Lawn fertilizer

How does lawn fertilizer work?

Everyone wants to have the most beautiful lawn on the block. And to get this we often spend countless hours and dollars to make it just right. But are we always doing it the right way? Knowing the right ingredients to add to your lawn can make a big difference in the long run in both time and money. For example, if you do not feed your lawn, like any other living organism, it will die. But what types of food do our lawns need?

Food for our lawns is referred to as fertilizer. And the best kind of fertilizer for your lawn must included nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. With these simple key ingredients you can have yourself the most lush and beautiful lawn in your neighborhood. But how exactly are these ingredients useful to your lawn?

First of all, nitrogen is the most important of the three and what it does is give your grass the richness in color that you so love. Furthermore, it ensures that its growth is strong, dense, and thick. All of this promotes a healthy environment for your grass. And what’s more, a strong and healthy lawn will naturally repel all sorts of insects and pests.

Now with potassium come the same strength building materials needed for your lawn care, but in a more concentrated way. What this element does for your lawn is it works directly with the roots and foliage of your grass. The result of this is a higher resistance to drought, wear and tear, disease, and colder weather. This is particularly important to those that live in areas that get dry summers and cold winters.

The last element being phosphorus works deeper below the surface to ensure strong root growth. In turn, this ensures that you have a healthier topsoil, and a much healthier lawn overall. And now that you have a good idea of what exactly you need in a fertilizer, we can move onto the basics of buying it.

Now, although you can find fertilizers containing all of these elements at your local garden center or nursery, it is important to first know what your type of grass needs are. This is because each bag will have a specific amount of each element in it. For example, a good fertilizer blend for preparing your grass for winter would need to be higher in potassium.

If you are not sure, just look at the time of year, your climate, the soil type (a ph test can help here), and of course, the type of grass you have and it’s current health condition. One you have these questions answered you can then compare them to the information above on each element to help you decide what you may need most. However, once you know the amounts, you will also have to decide which form of fertilizer you will need as the choices are liquids, granular, synthetic, and organic. For this choice, price, need, and preference all come into play.

Ok, so once you have picked out the type of fertilizer you want, you need to decide on how often to use it. While most yards only need it once a year, depending on where you live you may need it more than once. Because of this, before you leave the store, be sure to read the label and see how often you need to use it otherwise over use could lead to fertilizer burn.

And finally, pay close attention to the growing season of each plant you are using the fertilizer on. For example, for warm season grasses, you need to use it in the early spring or summer, and for cooler seasoned grasses, you would need to use it both in the early spring and late fall. Furthermore, making sure you apply it when the grass is dry will have better effects. Then all that is left to do is to water it all down so that the nutrients get down into the roots and soil.