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Michelle Mastro is a contributing writer for USA TODAY Homefront. Her work has appeared in outlets such as Architectural Digest, Dwell, Atomic Ranch, and Midwest Living. She has covered homes and lifestyle stories for almost a decade. Before embarking on writing full time, she studied the material culture of the Victorian period and eighteenth century, with a particular focus on domestic life as it appeared in novels. Born and raised in California, Michelle studied English literature at UCLA, but she now calls greater Indianapolis home. Find her on Instagram @homes_writer.
Spring is the best time of year to start fertilizing your lawn because it is the start of the growing season.
Fertilize your grass to keep it nutrient-rich, allowing your lawn to grow healthy and green.
Stick to a regime of watering and fertilizing again according to the manufacturer’s guidelines.
Do you ever look at your neighbor’s lawn and ponder: Why can’t my lawn look like that? The old saying may tell you that the grass is always greener on the other side, but you don’t have to long for someone else’s beautiful lawn. As long as you know when to fertilize your lawn, you too can have a lawn that will make your neighbors green with envy.
Fertilizer application can ensure your lawn is vibrant and uniform in color. In fact, most healthy grass lawns need nutrients (i.e., lawn food) that they can’t get from water or sunlight alone. Making sure your lawn’s soil quality is high can make the difference between a dry, patchy lawn and a wonderfully green one. This is especially true if you hope to start a new lawn from seed.
All plants, including grasses, need plenty of nutrients to properly take root and grow. “Lawns need potassium and phosphorus for root development and disease resistance,” said Gene Caballero, co-founder of GreenPal, a lawn care service based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Most fertilizers include these essential nutrients and are labeled with the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (N-P-K) ratio on the packaging.
The morning is great for its milder temperatures, partly because the water you use won’t evaporate as easily as it would during the hotter times of the day. “The best time to fertilize your lawn, in general, is between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.,” said Vince Jagodzinski, corporate grounds manager at Stanley Black & Decker, a maker of tools and home improvement gear in Valley City, Ohio.
Keep the weather forecast in mind and zero in on the weather conditions. “Fertilizing should be avoided right before heavy rain to prevent runoff and wasted fertilizer,” Caballero said.
There is no rule on how much fertilizer you need to get the best lawn. “The frequency of lawn fertilization depends on a few things,” said Brian Feldman, the senior director of technical operations at TruGreen, a national lawn care company. “This includes the specific fertilizer being used, the climate and the grass type grown.”
It can be helpful to break fertilizer down into nutrients, he says. “For example, it’s best to apply nitrogen fertilizer when the grass is actively growing, but nutrients like potassium can be beneficial during the colder months, especially on warm-season lawns.
While lawns with warm-season grasses — think Bermuda, zoysia, St. Augustine, or centipede grass — still need fertilizer in the winter, spring, and fall. These grasses grow more actively in the summer when they need higher amounts of nitrogen.
As seasons change, so do your fertilizing lawn needs. See how we break it down.
Fertilizing in spring will help ensure you have a healthy lawn all year since fertilizing at this time, or even in early spring, will give your lawn a nice leg up in preparation for its overall growth across all four seasons.
Spring fertilization is a “window of opportunity to achieve a thick and healthy lawn,” Feldman noted. It’s the time when the sun is shining again, the climate is starting to warm up, and plants have started their growing season.
For the best results, start fertilizing in late spring. “This timing helps provide the nutrients [sunlight and rain] that grass needs,” Jagodzinski said. “Typically, we want to apply 1 to 1.5 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn. A quick formula is to divide the total amount of fertilizer needed by the coverage area to determine the rate per square foot.”
In terms of frequency, apply fertilizer every two to four weeks, with intervals of six to eight weeks between applications.
You won’t need to fertilize your lawn during summer. That is, unless you have a type of grass considered to be warm-season grasses such as Bermuda, zoysia or St. Augustine, said Feldman. If so, you can fertilize once in early summer. “These grasses need lots of nutrients for growth during these months.”
Note: You should avoid fertilizing during extreme heat and any drought conditions occurring late summer. Without water, the plants won’t grow, nor will the fertilizer be absorbed into the ground.
Fall fertilization boosts lawn nutrients in preparation for winter. “This is especially true when applying seed to a cool-season lawn,” Feldman said. In fact, cool-season grasses are usually fertilized in spring and early fall for best results.
This time of year, your lawn will be in dormancy. Unless you live in the South or other warm states such as California and Arizona, where it’s warm year-round and the grass always has a chance to grow, you don’t need to fertilize in winter.
“In warmer climates, lawns can remain active in winter, so use a winter-specific fertilizer with a lower nitrogen content to avoid stimulating too much growth, which can weaken the grass,” Caballero said.
There are plenty of reasons to fertilize your lawn, aside from the fact that it’ll help your lawn grow. Benefits include these:
Some products, including those from Lawnbright or Sunday, are applied with water using a garden hose sprayer. No other prep is needed.
Granular fertilizer is applied as follows. First, test your soil’s health status with a soil kit. The soil test shows you the specific nutrients — such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in your lawn — and the lawn’s pH level. Knowing this info can help you determine the best fertilizer for your lawn. Once your soil test shows the makeup of your yard, you can choose a fertilizer best suited for this soil type, Jagodzinski explained.
The instructions on the fertilizer packaging and the results of your soil test will help you determine the application rate. Follow the instructions to apply the fertilizer. For example, you’ll want to check the instructions’ application rate and how much fertilizer to apply per square foot or per 1,000 square feet of lawn.
Finally, water your lawn for 30 minutes to help the fertilizer penetrate the soil and reach the grass root system.
Use quick-release fertilizers when immediate nutrient intervention is needed. For example, when you are first planting grass seeds, you might want the grass to have access to nutrients in the early stages of grass establishment.
If you see that your turf is struggling with color or shows signs of stress, quick-release fertilizer might also be a good option, Jagodzinski advised.
But there’s a catch. While quick-release fertilizers can provide immediate benefits, they can also leach from the soil more quickly. “The method could have a negative impact on the overall health of your lawn as well as the environment,” Jagodzinski warned. Which is why he recommended quick-release as a spot treatment option and not a regular program feature.
Use this type of fertilizer over an extended period of time. Doing so will allow your lawn to have access to nutrients longer. Slow-release fertilizer is also less prone to nutrient leaching into groundwater or run-off. This method of fertilizing will help minimize your lawn’s environmental impact and promote sustainable lawn care practices.
Since you won’t have to apply slow-release fertilizer as often — every six to eight weeks compared to every four weeks with quick-release fertilizer — you won’t have to use as much fertilizer throughout the year.
Yet, you will still help maintain your grass’s color and uniform growth. “A slow-release fertilizer is good for when the lawn is dormant or struggling to grow,” said Craig Elworthy, founder of Lawnbright, a natural lawn care subscription service
After fertilizing your lawn, remember to continue taking care of it to maximize the benefits of the fertilizer you choose. Lightly water your lawn the next morning and remove any weeds that take root in your lawn. “But also avoid mowing immediately after applying your fertilizer,” Jagodzinski warned. “This will reduce the effectiveness of the fertilizer and could cause stress to your grass.”
Moving forward, follow the manufacturer’s label for upkeep and establish a fertilizer schedule to avoid overfertilizing. Keep a regular maintenance program for your lawn, as consistency is the key. Mow, water and complete weed control, such as regularly removing crabgrass to ensure a healthy and green lawn.
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