As someone who wants to do all the right things for their Louisville, KY lawn, you might be looking for answers to questions like: When to fertilize the lawn? Or, How often should grass be fertilized?
We understand that figuring these things out can be confusing, particularly when there even seems to be conflicting information out there.
Like so many other lawn care questions, we don’t want you to stress. We’re here to provide answers so that you don’t have to figure this all out yourself. At the end of the day, it all boils down to helping you achieve the best results with less worries.
With the question of how often to fertilize a lawn, people tend to get really caught up on how many visits their lawn care professional is making.
In reality, what’s actually more important than any specific number is what your lawn care company is doing when they visit your property.
In fact, in the lawn care industry, it’s not uncommon for companies to add in visits to seem like they’re doing more than they really are. This might allow them to charge you more even though they might just be spreading out the same services that another company is performing in fewer visits.
At Limbwalker, we have six strategically timed visits at different times of the year. We’re focused on having a balanced program that gets us on your property at key times. After all, it’s also a matter of keeping an eye on things and looking for any possible issues that need to be diagnosed and managed.
We fertilize the lawn during all six of those visits.
One of the most important things to understand in lawn care is that there are different services that are best performed in different seasons.
We wrote a whole article that can help you understand the “lawn care calendar,” including what services are best performed during what time of the year.
As far as when to fertilize a lawn, your turf can benefit from treatments throughout the year which is why we fertilize at all six of our visits.
Spring is commonly thought of as the main season to fertilize and it’s certainly important during this time. This is when the grass is actively growing and will really need those extra nutrients to thrive.
However, the late fall fertilization treatment (sometimes referred to as “winterizer”) is arguably one of the most important as it is this round that sets your lawn up for success once spring rolls around again. Winterizer also provides your lawn with vital nutrients that it will need to survive the sometimes-harsh winter weather conditions.
Even though winter lawn fertilization is quite vital, it’s often overlooked or even skipped. By the Fall, a lot of homeowners aren’t thinking about their lawn much anymore and they just skip over this treatment. However, that can mean the difference between a lawn that greens up quickly and one that does not in the Spring.
Fertilization in the summer can also be quite important though this is also a time to be careful with the application rate. Applying too much fertilizer during the hot summer months can lead to fertilizer burn. It can also contribute to lawn disease.
If your lawn is showing active signs of a disease this would be a time to back off of fertilizer.
Figuring out when to fertilize a lawn or how much fertilizer to apply can be complicated. As we mentioned, you can also do harm to your lawn if you apply the wrong amount of fertilizer…or if you apply it during an active lawn fungus problem. It all gets a bit more complex than people tend to realize.
At the end of the day, this is truly a service that is best left in the professional’s hands so that you can ensure it’s being done exactly as it ought to.
It also means not worrying about the rate of application, which is an important factor. Your lawn is going to have different growing and nutrient needs at different seasons and a lawn care pro will know how to account for that.
For instance, we’ll start performing a heavier nitrogen feed at the end of the year because of the lawn’s changing needs as it heads into dormancy.
It’s also important to recognize that professional fertilization services are much superior to any DIY approach. The bag of fertilizer that you can pick up at your local hardware store is not going to be the same high-quality product that a lawn care pro is using. This is important when it comes to results.
While people tend to assume that “fertilizer is fertilizer,” that’s not the case at all. Like any other product, there are varying degrees of quality and that can lead to a major difference in results.
If you want to get the most possible value out of fertilization, it just makes sense to leave this in the hands of a pro. It’s also important to keep in mind that even though fertilization is a vital service, it’s only one piece of the total lawn care puzzle. There are other equally important services like weed control and pest control that are also key.
When homeowners perform lawn care themselves, they sometimes skip over other key services. Dumping a bag of “weed & feed” down on the lawn from time to time simply isn’t comparable to all of the work a lawn care professional is doing.
Plus, you get their “eye” on your property…which by itself is invaluable. A lawn care professional should be able to spot problems early and potentially save your lawn from major trouble.
Figuring out how often to fertilize a lawn might have seemed like a simple task. But like other lawn care tasks, there’s simply more to it than people tend to realize.
The good news is, you don’t have to tackle any of this yourself.
The beauty of partnering with a lawn care professional is that you can hand over these tasks and let them take care of them for you. In fact, a pro will know exactly what your lawn needs (and when it needs it), so that none of the burdens fall on you in figuring it all out.
That not only means when and how much to fertilize, but when to treat weeds, pests, and other problems. There is ideal timing for everything in lawn care and a pro will be able to set you up for success.
In the end, that should give you peace of mind. Along with understanding timing, a lawn care professional should be able to get you the best results.
Are you ready to have a thick and healthy lawn that’s getting everything it needs at your Louisville, KY home? Get in touch with us to get a quote for our lawn care programs, which include three lawn care pricing options.