How do I Fertilize my Lawn?

As the weather starts warming up, it’s a good idea to get your lawn ready for the season. When it comes to fertilizing your lawn in the springtime, it’s best to wait to fertilize until you’ve mowed your lawn, preferably twice, before you add any fertilizer. Lawns require a sort of “Goldilocks” approach. Here’s exactly what you need to know to grow a healthy lawn.

Once the days start getting nicer and things start popping out of the ground, everyone is anxious to get out there and get your lawn and garden started for the season. You are going to want to exercise some patience. Even though the grass is starting to green up, you want to wait to fertilize your yard until you’ve mowed once, preferably twice. This will help your grass’ roots have a good chance to get established and create strong plants before you encourage any growth.

When you’re looking for a fertilizer in the spring, you want something with a higher nitrogen content and a little bit on the tail end of that potassium to give those roots what they need as well. When you’re looking at the numbers on a fertilizer you’ll see N, P, and K. N stands for nitrogen. The reason why you want higher nitrogen is because you want to give those plants what they need to green up and start going. The P stands for phosphorus. Phosphorus is good for stem and root development. For our needs right now, you don’t really need to worry about that as much. K stands for potassium. Potassium helps to give roots good support.

It’s so important to read the directions on your fertilizer carefully to figure out how much you need to apply. If you apply too little, you’re not giving your lawn enough food to grow big and strong. If you apply too much, you can risk burning your lawn or promoting growth that is more susceptible to disease or other issues. You want to make sure you apply it just right, like Goldilocks, so that you get a nice green, healthy, lawn. Look into getting a lawn spreader to help distribute just the right amount of product for your lawn.

Once you apply your lawn fertilizer, you need to make sure that you water your lawn within a couple of hours. This will help to prevent your lawn from burning because with the higher nitrogen content of your fertilizer, it’s also going to be harder on those new leaves. You can turn your lawn’s sprinklers on, or just use a backyard hose to make sure that you cover the same area you just covered in fertilizer, with water. Make sure that your lawn is well watered. With that, you’re going to be all set for the season!

If you’re looking for a good fertilizer, we would recommend All-Purpose 16-16-16 Fertilizer. This wonderful product can help feed your trees, shrubs, evergreens, flowers, vegetables, and lawns. It contains fast-acting nitrogen for a rich green color. 

The Scotts Turf Builder Edgeguard Mini Broadcast Spreader holds up to 5,000 sq ft of product. This lawn spreader comes pre-calibrated and fully assembled with a fold-down handle for easy storage. It also features EdgeGuard Technology that helps to keep your fertilizer off landscaping, driveways, and sidewalks!

Make sure that you have enough water for your lawn for after you fertilize. If you don’t have a built-in sprinkler system, a standard backyard hose will work just fine. We recommend the Flexzilla Garden Hose because it’s lightweight, abrasion resistant, and it has a kink resistant design! No more fighting against your hose when you’re trying to water your lawn or coil it up after use. It also offers extreme, all-weather flexibility.