So true with beginners, the subject of lawn fertilizer seems simple enough. After all, it can't be that hard to periodically sprinkling fertilizer over your lawn and then water it so it can penetrate into the underlying soil. Heres what most people dont realize. Applying lawn fertilizer is easy, but the hard part is determining your lawns specific needs.

What Are Your Lawn Fertilizer Options

Any lawn fertilizer can only be a benefit to your lawn if its formulated especially for your type of lawn and soil and applied under the right weather conditions. Since you've no doubt visited the garden section of your local home improvement store, youre sure to have seen bundle after bundle of lawn fertilizer. Its easy to just grab a bag and go. However, if you apply the wrong lawn fertilizer, youll end up doing more damage than good.

Youll find that there are slow-release formulas and formulas that control weeds and insects. Youll also discover all types of numbers on the labels but they can be quite confusing. Youll also find different lawn fertilizer to use depending on the season, the region in which you live and the type of grass youre growing! Many claim they wont harm pets. And there are more still so how can the average homeowner make sense of it all?

What to know before you go

Before you purchase that lawn fertilizer, you must first familiarize yourself with your lawn. The best place to start is by learning what type of grass youre growing. There are usually 3 5 predominant grass types within a region so this shouldnt be hard. Especially important is to have your soil tested. This is a necessary step so you know whether your soil contains the right mix of nutrients to promote growth. If your soil lacks in a certain mineral, youll need lawn fertilizer thats been supplemented with that mineral.

Now that youre generally familiar with your lawn and soil type, youll have far more success shopping for lawn fertilizer. Make a mental note that a lawn consists of hundreds of individual grass plants, each one with its own root system responsible for nutrient uptake and overall growth. Not until the root system is well-established and capable of absorbing the nutrients within the soil can you have a lawn thats lush.

A lawn will need help to stay healthy. As all green plants are living organisms, they need nutrients and water. The right lawn fertilizer provides the nutrients and nature or an irrigation system provides the water. Being aware which lawn fertilizer is right for your lawn is whats difficult but its what makes all the difference.