Wait to Fertilize until Next Month

So the back of Winter is broken and Spring is coming. Time to look at that sad, yellow, thin lawn and get to work on it, right? No! You can wait like a month!!

Please sit back, be a bit lazy, and listen to the 28 year veteran..............., me.

It really gets me when I see those National fertilization companies out there in March getting the first chemical application down and flying all those flags in the front lawns. Then the Radio ads start on how you need to dump down this and apply that for Grubs and Weeds and Crabgrass and whatever else will be the disease of the year you need protection from.

Well, stop, and listen for just a second. In the Chicagoland area, your lawn needs nothing for the next month, got it? If you applied nitrogen late last season, it is available now for your lawn. Whether organic or chemical, the nutrients are already there and ready for the turf to use this Spring.

The first application of nutrients need to be applied when the soil temperatures warm up a bit. The best time is right around that first cut of the season. for 2010 this will be around late April. The soil temperatures will be 60 degrees, the initial uptake of nutrients has occurred, the turf is growing and ready for the first application.

Now, if you can't keep yourself off of that lawn right now, let me give you something to do that CAN be beneficial. Seed. Lets look at that snowplow damage along the driveway, the holes that the squirrels and birds poked in the lawn and anywhere you see thin areas. Go to the store and buy 2-3 pounds of the highest quality seed(that's right, the expensive stuff). Get full sun or full shade depending on the areas to be repaired. Mix it up with a little topsoil. There is probably a bag of it sitting in the corner of your garage from last year. Then just sprinkle it in these bare areas like Parmesan cheese. The wet and muck and warmer soil temperatures in the next few weeks will get those seedlings up, quickly filling in any bare areas at the beginning of the season. That will keep you busy enough to not think about fertilizing(remember, wait a month!!)

We can recommend the best types of fertilizer products for this Spring and are offering an organic alternative for the 2010 season. So listen to me, do nothing right now, wait until the right time, and then lets get that lawn looking its best.

Think Spring,

Eric Hansen, President

For more information or to receive an estimate for lawn maintenance services go to:
http://www.competitivelawn.com