We all want a healthy lawn that thrives year-round. And while there is so much involved in improving and maintaining the quality of your landscape, one of the key factors is the time of year you apply fertilizer to your lawn. When you apply fertilizer in the right season, it will help ensure the quality of your landscape. It will also guarantee that your plants, flowers, trees, and grass can endure the harsh conditions of the summer and winter months.
Fertilizing in the Spring
While it is common practice to apply lawn fertilizer in the spring, a key problem many people run into is that they apply fertilizer too early in the season. If you fertilize in the spring, you have to make sure you start later in the season so that you don’t have to deal with frost. Typically, it is best to apply fertilizer in the late spring, right as your green grass is beginning to grow healthily.
After applying your fertilizer, it’s important to monitor the moisture content in the soil every day. You want to do this for the two weeks after you have planted the fertilizer. You want to be careful not to oversaturate the soil while ensuring that it still contains moisture. Also, before mowing your lawn for the first time of the year, allow the grass to grow taller than four inches.
Making the Case for Fall Fertilization
The time of year to apply fertilizer has become a topic of debate. Many make a case for laying down fertilizer in the fall, and for good reason. Droughts, heat, and other such factors can have a profound impact on the quality of your lawn. Fall is the season when your grass and plants recover from the stress it endured during the summer. When you properly fertilize your lawn in the fall, your grass will retain carbohydrates. This makes it easier for your grass to stand up against cold winter weather. It also provides energy for your roots to grow during the spring.
In some regions, it is argued that it’s best to save the final fertilizer application for November after your grass growth has ceased for the year. However, we do not recommend applying fertilizer to frozen ground. If snow or ice is present, it’s best to wait until it melts before laying down fertilizer.
Applying fertilizer in the fall helps protect your lawn from fierce weather. This means you won’t have to invest extra time and energy into repairing any damage that occurs. Fertilizing during the fall can also save you money, as the prices for fertilizer are usually lower during the fall season.
It’s also good to fertilize your plants during fall. If you use a superphosphate fertilizer on your soil, your plants will be stronger, and you will have more flowers growing. Trees and shrubs are typically deprived of nitrogen throughout the year. If you use slow-release nitrogen on your lawn, it will improve the growth of your roots well into the fall and winter. When spring comes around, you will have plants and flowers that are ultimately much healthier.
Choosing Epling’s Complete Lawn Care Program
Epling’s Complete Lawn Care Program is the best solution for homeowners to ensure that their lawn looks its best all year. Epling will not only determine what time of year your lawn should be fertilized, we will also maintain lime management, insect management, and weed control, which will give you a consistently carefree and healthy lawn.
Additional applications to consider for our Complete Lawn Care Program include aeration and over-seeding, topdressing, fungicide application, and pre-emergent, which is a spring treatment used to prevent the infestation of crabgrass and another summer annual grassy weeds during the growing season. All of these services come with The Epling Guarantee, which promises that Epling will treat your lawn with the utmost care, while our staff conducts itself with respect and dignity at all times.
Superior landscaping isn’t just about using the proper fertilizer and applying best practices. While these aspects are essential, it is equally important to make the appropriate landscaping decisions at the right times. Fertilizing your lawn at the proper time will be one of the best decisions you make about your landscaping. But fertilizing and maintaining your landscape takes time and effort, two things that many of us are not in an extra supply of. That’s where Epling comes in. Our Complete Lawn Care Program will ensure that your lawn looks healthy year-round. Call us today for more information about our Complete Lawn Care Program. We’ll help ensure that your lawn will be the envy of your neighborhood.
