Fertilizing Your Lawn on a Budget: Save Money on Lawn Care for Canada and Midwest to Northern U.S.
Author: Shelley ElmbladPublished: May 18, 2007
The cost of hiring a yard care service to fertilize your lawn rises every year. Ease your budget by doing your own lawn care and have a beautiful yard.
Lawn care services often follow a too-frequent fertilizing schedule that is expensive and could be detrimental to the health of your lawn. You can save money and keep your lawn healthy by fertilizing and doing other lawn maintenance yourself.
Typical lawns in Canada and the Midwest and Northern United States are composed of primarily of Kentucky Bluegrass with some secondary rye and fescue grasses which go dormant in the winter. Bookmark this page or print it out to use as a reference to fertilizing your own lawn.
Lawn Fertilizer Spreaders
Lawn fertilizer spreaders can be pricey, but a good spreader will last for many years. While liquid fertilizer dispensers are available, using a push spreader is better for even fertilizer application.
Look for sturdy axles and handles. The gage for regulating fertilizer amounts should have some resistance when you turn it, which indicates the gage will not change settings when you hit a bump in the lawn. If the spreader includes a warranty, all the better (be sure to keep it and your receipt).
Drop spreaders fertilize your lawn more precisely, but require more passes over the lawn. Broadcast spreaders fertilize the lawn much quicker but somewhat less precisely. If your lawn has many narrow areas, use a drop spreader to avoid spreading fertilizer where you do not want it. Broadcast spreaders come in different sizes, with larger spreaders being ideal for open spaces and smaller broadcast spreaders best serving more moderate yards.
If you can afford it, make fertilizing your lawn even easier by purchasing both a drop spreader and a broadcast spreader.
Always rinse your lawn spreader after each use to remove dangerous lawn chemicals and fertilizer, which is corrosive.
Lawn Fertilizer Schedule
Lawn care contractors and retail fertilizer manufacturers suggest fertilizing your lawn four to five times per year, but your lawn only needs fertilizing two to three times each year.
- Fertilizer will have three numbers on the label representing the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium or potash (N-P-K) in the fertilizer.
- Use lawn fertilizer formulations that provide roughly 25% of much phosphorus and 50% as much potassium as nitrogen, such as a 28-7-14 formula. Most grass fertilizer is not formulated exactly at these rates, so use these numbers as a guideline. Keep in mind that you need to use fertilizer with the highest rate of nitrogen in the fall.
- Using slow release lawn fertilizer is very important to avoid burning your lawn and polluting water sources. Follow the fertilizer manufacturer's directions for application rates.
- Early Spring: Northern climates should fertilize grass as early as possible in May, depending on when snow melts. Fertilize Midwest U.S. lawns late in April to early May. If your lawn had a lot of crabgrass last summer, use a lawn fertilizer blended with a pre-emergent crabgrass preventer at this time. But if crabgrass is already growing, do not waste money on a pre-emergent treatment and use a fertilizer/weed control blend instead. You can either dig out crabgrass clumps or spray them with a post emergent product.
- Summer: Contrary to popular belief, you should not fertilize during the summer as doing so encourages pests and frequent mowing while discouraging healthy root growth. For further greening of your lawn, use a nitrogen-only fertilizer (follow directions to prevent burning the grass blades), or an iron-based fertilizer such as Milorganite. Apply mid to late July, but keep your budget in mind and remember that this application is not required for a healthy lawn.
- Fall: Fertilize in September, using a lawn fertilizer blended with a broadleaf weed control agent. As the weather cools, perennial weeds focus more energy on roots making weed killer more effective.
- Late Fall: This is the most important fertilizer application for a healthy lawn. Apply fertilizer with the highest rates of nitrogen in October or November. You may use quick release fertilizer now if the weather is not unseasonably mild, or use a slow release product. This fertilizer application is required to winterize the lawn.
Caring for your lawn requires more than fertilizing, and if you decide you would rather not fertilize your lawn yourself, you can still save money on a service. Get quotes from lawn services, then ask them to follow the schedule listed above and request a discount for fertilizing less frequently than they normally would.