Fertilization and Lawn Care – What you need to know.

When it comes to fertilizing and controlling weeds and insects in your lawn and landscape there are a few basics that make all the difference in the results. This isn’t the right space to go into an in depth analysis for every possible option but let’s take a look at some easy wins.

First is understanding the growth habit and fertilizer requirements of your particular lawn and plants. We work primarily in Orlando and north to about Sanford. While many lawns in Orlando are St. Augustine we are seeing more Zoysia being used in Winter Park and a few areas near Lake Mary. We also see some Bahia – but generally that isn’t used in areas with an expectation of high lawn care, therefore we will leave that for another discussion. Within the 2 species of grass that we see most often there are many cultivars that are used for specific desired characteristics. Again – we will skip the deep dive into specific varieties for a different post.

This lawn is St Augustine grass. If your lawn is St. Augustine and is generally established you can find many fertilizer options available. Selecting the right one doesn’t have to be complicated.

Picking the right fertilizer for grass is not overly difficult. All fertilizer labels have three large numbers on them- and some smaller ones for the micro nutrients if there are any. Those numbers represent the percentage of the ingredients. They are most often listed as N P K . N is the percentage of Nitrogen, P is Phosphorous and K is potassium. The numbers are a percentage of the ingredient. Keeping it simple- bag of 10-10-10 has less of the actual ingredient than a bag of 30-30-30. In the 10 bag, if you had 100 pounds there would be 10 pounds of N, 10 of P and 10 of K and the 30 bag there is 3 times that – or 30 pounds of each.

Here is a link to a deeper dive on fertilizer selection and labels. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/LH014

Fertilization and lawn care in central Florida generally doesn’t need much (if any) phosphorous. I also recommend a slow release unless there is a specific need to do otherwise. How much you put down at one time matters. Zoysia likes small amounts – but applied more frequently. We typically do the same for St Augustine, although it isn’t as picky. Some companies put a higher percentage down, but that leads to excess clippings and some fertilizer ends up running off and being part of a bigger problem.

Weed and Insect Control

There are a lot of ways to control pests in a lawn or a garden – the best way is to keep it healthy to begin with. Over the last 30 years I have given a lot of talks to landscape industry and garden groups about the benefits of IPM and cultural practices. Good lawn and landscape maintenance is absolutely the best preventative measure against weed and pest pressure. Sharp blades, right height, controlling water for both too much irrigation as well as not enough. Those practices and managing that all in one place is what has set us apart from many competitors over the years.

Here is a link for you to take a deeper dive on pest control if you want. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/entity/topic/landscape_pests

Contact a Fertilization and Lawn Care Expert

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Landscape Maintenance Lawn Care Fertilization Irrigation (groundscrouxlandscaping.com)