How Typically to Fertilize Your Garden

Fertilizer is a necessary a part of garden care. It gives the vitamins your grass must thrive—it additionally crowds out weeds, improves illness and drought resistance, and gives a wholesome root system. Nonetheless, over-fertilizing your garden can do extra hurt than good. To make sure you get this upkeep activity proper, we spoke to garden care specialists who clarify how usually it is best to fertilize your garden.

How Typically to Fertilize Your Garden

How usually you fertilize your garden will rely upon just a few components, together with the kind of grass you will have, the kind of fertilizer you are utilizing, and the way a lot is utilized. As a common rule of thumb, it is ideally suited to fertilize your garden about three to 4 occasions a yr, says Craig Elworthy, founding father of Lawnbright.

When to Fertilize Your Garden

The time of yr you fertilize your garden will rely largely on the broad class of grass you will have, which will be damaged down into cool-season and warm-season grasses.

Cool-Season Grasses

The very best time to fertilize cool-season grasses, like Kentucky bluegrass and fescues, is throughout fall. It’s because fall is when your garden is attempting to placed on root mass and retailer vitamins earlier than winter. “It’ll reply properly to any fertilizer utilized throughout this time, and the temperatures in fall permit it to develop rapidly and fill out naked spots,” says Elworthy. You possibly can fertilize your garden just a few occasions throughout fall, relying on the kind of fertilizer you are utilizing.

The subsequent finest time to fertilize cool-season grasses is throughout spring. However take into account that throughout spring, your garden goes by a pure flush and does not require as a lot fertilizer. Simply as soon as throughout Could is sufficient. Keep away from fertilizing cool-season grasses throughout summer season, which is when the garden goes by important stress, and inspiring development can stress it out even additional.

Heat-Season Grasses

Heat-season grasses, like Bermuda grass and centipede grass have a special development sample and must be fertilized in late spring and summer season. “Not like cool-season lawns, the late spring and summer season is a excessive development interval for heat season lawns, and so they like to be fed throughout this time.” Fertilize warm-season grasses as soon as a month from Could to about August, depedning on the kind of fertilizer you are utilizing.

Finest Time of Day to Fertilize Your Garden

Whereas the time of day you fertilize your garden could range based mostly on private desire, Elworthy recommends fertilizing within the morning. “Every utility of fertilizer ought to obtain no less than a 1/4-inch of water to get down into the foundation zone,” he says. “I don’t like to go away the grass moist in a single day as a result of it may possibly trigger illness and fungus, so watering throughout the morning will give it probably the most period of time to dry out earlier than night.”

Which Fertilizer to Use and How A lot

The kind of fertilizer you employ comes down to private desire, however typically, utilizing gentle purposes of an natural slow-release fertilizer is right. Gradual-release fertilizers feed the roots over an prolonged time period, says Jason McCausland, nationwide technical director of Weed Man. All the time comply with the product’s advice relating to dosage, however gentle purposes eradicate the chance of fertilizer burn and harm, and permit for extra even development, says Elworthy.