When to fertilise a lawn?

The ques­tion on the minds of many gar­den own­ers, whether they are novice green enthu­si­asts or expe­ri­enced gar­den­ers is: when to fer­tilise the lawn? Grass, like any oth­er plant, needs the right dose of nutri­ents to grow healthy, thick and look stun­ning. How­ev­er, it is not just about the fer­tilis­er itself, but above all about the right time of appli­ca­tion. A cor­rect­ly timed fer­tilis­er appli­ca­tion can work won­ders, while a poor­ly timed appli­ca­tion can do more harm than good. In this arti­cle, we will try to unrav­el the mys­tery of the best time for this impor­tant care activ­i­ty and give you tips on how to effec­tive­ly sup­ply your grass with the nec­es­sary nutri­ents.

When to fertilise your lawn — key times of the year

Prop­er lawn fer­til­i­sa­tion is just as impor­tant as reg­u­lar mow­ing or water­ing. With the right crop sup­port mea­sures Your grass will ben­e­fit not only in terms of beau­ty, but above all in terms of health. For the lawn, like all plants in the gar­den, needs nutri­ents to help it devel­op prop­er­ly and to fight off var­i­ous pests and dis­eases. A prop­er­ly fer­tilised lawn is there­fore a guar­an­tee of a beau­ti­ful and healthy gar­den all year round.

When to fertilise your lawn after winter — lawn restoration

After the cold and often snowy win­ter months, the lawn needs spe­cial care to return to full life. Win­ter con­di­tions such as frost, snow or even stag­nant water can cause the grass to become weak­ened and more sus­cep­ti­ble to var­i­ous dis­eases or pests. Spring fer­til­i­sa­tion is there­fore not only a mat­ter of aes­thet­ics, but above all the health of our veg­e­ta­tion.

When pre­cise­ly fer­tilise the lawn after win­ter? Prefer­ably at a time when you are see­ing the first signs of spring revival in your gar­den. The ground is begin­ning to soft­en and young blades of grass are break­ing through the sur­face. These her­ald the arrival of the right time to pro­vide your lawn with the nec­es­sary nutri­ents. It is impor­tant to choose fer­tilis­ers specif­i­cal­ly designed for use in ear­ly spring. Rich in nitro­gen, these help to rebuild the lawn, stim­u­late vig­or­ous growth and help to regen­er­ate areas that have suf­fered dur­ing the win­ter. In addi­tion, a prop­er­ly select­ed spring fer­tilis­er can strength­en the grass in its fight against weeds and pre­pare it for the com­ing warmer months

When to fertilise a lawn in spring?

Spring lawn care does not end with a sin­gle fer­til­is­ing appli­ca­tion just after the frost has passed. How­ev­er, when to fer­tilise the lawn in spring for the sec­ond time? It is a good idea to car­ry out the sec­ond fer­til­i­sa­tion step lat­er in the spring, around May. You are won­der­ing which fer­tilis­er for the lawn in spring best to choose? It is now worth focus­ing on mul­ti-nutri­ent fer­tilis­ers, which pro­vide your lawn not only with nitro­gen, but also with oth­er essen­tial nutri­ents such as phos­pho­rus and potas­si­um. These ingre­di­ents pro­mote root­ing, strength­en the lawn’s resis­tance to drought and dis­ease and improve the colour and struc­ture of the grass. Reg­u­lar fer­til­i­sa­tion at the right times in spring, tai­lored to the needs of the lawn, is the way to keep it healthy and beau­ti­ful through­out the sea­son. 

Can a lawn be fertilised in the rain?

Cer­tain­ly, many gar­den­ers are won­der­ing, whether it is pos­si­ble to fer­tilise a lawn in the rain. The sub­ject men­tioned is some­times con­tro­ver­sial among gar­den­ing enthu­si­asts. On the one hand, moist soil makes it eas­i­er for the fer­tilis­er to spread and be absorbed by the roots of the grass, some­times speed­ing up and enhanc­ing its effects. A light rain that gen­tly moist­ens the soil can there­fore be the per­fect time to apply fer­tilis­er, espe­cial­ly those in gran­u­lar form. On the oth­er hand, fer­til­is­ing the lawn dur­ing heavy rain­fall car­ries a cer­tain risk that the fer­tilis­er will quick­ly rinse off the sur­face of the lawn. This not only reduces its effec­tive­ness, but can also lead to ground­wa­ter and sur­face water being con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with excess min­er­al nutri­ents.

Addi­tion­al­ly, walk­ing on a wet lawn while fer­til­is­ing some­times leads to unwant­ed com­paction, which can stunt lawn growth. There­fore, when decid­ing whether to fer­tilise your lawn on a rainy day, it is worth pay­ing atten­tion to the strength and dura­tion of the rain­fall and the con­di­tion of your lawn to make the most informed choice.

By when to fertilise a lawn?

Many hor­ti­cul­tur­al experts rec­om­mend ear­ly autumn as the key time to com­plete lawn fer­til­i­sa­tion. Fer­til­is­ing the lawn lat­er, when the days become short­er and tem­per­a­tures drop, can encour­age vig­or­ous grass growth, not always ben­e­fi­cial to the health of the grass in win­ter con­di­tions.

When it comes to young lawns, i.e. those after recent sow­ing, the fer­til­i­sa­tion process is slight­ly dif­fer­ent. When to fer­tilise a lawn after sow­ing? It is best to wait until the grass has reached the right height, which is usu­al­ly a few weeks after sow­ing. Then you can apply a nitro­gen-rich fer­tilis­er to pro­mote vig­or­ous growth of the young grass. How­ev­er, make sure that you do not fer­tilise imme­di­ate­ly after sow­ing, as fer­til­is­ing too soon can dam­age the ger­mi­nat­ing seed.