August
2008
As summer ends, grass care happens with fertilizer
I have read a few things about fertilizer now. To tell you the truth, I’ve only used the stuff once. And I didn’t see that much of a difference. But you know what? Because of my hatred of grass care, I probably did it wrong.
Just throwing stuff out on your lawn and expecting something terrific to happen is just plain silly. I went out and got me a little hand fertilizer thing. A spreader? I don’t know what you’d call it - here take a look.
Yeah, that’s real sweat dripping off my chin!
One thing I’m learning you should do is a little analysis to find out what the deal is with your lawn before going out and throwing stuff on it. You can get kits to test the soil (I’ll have to find out more about this…) and you can see what kind of weeds you have (crabgrass is my latest enemy…).
It’s also something to consider, that lawns don’t need as much feeding as people think. Once or twice a year is plenty. And the fall is a great time because the root system is growing as the temperature cools off a bit. One thing I learned is that Nitrogen really can green up the lawn, but it can make the roots grow shallow and that is, evidently, a bad thing. Good grass roots can choke out weeds. Hmm I wonder if that stuff I put down had anything to do with why I haven’t seen nearly as many dandelions this summer..?
Anyway, as far as spreaders go - I had a serious problem with the one I got. As you can see in the picture, it pretty much relies on wrist strength to hold it up. And when it’s full - that gets tough real fast. So I would spill stuff and get tired real easy.
But look what I found!
This is a spreader that is WAY better for grass care than the one I have. It’s got a bag on it - so stuff won’t spill out of the top. And better yet, it’s got a shoulder strap! Now that will keep your wrist from giving out.
So whether it’s fertilizing - or weed killing (don’t know much about that yet either!) you can use this to help you in your battle in your yard.