When you go to a garden center to get fertilizer for your lawn, the first thing you will notice is that there are many different lawn fertilizer brands. How do you know which one is the best to use? One thing that you have to consider is the cost of each brand and the features involved in using each one. The people who work at this center should be able to advise you of the best one to choose based on where you live, your specific needs and the size of your lawn. It also depends on the type of grass you have.

Centipedegrass does not need as much fertilizer as other kinds to keep it looking green and lush all summer long. Bermudagrass needs a little bit more. All lawns need the nutrients that they get from fertilizer, but it is possible to give the grass too much fertilizer and burn it up. You also have to look at whether the fertilizer is in liquid form or if it is granular.

Cool season grasses include varieties such as tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. The peak seasons of growth for these grasses are during the cooler months of the fall and spring. If your area has a very mild climate in winter, your cool season grass lawn could be growing throughout that time as well. The timing of the fertilizer application should be in the fall and the spring, with potential applications in the winter depending on climate.

For cool season grasses, the fall fertilizer application is very important, as it promotes growth longer into the winter period, and helps store up reserves for the grass to resume its growth as spring approaches. Once the spring weather appears, be cautious in jumping in quickly with more fertilizer, as you could end up encouraging top growth at the expense of root growth.

There are two types of lawn fertilizers, water soluble and non-water soluble. Lawn fertilizers that are water soluble are the types that dissolve in water easily and act quickly when poured on the soil, therefore, releasing nitrogen quickly. Because it acts more quickly, it also nourishes the grass and produces effects more quickly than non-water soluble lawn fertilizers. The only thing about this type of fertilizer is, it gets used up very quickly, therefore, it should be reapplied. Because the water-insoluble ones do not dissolve in water, the nitrogen is distributed steadily and for a longer period of time.