Green, healthy grass is the neighborhood standard. Many homeowners take their beautiful lawns as a point of pride and a calming hobby to maintain. This is why lawns have become so important to today’s homeowners and renters.
However, maintaining a lawn is often not quite as easy as it looks. Weeds are desperate to grow and all different kinds of things can cause patches of your lawn to die.
You can use professionals like TruGreen Lawn to handle the problem for you.
This is why fertilizers and lawn care are so important to the basic maintenance of your yard. Check for reputable services like: https://www.lawncare.net/service-areas/florida/ to give you a great idea of what professionals offer and at what prices.
Knowing the best fertilizers and lawn maintenance habits to keep your lawn looking its best is the most effective way to make your lawn look its best as long as possible.
Lawn care is very necessary if you want your lawn looking great all mowing season long. Here is an easy guide to fertilizers and lawn care to help you make your lawn look its best.
1. What Kind of Grass
The first step to properly taking care of your grass is knowing what kind of grass you have. Lawns are usually made up of one of two types of grasses that grow well together and will likely require similar care.
These grasses can include Bermuda grass, ryegrass, zoysiagrass, St Augustine grass, and more depending on where you live and what kind of lawn you have.
Researching to find what kind of grass grows in your lawn can be as easy as researching common lawn grass and going through them until you find the one that most closely resembles your lawn.
Finding out what kind of grass you are working with will help you immensely when trying to care for your lawn. It makes it much easier to find the best fertilizers and care tips for your lawn.
This step is also very necessary so you can find out if your grass is the best one for your area and your needs. If your grass is having trouble flourishing then the problem might be the kind of grass you have and not the care you are giving it.
Narrowing down the issue to a care problem, a fertilizer problem or a problem with the grass itself will give you a great jumping-off point.
2. Test Your Soil
Before you can choose the perfect organic fertilizer product for your lawn you need to know what your grass is lacking. This requires knowing what nutrients your yard is lacking so you know what it needs to help it become healthy.
A soil test is the best way to find out what nutrients your yard has and which nutrients is could use some help with.
Your main yard nutrients are going to be potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen. A lack of or too much of one of these nutrients could be the problem your grass is having. Knowing which of these your yard needs will help you choose the perfect fertilizer.
On a fertilizer, you will find the letters N-P-K. These stand for those three nutrients and will inform you how much of each the fertilizer you are looking at has in it.
If you need more potassium in your lawn then you will be looking for a fertilizer that thoughts more K than others might.
3. Which Application
Once you test your soil and find out what kind of grass you have, it is time to pick how you want to apply your fertilizer. There are two different types of fertilizer: granular and spray.
Choosing which method you want to use to apply your fertilizer will help narrow down fertilizer options and help you understand how to care for your grass using that method of fertilization.
Spray fertilizer is probably the more popular of the two options. It provides more even coverage all over your lawn so you do not have any dead patches or patches with too much coverage.
It also takes away the need to water your grass after fertilization or wait for the rain to fertilize your lawn.
However, granulated fertilizer also has its benefits that can not be ignored. Granulated fertilizer has a slower release which means it lasts longer and you can go further in-between applications.
They also do not require a hose and work with the rain in your area, unlike spray fertilizer.
4. When To Apply
When you know what kind of fertilizer you need to give your yard the proper nutrients and you know how you want to apply your fertilizer, all that is left is when to start fertilizing. This depends on where you live and what kind of grass you are working with.
However, the general rule is apply at the beginning of the growing season or when your soil hits fifty-five-degrees Fahrenheit
This changes depending on your environment as some areas have warm enough weather to grow year-round and others can expect their growing season to start in the spring.
Once you find out when your growing season begins then you just have to read the back of the fertilizer you have chosen to use.
Your fertilizer should tell you how often you need to apply it to the grass for the best results. This will help you find the right schedule for applying fertilizer so that you do not over fertilizer your yard or under fertilize, either of which could lead to dead grass.
Once you have a schedule that works for your lawn you should be set until it gets too cold for your grass to grow.
5. Don’t Forget To Water
A common issue is that once people start using fertilizer they neglect the other ways to care for their lawn. Fertilizer is not a cure-all for lawn issues. Fertilizer is like food for your grass and soil, it still needs basic care aside from just feeding.
The more you water your yard the more fertilizer you will need. If you live in a rainy environment you probably do not need to be watering your grass very often, but you will still need to make sure your grass is being watered regularly.
Living in a dry environment is going to mean you will need to water very regularly and that you will likely be using more fertilizer during the growing months.
Mowing your lawn is also still going to be necessary to keep your grass healthy and growing properly. Even just checking your soil a few times a year to make sure your fertilizer is giving your soil what it needs can be very helpful for caring for your lawn.
Caring for your entire lawn as well as fertilizing is what is going to give your the healthiest, most beautiful lawn.
Conclusion
Fertilizer is food for your lawn which makes it incredibly necessary for having the most healthy yard possible.
Whether you’re in a business and want to own a lawn care franchise or just want the best looking lawn on the block, the above steps are your guide to successful results.
Know what your lawn needs in fertilizer and then find the right fertilizer with the right application for your home. This is the best way to care for your lawn and keep it looking beautiful.
