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PRESS & DAKOTAN n WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2016
Yard & Garden
How and When to Fertilize Your Lawn
Various components go
into creating beautiful, lush
lawns. Lawn maintenance
involves ensuring lawns
have all of the nutrients they
need to thrive. Fertilizer
is essential when feeding
lawns, but fertilizing a lawn
involves more than spreading fertilizer around the yard
and hoping for the best.
Fertilizing is a process that
should be done carefully and
timed correctly for optimal
results.
According to Scotts , a
premier lawn seed and care
company, no two lawns are
alike and each lawn has
different needs. The type of
grass and whether a lawn is
mostly in the sun or shade
may dictate fertilizer requirements. While many lawns are
comprised of several different grasses, a general rule of
thumb is that the lawn will
need to be fertilized in the
spring at the very least. After
that, fertilization schedules should be customized
according to grass type,
climate and other factors.
Spring is a prime time to
fertilize because the lawn is
reviving after a long season
of cold weather and dormancy. Come spring, lawns
need to be fed to turn green
and grow. Soil supplies some
of the nutrients grass needs,
but many soils lack elements
that lawns need to survive
the growing season.
Lawn and garden experts
at Lowes say a healthy and
actively growing lawn uses
a great deal of energy, and
fertilizer will provide the
boost it requires. Fertilizer
helps promote new root and
leaf growth, aid in recovery
from damage, reduce weeds,
and replace nutrients lost to
water runoff.
Fertilizing the right way
Follow these steps to feed
the lawn and help it thrive.
Identify the type of grass
in your lawn and consult
with a garden center to find
the right type of fertilizer for
your grass. Many grasses are
categorized by season and
may be referred to as cool
season, transitional or warm
season grasses.
Test the soil to check for
pH. You want the soil to be
as close to neutral as possible so it can readily process
the nutrients in the fertilizer.
Broadcast or rotary
spreaders will evenly distribute fertilizer and will not
cause striping on the lawn
like drop spreaders might.
Resist the urge to fertilize
by hand, as you may lay an
uneven amount of product,
producing burns and brown
spots.
Fertilizers come in
slow-release, fast-release,
and weed and feed formulations. Which fertilizer you
use will depend on the type
of grass you have and how
much time you have to
devote to lawn maintenance.
Slow-release fertilizers may
be preferable because they
do not need to be reapplied
often.
Use caution and set the
spreader to distribute less
product if you are unsure
how much to apply. Excessive fertilizer can damage a
lawn.
Water the lawn well
after application, and always
follow the fertilizer manufacturer s instructions.
Keep people and pets off
of the lawn for a day or two
after application.
Scotts recommends that
lawns with warm-season
grass be fed over the summer as they grow steadily
from spring to fall.
Another application of
fertilizer in the fall will supply lawns with nutrients to
continue to grow and then
survive winter.
Build a strong lawn by
feeding it effectively. Dense,
healthy lawns can strangle
weeds and lead to beautiful
landscapes.
6 Steps to Creating Fairy Gardens For Kids
Gardening can be an
enjoyable activity for adults
and children alike. Gardening encourages creative
thinking and can make for an
eco-friendly activity as well.
Adding a touch of whimsy
to gardening can make it
that much more attractive
to children. Perhaps that
is why fairy gardens have
become so popular among
youngsters. Fairy gardens
can be designed in outdoor
gardens or in containers that
children can nurse and enjoy
indoors. Here are six steps
to get your fairy garden up
and running.
1. Choose your container
or location. Decide where
to place the fairy garden.
Hollowed-out tree stumps
are both contained and
outdoors, and kids may feel
like the fairies inhabited this
neglected area of the yard
and made it their own. Otherwise, use containers you
already have, such as old
pots, hanging baskets, picnic
baskets or cookie tins.
Wooden birdhouses with
their roofs removed also can
make for clever places to
house the gardens.
2. Choose a theme. Fairy
houses can take on any
theme their creators prefer.
Themes help children decide
what to include in their gardens. For example, a seaside
retreat may work well with
little reclining chairs, sea
grasses and succulents. You
can then complete the theme
by adding some seashells
and colored stones.
3. Draw up your design.
Before securing anything
in the container or digging
into your garden bed, sketch
out a garden design. This
gives you an idea of how
the finished product will
look. Even before planting,
gently place plants and other
components in their spots
and move them around accordingly until you find the
desired look.
4. Include similar-needs
plants. Mixing plants that
have different requirements
can make it challenging to
care for the fairy garden, so
select plants that require
similar levels of sunlight,
prefer similar soil conditions
and require roughly the
same amount of watering.
Herbs are a smart choice
because they stay small and
are easily maintained.
5. Don t forget a fairy
dwelling. You will need to
add a house for the fairies
to inhabit. Small bird houses
can work, but you also can
consider old teapots, birdnesting boxes or even homemade houses assembled out
of bark and twigs. Use your
imagination and the garden
will take on a life of its own.
6. Invite the fairies. Children can invite fairies to take
up residence (fairies often
show up at night and tend to
remain unseen), or children
can create their own fairies
using craft materials.
Fairy gardens are a fun
way to introduce children to
gardeing. Once families get
started, they may want to
create entire fairy villages.
Embrace Greenscaping
for a Healthy Lawn
Lawn and garden enthusiasts are often on the lookout
for new trends that can make their lawns and gardens
healthier and more robust. One trend that has gained
considerable popularity in recent years is the move toward
greenscaping, a set of landscaping practices that the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency says can improve the
health and appearance of lawns and gardens while protecting and preserving the planet s natural resources.
Why greenscape?
While the opportunity to protect and preserve natural
resources is reason enough for many lawn and garden
enthusiasts to embrace greenscaping, there are additional
benefits to turning a landscape into a greenscape. Nonnative plants may struggle to adapt to foreign climates,
requiring homeowners to water them more frequently
than native plants. And homeowners who plant non-native
plants can expect to spend money to ensure they survive.
So non-native plants can waste water and also cost homeowners time and money.
How can I greenscape?
Planting native plants is just one element of greenscaping. The following are a handful of additional ways men and
women with green thumbs can turn their properties into
healthy greenscapes.
Build and maintain healthy soil. The EPA notes that a
single teaspoon of healthy soil contains roughly four billion organisms. These organisms help create a loose soil
structure that promotes strong, healthy roots. In addition,
healthy soil recycles nutrients for plants while protecting
them from certain pests and diseases. Among its many benefits, compost can help soil retain nutrients and water.
Water effectively. Lawns and gardens need water to
thrive, but overwatering can be just as harmful to lawns as
drought. Make a list of the types of plants (including the
types of grass) in your yard, and then do your homework to
determine how much water each plant needs. Learn more
about greenscaping by visiting the EPA at www.epa.gov.
Find it all at...
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