Secret #3 – Fertilizer
The fuel for the grass-growing engine.

Proper fertilization is essential to repairing a damaged lawn. Applied excessively or without an awareness of what kind to use each season can kill your lawn, so make sure you follow these tips from our post about fertilizer:

1. The best time to test your soil is in the fall or early spring.

2. Four granular fertilizations per year – that’s all your lawn could possibly need. You might not need all of them.

3. Buy a cheap pH meter and test your soil to see if you need to raise or lower the pH level – test your soil at a depth of six inches, you might have to dig some up to test.

4. pH is a measure of soil acidity. A pH of seven is neutral, a pH below seven is acidic, and a pH above seven is alkaline.

5. If you have acidic soil, apply limestone to your yard in the Fall; then, start a strict fertilization process the following Spring.

6. If you have alkaline soil, throw down some sulfur or gypsum. Organic compost can also increase soil acidity if applied regularly.

A typical year of fertilizer application looks like this:

1. In early Spring, apply a pre-emergent plus turf builder. We like to use an organic fertilizer like Milorganite. Milorganite has quite a bit less nitrogen than your typical Scotts fertilizer. So it’s not quite as hard on your lawn. This application helps build turf and make any weeds really uncomfortable before they become a stubborn problem. This also helps your soil prepare to absorb water in the upcoming rainy season.

2. In early Summer, apply a SummerGuard fertilizer and turf builder. Another round of Milorganite is totally acceptable here. This helps protect your lawn from upcoming heat.

3. In the Fall, apply the heaviest round of fertilizer just after the temperature cools off. A Fall-specific lawn food will do nicely. But again, another round of Milorganite is what I would do in my lawn! Can’t push Milorganite enough, it’s the best organic product I’ve found. You might want to take the opportunity to aerate prior to fertilizing your lawn. Regardless, you want to be using a fertilizer intended to recover any damage caused by the Summer’s heat.

4. After the last cut of the year, apply a WinterGuard (winterizer) fertilizer. This will help your lawn hibernate and pop back greener and thicker next Spring.