Lawn Fertilizer Treatment

Fertilizer and Lawns

• In addition to giving your lawn a healthy look, fertilizing your grass can make it more resistant to extreme weather, disease and pests. However, giving your lawn too much, too little or the wrong type of fertilizer can all have deleterious effects that threaten the health and life of your lawn. You can design a simple lawn fertilizer treatment for your grasses with some careful consideration.

Types of Fertilizer

• The choice of fertilizer depends on the species of grass, soil conditions and climate. In general, a fertilizer with a high nitrogen content should be applied when the lawn is first established, and potassium- and phosphorus-rich fertilizers should be applied before new lawn seeds are planted. Test your soil on your own or have it tested by a university extension service to determine its nutritional needs. Remember that the three numbers printed on bags of fertilizer (its NPK rating) indicate that fertilizer's concentration, by weight, of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). So if your soil test indicates that your lawn needs more nitrogen than potassium or phosphorus, purchase a fertilizer with a higher concentration of nitrogen (the first in the series of three numbers) than the two other elements.

When to Fertilize

• If the grass in your lawn is characterized as "high-maintenance" (Kentucky bluegrass, turf-type perennial ryegrass, etc.), a once-yearly dose of three to four pounds of high-nitrogen fertilizer per 1,000 square feet is recommended. Low-maintenance grasses such as creeping red fescue, chewings fescue, hard fescue and the like will only require one to two pounds of nitrogen-rich fertilizer per 1,000 square feet of lawn per year. Remember that these are generalized guidelines and that your fertilization schedule should be based primarily on your soil's specific nutritional needs and the conditions in your geographic area.

Application Tips

• In gardening supply stores, you are likely to find specialized fertilizers that promise to make your lawn hardy in cold weather or protect your lawn from weed growth. You will also find "lawn starter" fertilizers especially for newly seeded lawns. Using these fertilizers can be beneficial, but be sure to understand their potential side effects. For example, synthetic chemicals used in pre-emergent herbicidal "weed and feed" fertilizers can sometimes have harmful effects on your grass.