How Often Should You Fertilize Your Lawn for the Healthiest, Greenest Grass?

As a homeowner, you probably take a great deal of pride in the appearance of your lawn. Healthy, luscious grass can improve the overall look and curb appeal of any home—plus, it can boost your home’s intrinsic value. Therefore, prioritizing lawn care is extremely important for homeowners, and lawn care can include a wide variety of activities from watering to dethatching to fertilizing.

Lawn Fertilization: How and When Should I Do It?

Much like people, different lawns require different levels of nutrition and care. When it comes to properly fertilizing your grass, there are many factors that come into play; however, one of the most important is the season. If you’re paying close attention to your lawn’s specific needs during different months of the year, your fertilizer application will look different between early spring and late spring as well as summer and early fall.

Not sure how to get started? Here is a comprehensive guide to the best year-round fertilization habits to develop in order to keep your New England lawn beautiful and healthy no matter the season.

Late February/March

In the beginning of spring, your lawn is most likely parched from a long winter. By fertilizing at this time, you help to strengthen its roots and set it up for success as the temperatures rise and the growing season begins. As soon as you notice that your lawn needs its first mowing of the season, it’s time for early spring fertilization.

May/Early June

By the time the latter half of spring is coming to a close, your grass will be ready for another fertilization in order to remain well-nourished and healthy. This is also the time of year that weeds are growing most actively, so you may want to use a weed and feed style of fertilizer. This helps to nourish your grass while simultaneously killing weeds. Keep in mind, these products work best when the weeds are just beginning to grow, and the most successful application takes place early in the morning when dew is present.

July/Early August

It’s no surprise that grass can struggle to stay alive and healthy during the hot summer months. That’s why your midsummer fertilization is so important in order to keep your lawn’s strength up against heat and harsh sunlight. Most premium fertilizers are able to keep your lawn nutrient-rich, lush and green throughout the summer.

September/October

As the calendar winds down into its last months, your grass’s growth will slow down as it gets ready for its own hibernation of sorts. However, even though your grass won’t grow much during the winter, weeds certainly will. Your fall fertilization will help to enrich your grass with essential nutrients leading into the cold winter months while also reducing the presence of weeds, especially if you utilize a weed and feed fertilizer.

How is Fertilizer Applied?

In order to get your grass ready to receive fertilizer, it’s important to mow the lawn one or two days in advance. On the day of application, check your fertilizer brand to determine whether it’s a drop spreader or a broadcast spreader. With drop spreaders, you should apply two distinct strips across the ends of your lawn and then apply back and forth between the strips, each application slightly overlapping the last. With broadcast spreaders, you should first apply on the outside of the lawn and slowly work your way in, also overlapping each application as you proceed.

How Do I Know if Fertilizer is Right for Me?

For some lawns, systemic fertilization can be the difference between thriving and dying grass, especially in the harsher seasons of the year. However, not every lawn benefits from fertilizer; in fact, some lawns are able to maintain a luscious feel and a brilliant hue year-round through other lawn care habits such as aeration, dethatching, overseeding, and regular mowing. If you’re unsure whether or not you should invest regularly in fertilizer for your lawn, the best way to find out is to perform a soil test.

North Atlantic Landscape provides quick and easy soil tests. This test will determine your soil’s pH level as well any deficiencies your lawn may be dealing with, causing it to lack in color or fullness. After your soil test, you’ll have a much clearer picture of exactly what your lawn needs to thrive.

North Atlantic Landscape has built a reputation for quality work and transparent values in the site work, snow management and trucking sectors. Our approach to landscaping is exactly the same. Invest in the best equipment, hire the best personnel, develop the best management plan and do what we said we would do. NAL provides commercial and residential landscaping services throughout the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire, York County in Maine, and Essex County in Massachusetts. Request your free landscape assessment today!