Your soil supplies some of the nutrients that turf grass needs but most soils are not able to provide all of them during the entire growing season. A healthy and actively growing lawn uses a great deal of energy. Fertilizer helps your lawn stay healthy by promoting new leaf and root growth. Read on to learn more about why it is important to fertilize your lawn.
Why Lawns Need Nutrient Replacement
Very often the cycling of nutrients is cut short on home lawns. This is partially due to necessary maintenance practices needed to produce quality turf. To complicate things further, some turf species and certain turf situations, such as sports turf, require intense maintenance and added nutrients to meet the high level of expectation. This requires the removal of fallen leaves, twigs and branches, and even grass clippings, that would otherwise have returned nutrients back to the soil. Those lost nutrients must be replaced.
What is Fertilizer?
Fertilizers are the most often used method of replacing lost nutrients. Modern fertilizers have improved tremendously in recent years with more attention to environmental concerns. Fertilizers offer many combinations of nutrient types, nutrient amounts, and release times. Nitrogen is the nutrient responsible for your lawn’s green color. It also helps grass grow in thick and encourages denser shoots. Phosphorus is the nutrient that stimulates growth and encourages the establishment of healthy roots. Potassium is the nutrient that helps strengthen cell walls, which helps grass resist drought, fungus and extreme weather conditions.
Can I Avoid Fewer Mud Puddles and Patches?
The use of fertilizer will strengthen your grass roots so they can quickly absorb more water than unhealthy roots. This firms your soil and lessens the chances of water pooling to form messy mud puddles and bare patches.
Will Fertilizers Help with Weed Control?
A thick lush lawn with strong roots can choke out weeds by preventing them from taking a foothold in the first place.
Can Fertilizers Encourage Fewer Pest?
Chewing insects, like grasshoppers, may attack grass blades, and burrowing critters, like gophers, may munch through grass roots and cause green tops to die. Well fertilized lawns can encourage a healthy ecosystem of microorganisms of good bugs, earth worms, praying mantises, lady bugs and other garden dwellers that fest on pests and unwanted insects.
A Few Tips to Remember Before Fertilizing
- Test your Soil so you can choose a fertilizer based on your soil type
- Liquid fertilizer is slightly more expensive but it encourages faster growth
- Granular Fertilizer has a longer lasting Effect
- A slow release nitrogen prevents your grass roots from absorbing excess nitrogen. too much nitrogen is a detriment to your lawn’s health.
- Use a spreader and fill the spreader on a hard surface, where any spills or excess can be swept up and reused.
- Watch the weather! Too much rain can lead to runoff and will not have the desired effect. Fast release fertilizers should not be applied before a heavy rainfall. Any fertilizer application should be followed with watering.
Fertilizing Your Lawn Included in A&A Lawn Care’s 6 application Lawn Care Program
A & A Lawn Care provides a 6 application program to control and prevent weeds from appearing in your lawn.
- Early Spring – This early Spring application includes a fertilizer and pre-emergent herbicide. The fertilizer will promote early Spring green up and add proper nutritional value for the lawn while it is coming out of from winter dormancy. In addition, a pre-emergent herbicide was applied
to protect your lawn from crabgrass and grassy weeds. - Late Spring/Early Summer – The late Spring application will provide a Spring fertilizer with bio-nutrients, a post emergent herbicide for broadleaf weed control. This will promote a healthy lawn, an additional pre-emergent herbicide will help to control any crabgrass and weeds that may still come up and control broadleaf weeds.
- Early Summer – The early Summer application provides a balanced slow release Summer fertilizer that will help maintain the color of your lawn without pushing growth. This application also contains broadleaf weed control and a safe insect control to protect from surface feeding insects.
- Late Summer – The late Summer application contains a Nature Safe organic fertilizer to work organic matter into your soil where it needs it most. This application also provides broadleaf weed control on an as needed basis.
- Early Fall – This early Fall fertilizer will help green up the grass and help the lawn to recover from any Summer stress. Also, broadleaf weeds that are present will be controlled.
- Late Fall/Winter – This Winter application will thicken your lawn and also encourage new root development.
A& A Lawn Care & Landscaping helps residential and commercial clients with their lawns and landscaping all year ’round!
Contact Us (859-384-0266) for a Free Consultation!
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About A & A Lawn Care & Landscaping
About A & A Lawn Care & LandscapingA & A Lawn Care & Landscaping can beautify your lawn and landscaping using our vast experience in turf grass management. Our complete lawn service is designed for both residential and commercial lawns and we keep your lawn healthy without harming your family, staff, or pets.