Effective Fertilizing of Lawns

Like all other plants in your garden, lawns are also living ones, grasses. And just like other plants, they also require some food and water for their sustenance. When you mow a lawn, you remove nitrogen and the grass yellows because of this nitrogen depletion. Lawn fertilizers replenish this lost nitrogen and supply other nutrients and come in two varieties, the organic and the inorganic. Lawns fertilizers have to be applied during spring and autumn.

There are the "weed and feed" lawn fertilizers that simultaneously control weeds and feed the grass and are highly suitable for spring application. Lawn fertilizers should be applied evenly so as to avoid damaging or killing the grass and also to avoid the creation of various growth patterns.

The material that you will need if you are doing a manual fertilizing are:

1. Fertilizer;
2. Gloves and a bucket;
3. Two small pots (one inside the other so that the holes are closed);
4. 1 m. canes (for large lawns);
5. A dust mask (optional);
6. A tape measure (for large areas) and,
7. Scales (for large areas - if not included with the fertilizer)

You will need a spreader if you are going to fertilize a large lawn, since spreaders are more accurate that manual spreading (spreaders may be obtained on hire from tool hire shops).

Measure out the lawn and calculate the amount of the chosen fertilizer required for the whole lawn. Divide the lawn into one meter squares using the canes. Put the amount required for a meter square plot into the pots and mark the level with a felt pen.

If you are using a spreader, whatever be the size of the large lawn, it is better to apply the lawn fertilizers in two batches, so measure out half the amount of fertilizer. The direction of application also should be different. Keeping the spreading holes closed, place the fertilizer in the spreader.

Slide the pots slowly open. The opening should be only a fraction of the holes. Shake the fertilizer evenly over the first meter square plot. As you progress from one plot to another, remove the cross canes. This is to help you keep track of your direction of progress. As the pots empty, fill it with fertilizer to the pre-marked level. Proceed along similar lines till the complete lawn is covered one plot by one plot.

If you are using a spreader, open the holes and apply the fertilizer on the lawn, up and down in strips, similar to mowing. See that you do not overlap. Use the canes as a guide or use a garden line. Move them as you proceed. Once half the lawn is done, fill the spreader with the remaining half of the fertilizer and repeat the procedure for the other half of the lawn. Be sure to close the holes when you make a turn and also make sure that the rows are close to each other but do not overlap.

Lawn fertilizers are essential for the healthy growth of the grass in the lawn. The type and amount of fertilizer that you will have to apply to a particular lawn depend on the kind of grass and the area of the lawn. For large lawns, the application should ideally be done with spreaders.