Lawn Care: Fertilizing Your Lawn

After countless days and arduous task of completing your dream garden, now it’s time to maintain the luscious green on your lawn. Lawn care is an important task to maintain the aesthetic appearance of your garden. One of the main lawn care method that comes to mind is fertilization. Fertilization provides the proper nutrients to keep your lawn healthy and green, however it’s possible to overdo it. Lawns that are over-fertilized have overgrowth of grass and weeds that destroys the health of your garden that is why it’s important to understand the proper way of fertilizing your lawn.

Before you begin fertilizing your lawn, dig a sample of your soil, place it in a soil test kit, and send them to an agricultural lab for analysis. The lab results will show you if there’s any pest issues or infectious agent present in your lawn. It also reveals the pH of your soils, and if the pH is between the range of 6.0-7.0, then you have a well-balanced lawn. In order to balance the pH of your lawn, apply lime to acidic soils and sulfur to alkaline soils. Once you ensure that your lawn is fully healthy, it’s time to begin the fertilization process. The first step is to purchase a drop spreader to apply one pound of nitrogen fertilizer per 1,000 square feet to your lawn. In addition, you should also try using a slow-release law fertilizer, even though it’s more expensive, but it provides proper nutrients and is less likely to burn your plants or pollute the ground water. Afterwards, water your lawn for thirty minutes to prevent root burn and to activate the fertilizers.

One of the many mistakes that gardeners make is fertilizing the lawns in early spring. This is a major problem because it would stimulate the lush top growth at the expense of root development. In addition, many beginners tend to use manure as fertilizer, this could be a problem because manure tends to burn grass root if it’s not decomposed properly. If you follow these instructions carefully and avoid all the common mistakes, you will be able to maintain a lush green lawn for your garden throughout the year.