .
