It’s easy to forget about lawn fertilizer.
Your calendar is already jammed. Life moves fast. Next thing you know, it’s July, your grass looks crappy and you think, “I was supposed to fertilize by now, right?”
Fertilizer is your lawn’s food, and timing is everything.
Are you wondering when to fertilize your lawn in Idaho or how often you should fertilize?
We’ve got you. Here is a helpful lawn fertilization schedule for Idaho lawns.
Your Idaho Lawn Fertilizing Schedule Starts in Spring
Lawn fertilization in Idaho Falls kicks off in early spring, adding crucial nutrients to your hungry soil and giving your grass that nice pop of green, fast.
Plan on mid-to late-April, once the soil temperature reaches 55 degrees.
Summer Fertilizing, Times Three
Three fertilizer treatments during the growing season keep your lawn green and healthy during all those backyard barbecues and lazy summer weekends on the patio.
When to fertilize your lawn in summer? Plan on mid-May, around the end of June, and in early to mid-August.
Don’t Skip Fall Fertilizing
Your grass is done growing by fall, right? Nope.
The final fertilizer treatment in fall includes important slow-release granular fertilizer that feeds your hungry lawn for the winter and helps it pop back up, ready to impress, in the spring.
Common Lawn Fertilizer Mistakes
Lawn fertilization is confusing. Mistakes happen. Many homeowners either apply too much fertilizer or apply it at the wrong time of the year.
Over fertilizing, especially with high levels of nitrogen, will cause lots of pretty green blades of grass, but not enough root growth. Too much fertilizer will actually burn the lawn.
Applying too much fertilizer isn’t just bad for your lawn and wasteful — it can harm the environment, running off and entering the groundwater.
Lawn care experts know exactly when to fertilize your lawn and how much fertilizer to apply. And because you’re on their calendar, they’ll arrive at just the right times to treat your lawn.
Lawn Fertilizer Tips For Idaho Homeowners
If you don’t do everything right when fertilizing your lawn, you might be wasting fertilizer and your time.
Here are some lawn fertilization tips:
- Water first. A few days before you feed your lawn, give it a good watering. That will help ensure your soil is ready to accept the fertilizer.
- Adjust your spreader settings. Check the fertilizer bag to make sure you’re selecting the proper setting for your individual spreader to ensure proper coverage.
- Lightly water after you apply fertilizer. That washes the fertilizer off grass blades and into the soil. You can also time fertilizer application between rainfalls to let rain wash fertilizer into soil. Just don’t fertilize before a downpour — all that fertilizer will just wash away.
Quick-Release or Slow Release Fertilizer? Both, Please
The right fertilizer blend can give each lawn exactly the mix of quick-release and slow-release fertilization it needs, delivering both immediate and long-term results.
For your summer lawn fertilizing schedule we might use 25 percent quick-release and 75 percent slow-release fertilizer to provide some instant green on established lawns but avoid large spikes in growth so mowing heights remain stable.
But for a new lawn, we might use 50 percent or 60 percent quick-release to help the lawn along in its establishment and 40 percent slow-release so the plants continue to receive nutrients over time.
How Often to Fertilize? Leave It to the Pros
If all this sounds tricky, you’re right. You have better things to do than try to calculate how much quick-release vs. slow-release fertilizer you need, right?
Heck, you have trouble remembering to fertilize at all. (We promise we’re not judging.)
All the more reason to leave fertilizing to the pros.
Professionals also have access to fertilizers and weed control you can’t buy without a license.
And hiring a lawn care service means you don’t have to worry about buying and storing chemicals in your garage. (Maybe you can finally buy that boat!)
Is Your Lawn Ready for a New Best Friend?
Need a lawn fertilizing schedule? Cross it off your list.
Your lawn will get five perfectly timed fertilizer treatments throughout the year with Lawn Buddies.
We’ve got your back — high-quality fertilizer treatments are included in our six-step complete lawn care package.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started.
- Fill out the form on this page
- Call us at (208) 656-9131
- Or read more about our services
Image Source: Sprinkler Head
