Lawn Garden Sprinklers

A healthy lawn is a huge part of a beautiful landscape and a home’s curb appeal. Whether you have a cool-season lawn or a warm-season lawn, new sod or established turf one thing is certain, with up to 1,000 grass plants per square foot of lawn fertilization is a must!

There are two ways to fertilize and achieve a green healthy lawn and beautiful landscape plants. You can do it yourself or you can hire a professional contractor to prescribe a maintenance program. Regardless of what you choose there are some things you should keep in mind when using fertilizers.

You should start by measuring the square footage of your lawn to determine the amount of fertilizer you will need. You should begin your fertilization program in the fall in order to promote healthy root growth. There are 3 basic ingredients in a well balanced fertilizer. Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium are required to promote thick, dense grass that will resist disease and weeds. The label on the fertilizer bag will tell what percentages of these 3 basic ingredients are in the fertilizer. Example would be 20-10-5 which contains 20% nitrogen, 10% phosphate and 5% potassium, the remaining percentage is carriers such as sand. Your soil contains these nutrients naturally but during construction much of the nutrient rich soils are removed or disturbed and over the years the soil nutrients in landscaping around a home becomes depleted.

Experts recommend fertilizing your lawn two to four times a year depending on your climate, the type of grass you have and your landscape/lawn expectations.

• Early Spring
• Early Summer
• Late Summer
• Late Fall

For established lawns in Colorado, it is best to use the N value to determine what fertilizer to buy. For Blue grass/Ryegrass, a common Colorado grass, a recommended amount is

<img style=”float: right; padding: 9px;” src=”http://lawngardensprinklers.com/images/mow_lawn-1.jpg” alt=”" />Maybe you live in a apartment, or even better a big city, whatever your excuse may be it’s about time you start to think about lawn mowers. Keeping a lawn in shape can not only benefit the look of your yard, it can also keep you healthy, and save you money.

Lawn mowers are becoming more popular every day as record rates of home ownership occur. Lawn mowers come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and prices. To know what type of lawn mower to get now, will benefit you in the future because it can be a daunting task to pick one from the many styles available.

The push mower will run you about $100 at your local hardware store. Push mowers are the most simple, cost effective way to cut your grass. Push mowers typically won’t provide enough power to cut a large yard in a few hours, but for those with modest needs they can be the perfect start. Also push mowers don’t require gas, motors, or bags. Further push mowers won’t leave you with noise, smoke, and sometimes rocky rides. Push mowers are anything but obsolete, and will work well for those with a small yard.

The electric mower with a bag or without a bag usually costs around $300 depending on size and style. Electric mowers are the most popular lawn mower available. These mowers will cut a lot of grass in just a few minutes. They typically run for several years without problems, and usually hold up their value. Push mowers do require some gasoline, and may have problems with their engines. Further push mowers can be loud, and without a bag can spew grass all over the place.

Lawn tractors run about $700 to $2000 dollars. Lawn mowers don’t have seats, lawn tractors have seats. This shouldn’t be confused with an ATV, and is not meant for the road. But lawn tractors offer big time landscapers a chance to mow as much grass as they need without doing much more then swapping gears, and steering. Lawn tractors come in various sizes and styles, most of them come with four tires, a driver’s seat, and a bag to keep clippings in. Some perform alternative duties such as tilling, weeding, and sowing.

Automatic lawn mowers will cost you between $1700 and $3000 dollars. That’s right, we said automatic. Now for the ultra lazy that want to swap in your lawn tractors for an automatic mower you can. There is nothing to do but switch on, and tell the kids to watch out. These automatic mowers are just becoming popular, and will inevitably lower in price as technology advances.

<img style=”float: left; padding: 9px;” src=”http://lawngardensprinklers.com/images/grass-22-1.jpg” alt=”" />Your lawn takes nutrients out of the soil that it is bedded in and uses these nutrients to aid its growth. If your soil lacks these nutrients your lawn will ultimately suffer.

So while fertilizing makes your lawn greener it also provides a top of any nutrients that your soil is lacking helping grass to grow. When the nutrients are available, the lawn develops healthier roots which invariably grow deeper allowing the lawn to draw upon water and nutrients in the soil. Furthermore, deep roots reduce thatch and browning. Finally, fertilizer contains nutrients that grass needs to resist disease and drought.

Fertilizers also offer the additional benefit of including chemicals to inhibit or kill weeds. The three primary nutrients in a fertilizer are Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. Each element has its own affect upon grass. Nitrogen stimulates grass growth and greening. Phosphorous stimulates the development of roots and seedlings. Potassium promotes disease and drought resistance.

As the weather changes, so too does your lawn have changing needs. In the heat of the summer, your lawn needs water and little else. In order to survive the cold weather, your lawn needs to have healthy roots and so a fertilizer to promote root growth should be applied before the cold weather sets in. At other times of year your lawn needs nutrients to enable growth and greening. Weeds also have their own growing seasons so you should fertilize at the beginning of the various weed growth seasons.

Where you live, the type of grass you have, the condition of your soil and the weather all affect your choice of fertilizer and when it should be applied. You also have a choice of organic fertilizer, liquid fertilizer, which is sprayed on, or time released granules which are distributed with a spreader. All of these factors result in the many choices of fertilizer. And of course you can always purchase your fertilizer via a wholesaler online, meaning that the more you buy the cheaper the deal.

Feeling too lazy to fertilize? Here are 10 reasons why you should get off your computer and give your lawn what it deserves!

1. Lawns that are never fertilized are far less healthy. They will have short, thin root systems, and few resources to get them through stressful periods such as droughts and cold winters.

2. Correctly fertilizing your lawn keeps the weeds out which means less competition for healthy grass to grow.

3. Providing the right amount of nutrients to your lawn means it will retain its natural lush green color. And we want our lawns to be green!

4. Pests, diseases, and insects are less likely to disturb or ruin your lawn.

5. Fertilizing is probably the cheapest, yet most effective way to positively impact your lawn’s appearance and health. It’s also by far the easiest!

6. A well-fed lawn comes to life earlier and is healthier in the spring.

7. Fertilizing properly corrects imbalances in ph brought on by irrigation water and water treatments.

8. Fertilizing regularly controls lawn growth rate which helps home-owners better estimate mowing time and height.

9. A proper fertilizing regime controls pesky brown or yellow areas.

10. Fertilizing gives you bragging rights because you will have the greenest lawn on the block!