More About Lawn Care Products

In my previous article about lawn care products I took a look at using weed killers and made brief mention of some of the products available to treat infestations of lawn pests such as Chafer grubs and leatherjackets. In the following article I shall be taking a closer look at some of the other products available for lawn care.

As I have said many times a lawn consists of many numbers of single plants of grass and each grass plant has much the same needs as any other plant in the garden. Most of all your lawn needs sufficient amounts of the correct nutrients and fertilizers to grow well and remain healthy. There are many lawn care products available on the market to meet this need but you need to choose wisely.

Understanding Lawn Fertilizers

The three main constituents of lawn feed are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are usually displayed on the packaging in the form of N:P:K (being the ratio of each in relation). Other trace elements and minerals may also be included with iron (Fe) being one of the most important as it helps to keep your grass green without having an effect upon the growth rate.

There are basically two times of the year when you should feed a lawn, fall and spring, but you need to apply slightly different lawn care products at each time. Products applied in spring (or early summer) should be high in nitrogen to encourage a lush growth pattern.

Products applied in fall should be far lower in nitrogen than those applied earlier in the year. Applying too much nitrogen in fall will cause the grass to grow when it should be storing up energy in the roots ready for winter. To encourage healthy root systems lawn care products for the end of summer have a higher proportion of phosphate.

All fertilizers will contain a balance of quick and slow release compounds so that they begin to work immediately but continue to work for some time to come. If you want to use organic lawn care products bonemeal is a fantastic slow release which should be spread over your lawn in late fall.

Like the products mentioned in the previous article it is important that you apply them correctly, according to the manufacturers instructions and evenly. The best way to do this is to use a mechanical feed distributor using half of the amount one way (say lengthways) and the other half the other (widthways).

 

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