The Best Time to Fertilize Your Lawn

One of the easiest ways for you to ensure your lawn grows thick and green this year is to fertilize and reseed. A well-fed lawn is healthier, and has a stronger root system that can withstand heat, drought, cold snaps, foot traffic, mowing, and other stressful events. While feeding your lawn once a year is adequate, having a schedule in place to fertilize your lawn four times per year is the best option to keep it healthy through the growing season, and ensure it comes back just as strong each spring.

When to Fertilize Your Lawn

When it comes to using fertilizer on your lawn, timing is everything. Making sure your lawn gets fertilized at the right time not only helps to boost its growing potential, it also ensures you don’t apply it when it isn’t going to be as effective.

  • Early Spring

When your lawn begins to wake up in the spring, its store of nutrients is typically completely gone. Fertilizing in early spring helps to immediately feed your grass’ roots, and gets the spring growing season off to a great start. Apply early spring lawn fertilizer once between February and April, as soon as your grass greens up and begins growing. This is usually best done around the same time that your lawn needs its first mow of the season.

  • Late Spring

By late spring, your lawn has likely used up all of its stored energy from its last feed and is in need of another boost. Apply late spring fertilizer once between April and June, about six to eight weeks after you fed it in early spring. This will keep your lawn well-fed into the hot summer months.

  • Summer

The summer months bring heat, drought, foot traffic from kids and parties, as well as a host of insects. All of this can be tough on grass, and if it isn’t fertilized it can turn brown and patchy. Apply summer fertilizer once between June and August, about six to eight weeks after you fed it in late spring, to keep your lawn going strong through the heat.

  • Fall

It may seem odd to fertilize your lawn right before it goes into hibernation, but it is in fact a very important time to fertilize. Your lawn needs nutrients to recover from many summer damage, as well as to get ready for hibernation. Fall fertilization helps to strengthen roots to keep your lawn from getting damaged through the winter. Apply fall fertilizer once between August and November, right before you expect your first freeze, which should be about six to eight months after you fed it in summer.

We hope that this information has helped to to learn about when you should be fertilizing your lawn. If this isn’t a job you’d like to tackle yourself, or if you’re worried you’ll forget about it, Liberty Lawn is here to help. We offer all kinds of yard services, including fertilization, to keep your lawn lush and green all season long. Give us a call today to schedule a free consultation!