As the weather gets warmer, it’s a good idea to get your lawn ready for the season. So, when it comes to fertilizing your lawn in the springtime, it’s actually best to wait to fertilize until you’ve mowed your lawn, preferably twice, before you encourage growth with fertilizer. Lawns require a “Goldilocks” approach to fertilizing and Lawn and Gardening Expert, Amy Grisak, explains just what you need to know to grow a healthy lawn.

Video Transcription

When to Apply Fertilizer to your Lawn?

Hi, I'm Amy Grisak with North 40. Today, we're going to talk about how to fertilize your lawn in the springtime. Things are really popping as the weather warms up, and we're all anxious to get out and get our garden and our lawn started for the season, but it's good to be a little patient. Even though the grass is starting to green up, when you're fertilizing your lawn in the springtime, you want to wait at least until you've mowed once, preferably twice, to be able to give those roots a good chance to get established and really create strong plants before you encourage the growth.

What do you Need in your Fertilizer?

Now, when you're looking for a fertilizer in the spring, you want something with a higher nitrogen content and a little bit on the tail end and that potassium to be able to give those roots what they need as well. One possible fertilizer is the Scotts Turf Builder. It has 32 nitrogen. When you're looking at the numbers on a fertilizer, N, P, and K, N is the first one, that's nitrogen. You want a higher number on that end because you want to give those plants what they need to really green up and really start growing.The second number is four phosphorus, which is really good for stem and root development. That's one's not so important this time of the year, but we do want a little bit with the potassium with the K in that equation to be able to give those roots some good support.

How to Apply Lawn Fertilizer?

When you're picking your fertilizer, like I said, you wait until you mow once or twice and then follow the label directions to figure out how much you need to apply because just like the three little bears, if you do too little, it's not going to give your lawn enough food to grow. If you do too much, you can burn it or you can also promote some growth that is more susceptible to disease and other issues. But when you apply it just right, that's when you get a really nice green, healthy lawn. Then the final little part of when you're fertilizing, after you apply it, make sure it's going to be watered within the next few hours to prevent burning because with the higher nitrogen content, it's also a little bit more susceptible to be a little hard on those new leaves. Since we can't always depend on the weather, just plan on turning those sprinklers on or getting the sprinklers out. Make sure it's well watered and you're going to be all set for the season. If you need more information on how to take care of your lawn, visit any of the North 40 Outfitters locations or stop by the website north40.com.