Ciscoe’s Tips of the Week: Fertilize Your Lawn
Apr 25, 2013, 12:41 PM | Updated: Apr 26, 2013, 4:27 pm
Ciscoe’s Tips of the Week:
– Fertilize the lawn with organic lawn food. Water it in if no precipitation is expected. Measure your lawn to determine the square footage. The label tells how many square feet the amount in the bag covers. Once you know how big your lawn is, it’s easy to determine how much of the fertilizer in a given sized bag to apply on the lawn.
“People fertilize their lawn too early in the spring, it tells the grass to grow so fast,” said Ciscoe. “You put fertilizer on the grass, you go in and eat lunch, you come back out and the grass is already four feet tall.”
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fertilize at all. If the grass gets too thin, it’s an invitation for moss, said Ciscoe.
To make sure you’re feeding your lawn the perfect amount, Ciscoe said to measure your lawn, figure out how big your lawn is, and then the bag tells you how much to put on.
“The worse thing you could do is put too much fertilizer on. If you do that, a lot of times it’ll burn the grass and that defeats the whole purpose.”
Ciscoe said the next step is to water really well, or let mother nature do the work.
– Sow the seed of Kohlrabi, broccoli and cauliflower directly into the garden. After the seedlings emerge, thin plants to 12 to 24 inches apart and work in a 1/2 cup of organic vegetable food and a handful of bonemeal around each plant.
– Plant Dahlia tubers 6 inches deep. Work in a handful of organic bulb food and a handful of bone meal into the hole before planting, and stake the tuber before filling in the hole. Bait for slugs that devour newly emerging Dahlia stems.
Ciscoe’s Tips of the Month for April
– Rent an aeration machine to pull plugs from the lawn. Leave plugs and allow to break down naturally.
– Top dress with a layer of organic compost, making sure not to cover more than 1/3 of the grass blades.
– Divide summer and fall blooming perennials and replant with natural fertilizer.
Click here for Ciscoe’s Plant of the Week!
Gardening with Ciscoe can be heard on KIRO Radio on Saturdays at 10 a.m. Available anytime ON DEMAND at KIRORadio.com.
