When it comes to fertilizing, there’s a delicate balance between doing it right and doing too much or too little for your lawn. Whether you use organic fertilizer or not, here are some of the most common fertilizer mistakes to avoid with your lawn.
3 Common Organic Fertilizer Mistakes
Using Too Much Fertilizer
Like it or not, it’s definitely possible to have too much of a good thing when it comes to fertilizer for your lawn. Even organic lawn care services and products have specific instructions concerning the amount of product that can be used on a lawn. While a healthy dose of fertilizer is great for your plants and your lawn, over-fertilizing can actually weaken their natural balance. As a result, you may be met with weak growth, wilting plants, or even dying plants. When in doubt, it’s safer to under-fertilize and add more if it’s needed. It’s almost always safer for your lawn and your other plants for you to err on the side of caution when it comes to fertilizer application.
Not Understanding What Your Plants Need
Spending as little as 5% of your home’s value on landscaping could have a huge ROI, but if you don’t know what your new plants need then you’re going to have some problems. It’s critical to do your research whenever you put new plants in your yard. What type of fertilizer do they need? Are organic weed control services necessary to protect them? These are important questions that you need to be asking before you buy the first fertilizer you see and start using it. Unfortunately, a blanket approach to fertilizing doesn’t work very well when you have a lot of different plants in your lawn.
Fertilizing at the Wrong Time
One of the key missteps that people make when fertilizing is thinking that all organic fertilizer is “plant food.” In reality, fertilizer is food for your soil. It provides soil with all of the necessary nutrients that your plants need to thrive. This means it’s key to fertilize your soil when your plants need it most. For example, perennials typically go dormant during the winter months. They won’t need fertilizer until early spring. Fertilizing just before your plants are set to grow again can help them grow stronger during their peak months.
Fertilizing doesn’t have to be a tricky business. As long as you’re doing your research and giving your plants and lawn what they need, you should see excellent results.