Bluegrass is a wonderful plant! Humans, through management, have changed the way the grass first grew. Originally, the grass was a "clump" grass growing in pastures. As time passed, with additional water and nutrients, the plant grew more closely together making a better lawn.

Its natural growth cycle was to be green in the spring with natural moisture, go dormant during the dry summer, and green up again with fall rains. However, people aren't satisfied with this cycle. We want it to green early in the spring, and stay green until fall. A dormant lawn in the summer isn't acceptable!

It's time to go green and make that first application of lawn fertilizer for the year. To have a green and healthy lawn requires that we follow one of the basic fundamentals of lawn care and fertilize on a regular basis.

As a general rule, lawn fertilizer should be applied four to six times a year. An easy way to remember is to use the Holidays as a guideline. The Holidays to apply lawn fertilizer are: Easter, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.

The fertilizer label on every bag of lawn fertilizer contains three numbers.

Fall is the most important time of the year to fertilize your lawn. Fertilizing only in the spring or the summer will deprive your lawn of the extended benefits of fall fertilization.

During the summer the grass plant produces energy from photosynthesis that it uses for top growth. As temperatures drop in the fall root growth is favored over plant growth. Energy that the plant produces in the fall is used for root growth. Excess energy is stored in the roots for future use.  This storage of energy means better winter survival and earlier spring green up without the extra mowing that comes with spring fertilization.

Advantages of fall fertilization include stronger root growth, increased turf density, and increased storage of energy reserves by the grass plant. New root growth results in a healthier turf throughout the next growing season.  Lawns that are fertilized late in the season are often deeper in color throughout the following summer.