How to fertilise your lawn

How to fertilise your lawn

Keeping your lawn lush green and improving its look and structure are core foundations of maintaining a healthy grass lawn. The key to achieving these stellar looks from your lawn is to fertilise it using a highly nutritious lawn fertiliser!

We have created this guide to help you fertilise your grass, provide essential nutrients for your lawn, and more. No matter which type of lawn you have, if you want to keep it in good condition, you will need to use lawn fertiliser for grass to feed your lawn regularly.

For your convenience, we have broken this lawn fertiliser guide into sections to make it easier for you to find the information you need:

Why you should fertilise your lawn?

Like all things that grow, your lawn needs to have the correct nutrients to keep it at its best. To get the best results, it helps to know when to feed your lawn with fertiliser and what grass feed is ideal for the grass seeds you have sown.

Using grass fertiliser will help:

  • Prevent weeds
  • Prevent moss
  • Prevent diseases
  • Improve grass recovery
  • Keep it green and lush
  • Improve growth rate

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Cost / Time benefits of feeding your lawn

You will also save time and money:

  • No need to keep replacing your lawn
  • Less need for over seeding
  • Less moss
  • Less weeds
  • Less damage
  • High recovery rate

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When to fertilise your lawn?

It would be best if you used lawn fertiliser at least twice per year, once in spring/summer and once again in autumn/winter. You can also consider a mid-summer application of lawn feed to boost the colour and condition during the hottest months when your garden will likely be used more often by the family and for social gatherings.

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This is our recommended 2/3 step approach for using grass fertiliser:

1. Spring / Summer - Required

March / April are normally ideal, and you should fertilise when the grass has resumed growth when temperatures are typically 8-10 degrees and above.

2. Mid-Summer – Optional

Usually, around July, adding a quick-release fertiliser will give you a 4/6 week boost. This will help improve the colour and resilience during the hottest months.

3. Autumn / Winter - Required

September / October are normally ideal, and you can wait for the weather to turn from summer to autumn before applying.

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What fertiliser should you use?

There are a number of grass fertiliser types that can benefit the growth and health of your lawn.

We have a range of the best lawn fertilisers that we split into a few main categories:

  • Our range of slow release fertilisers gives you the longest coverage and benefit, offering 12-16 weeks of coverage
  • Quick release fertilisers are great for providing your lawn with a quick boost. A slow-release fertiliser is considered a better approach, but if time is against you this is a viable alternative and will provide fast results
  • We have quick release liquid fertilisers, which will feel your grass quickly, giving it a boost of nutrients to make it green and get it growing quickly!
  • You may want an all-natural solution that you can apply year-round (apart from when your lawn is dormant) to keep your lawn in good condition. Our REVIVE: Organic 365 fertiliser does exactly that. It comes in an organic pellet form and needs to be watered to activate its fertilising properties

Weed and Feed Fertilisers

  • You should only use a Feed, Weed and Moss Killer product on an established lawn (6 months + old). This does four jobs in one by feeding your grass and making it green whilst also removing moss and weeds. This fertiliser is better utilised on the whole lawn as opposed to spots.

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What is the best way to fertilise your lawn?

If you follow these simple steps, it will make the job easy and keep your grass safe:

Applying granular grass fertiliser:

  1. Make sure you have done all the necessary maintenance to your lawn, such as scarifying, weed removal and aeration.
  2. Make sure your soil is not really dry; if it is, aerate and water the soil (if you haven’t already).
  3. Cut your grass 3-4 days before you apply the fertiliser.
  4. Apply at the suggested spreading rate, ideally using a good fertiliser spreader - try to spread on an overcast day or in the evening.
  5. Note: Grass blade burn prevention - please bear in mind it is really important to water off granular fertiliser from the grass blades as the fertiliser will burn and damage the existing grass. Our top time-saving tip is to fertilise on a day when you are expecting a good amount of rain so it does the job for you; otherwise, just water it off yourself using a hose/sprinkler system.
  6. After 14/21 days, check for any weeds and remove them, then overseed any patches.
  7. Most slow-release fertilisers will last for 12-16 weeks, and most quick-release/liquid fertilisers are 4-6 weeks.

Applying liquid fertiliser for grass

  1. Mix in a watering can or a liquid fertiliser sprayer
  2. Use the mixing measurements on the label of the bottle
  3. Apply evenly to the whole lawn
  4. Apply in dry conditions
  5. Avoid applying in warm or heatwave conditions.

Full details on how to get the best results when using liquid fertiliser can be found in our guide.

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How long should you wait between applications?

You should let your fertiliser take full effect in accordance with the duration of feed it provides. E.g. Our slow-release fertilisers provide 14-16 weeks of feed, our quick-release fertilisers provide six weeks of feed, our Feed, Weed and Moss Killer works over two weeks and our REVIVE: Organic 365 fertiliser provides 16- 20 weeks worth of feed - so do no fertiliser again within this time. Once the feed duration is up, you can feed your lawn again.

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We have included a few helpful lawn maintenance guides below for further reading:

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