Your house is your castle. The lawn is your own private domain. Here in this one patch of land you are free to make the decisions. You can have a big lawn or a small one. You can leave it all up to nature or carefully place down turf. Either way this is a responsibility. If you opt for the green shaved appearance of turf than you need to consider the various turf fertilizer options.
If you want green turf, then you must carefully maintain the turf fertilizer and always use the correct amount. Too little and the turf won’t have enough nutrients to grow, too much and the lawn might dehydrate and develop brown patches.
There are labels for turf fertilizer you should become familiar with before you start maintaining your lawn. You’ll find turf fertilizers are each given 3 numbers representing the 3 nutrients they contain.
To keep a good green lawn the turf fertilizer needs to contain nitrogen (N), often found in decaying matter potassium (K) found in fruits, and phosphorus (P). The ratio listed on the bag will usually be N-P-K so a 15 pound bag of turf with 5 percent Nitrogen, 5 percent Phosphorus and 10 percent potassium would be listed as 15-5-10.
The rest of the bag will contain other ingredients your lawn needs such as weed and insect killer, fungicides, as well as iron and sulfur.
There are also inert fillers in most turf fertilizers and this important since most are made up of salts, which can build up and cause the lawn damage. The ratio is important because in order to keep a turf lawn green and attractive each turf fertilizer component must be in the correct amount.
For example, too much phosphorus (P) on your lawn and the bind up the iron in the soil cause the grass to turn yellow. If you use too much nitrogen (N) you’ll have a healthy looking green turf for awhile, but this will cause the grass to grow too fast.
You’ll have to water and mow constantly or the grass could over grow and again, there will be yellowing as the stalks start to wither. The best bet for a healthy lawn is a slow release form of turf fertilizer with a 50% ratio of nitrogen.