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Fertilizer in Salmon Arm! Food for Thought… or Grass?
Just like your own body, your grass requires nutrients, water and air. Depending on the type of grass in your lawn and the region you live in, different ratios of these nutrients are required. Here in Salmon Arm, we definitely get our fair share of rain but this is only one of the essential elements your lawn needs. When the summer heat comes and the soil begins to dry out, if your lawn hasn’t been fed the nutrients it needs, it might not survive.
What nutrients are we providing with fertilization?
So what nutrients does your lawn need here in Salmon Arm? Pretty much all plants require large amounts of the same three nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but different plants require different ratios. House plants, for example, usually require a balanced mix of all three, whereas most grasses demand higher amounts of nitrogen than phosphorus or potassium. Phosphorus and potassium are more readily available on most lawns, meaning they need to be replenished less often. Nitrogen, on the other hand, moves quickly through the soil with rain or water. This means that it moves out of the soil quickly as well and needs to be replenished more frequently.
Lawn fertilizer bags will list their ratios with the N-P-K formula, meaning the first number is nitrogen, the second is phosphorus and the third is potassium. This is why when you look for lawn fertilizer, the first number, nitrogen, will be the largest because your lawn needs the most of it.
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Which Fertilizer?
Now that you know a bit about fertilizer and what it does, it’s time to choose a fertilizer. This part isn’t as hard as it may seem, although there are plenty of options. Some bags are labelled as lawn food, some are labelled by season. Here in Salmon Arm, there’s so much rain to help promote growth and repair that a standard fertilizer will do the trick. The more specialized bags for different seasons, or the bags with less common N-P-K ratios are options you might want to consider if you’ve tried standard fertilizers with no success. Essentially, don’t worry about the nuances when it comes to fertilizers unless you own a golfing green, your lawn just needs nutrients! Make sure you also pick up a seed and fertilizer spreader while you’re out!
Tip: It’s handy to know the square footage or meters of your yard to know how much fertilizer to purchase.
Is Fertilizer/Fertilizing Enough?
You might want to just spread the fertilizer and be done with it, but just spreading fertilizer alone might be a waste of your time and money. The pH levels of your lawn are important for receiving nutrients. In Salmon Arm, lawns can easily become acidic due to various reasons. If you live in an area with high pollution, it can raise the acidity of your lawn. Even heavy rain can raise the acidity as pollutants can be carried in the water droplets. As dead leaves, branches or other debris decays, this also leaves acid in the soil.
The problem with acidic soil is that it prevents the nutrients from reaching the roots of your grass. Even with an abundance of these nutrients, the acidity can kill most of it before your lawn receives any benefits. So while you could try to fertilize your lawn without lime treatment here in Salmon Arm, we would always recommend pairing the two together to ensure that the nutrients you just spent money on will have no problem reaching the roots of the grass you’re trying to nourish!
What to do after fertilizing in Salmon Arm?
Now you have fertilizer, you have lime, and you have your spreader, you’re almost ready to go. Just make sure you wear gloves and a mask when dealing with the lime! It isn’t the most toxic substance, but many lime mixtures can be quite dusty and you should avoid breathing in the lime. During the dry Salmon Arm summer heat, the last thing you’ll want to be doing is breathing in lime dust.
Read the bags carefully! Typically, most brands here in Salmon Arm will include instructions on what spreader to use, how much fertilizer to put on your lawn, and what pattern you should walk as you’re spreading the fertilizer. This should make it easier to determine the right amount to use on your lawn, but it can be hard to hit the ratios right.
In Salmon Arm, one of the most common mistakes first time gardeners commit is putting down too much fertilizer. This can lead to something called “fertilizer burn”, where the leaves of grass are scorched, turned brown or yellow, and this can eventually lead your lawn to die. This damage can be reversed if there is still rain to fall in the season, and a layer of topsoil and grass seed can do wonders, but this can be a headache after spending money to make your lawn look great in the first place!
While fertilizing your lawn in Salmon Arm is not rocket science, there are many things to consider if you want to optimize your lawns chances of success. This could take some research and planning to hit the right time windows, nail the nutrient and lime ratios, and know how frequently to do it again. If you are finding that you don’t have the time, or simply don’t want to do the work, call us here at Jim’s Mowing Salmon Arm and let us take care of the work and planning for you. Our experts are trained on the best schedules and practices for lime and fertilizer treatments to ensure that we do the tough jobs for you!
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