Fertilizing our lawns is one of those most often overlooked aspects of good lawn care. As busy homeowners we try to keep our lawns tidy with regular lawn mowing, try to keep up with good lawn watering, and then when we remember at the shop - we sometimes pick up an occasional bag of fertilizer. Sadly this is the case with many home lawns, where the actual feeding of the turf is so often an afterthought.
Apart from the regular lawn mowing and good lawn watering practices mentioned, we must remember that good lawn fertilizing is equally as important as any other aspect of having a great looking Saint Augustine lawn. But the benefits of an annual round fertilizing program goes far deeper than just a nice looking lawn and yard, because a lawn which is fertilized regularly and properly will be maintained in its greatest possible health. And it's when our lawns are in their best health that they are more resistant to weeds, pests and diseases. A strong healthy Saint Augustine lawn will also be able to withstand greater wear and tear and damage when they are played on by our kids. We can begin to see the importance of a properly fertilized lawn, so with this information, lets begin to work out a good annual feeding program for our turf.
Choose A Good Fertilizer First
Lets first choose a good quality fertilizer, we want to find one which is not too high in nitrogen as so many fertilizers are these days. While Nitrogen is vital to good lawn health, if we put too much onto our lawns we'll only be creating excessive growth and thatch rates, without actually making our lawns any healthier.
With this in mind we must look for a lower Nitrogen lawn fertilizer, which has a more balanced profile with the other major nutrients of Potassium and Phosphate. We should then look for a fertilizer which includes some minor nutrients as well. Minor Nutrients are many, but in lawn fertilizers will usually be things like Iron, Manganese, Copper and Zinc, just to name a few.
So be sure to choose a good, well balanced lawn fertilizer to obtain the healthiest St Augustine lawn possible.
We also want to choose a second fertiliser for use in the colder months of the year. This fertiliser will be very similar to the first fertiliser, but will have even lower Nitrogen and a higher rate of Iron.
An Annual Fertilizing Program For St Augustine Lawns
We begin our annual fertilizing program one month before the beginning of Winter.
One month prior to Winter, we apply our Winter Fertilizer at manufacturers recommendations.
One month into Winter (two months after the first fertilizing) we apply another application of Winter Fertilizer.
Just be aware that the application of Winter Fertilizers are not to increase growth rates of the turf during these times, but will instead keep the lawn at its healthiest and greenest during the colder months. Feeding the lawn prior to, and during winter will also massively increase the green up and health of the lawn once Spring arrives.
From this mid winter fertilizing, we then fertilize every two months from that time onwards using our standard mix fertilizer that we chose earlier, always ensuring we are only ever applying the nutrients at manufacturers recommendations. Excessive lawn fertilizing will not help the health of the turf, but can instead cause damage to the sod, as well as to the environment as the excess nutrients being applied will only ever wash away from the lawn.
In conclusion, we can now see that a good annual fertilizing program for Saint Augustine grass lawns will not only massively improve the health and appearance of our lawns throughout the entire year, but will also greatly aid in the reduction of many other common lawn problems, knowing that a healthy lawn will naturally and easily resist such problems as disease, pests and weeds. With this in mind, lets not just grab a bag of fertilizer whenever we're in the gardening aisle at the store as a possible afterthought, but instead let's make sure we always have a quality brand of lawn fertilizer on hand throughout the year so that we can maintain our turf at the highest possible health, with the least amount of effort and cost.
Three Common Gardening Styles Vegetable Gardening Beginners - Deciding What to Grow Outdoor Lights for Decoration and Their Uses Win the Bed Bugs Battle
0 comments:
Post a Comment