garden home &
Lush lawns
start in spring
Simple tips for maintaining
the best yard on the block
By Laura Langston
The Costco Connection
Most Costco warehouses and Costco.com
carry lawn mowers, spreaders, a variety of
live plants, gardening tools, fertilizer, hoses,
planters, pots, fountains and ponds to help
keep your lawn or garden attractive.
MEDIA BAKERY
MARCH 2011 ;e Costco Connection 39
Apply a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer
when you spot-seed or overseed (but not if
you use a mix that contains fertilizer). A
month or so after the grass germinates, give it
a quick-release nitrogen fertilizer no matter
what seed mix you started with.
One of the biggest mistakes homeowners
make is not fertilizing their grass regularly.
“Grass is a plant, and people feed their other
plants, so why not grass?” MacDonald asks,
adding that while grass will grow if it’s not
fed, it’ll flourish with the proper nutrients.
Scotts recommends fertilizing every
other month from April to October. Ben
Hamza, director of technical operations for
TruGreen, a lawn-care service, adds that
before using any fertilizer, homeowners need
to look carefully at their soil. “People some-
times have spring fever and start too soon,”
he says. “But you want to make sure the soil
is not saturated or frozen, because if you
apply fertilizers on frozen soil, it won’t be
properly utilized.”
Organic options include compost and
lawn clippings from mulching mowers or a
premixed all-purpose, slow-release fertilizer
such as Scotts Turf Builder. If you do use the
latter, switch to a fall/winter fertilizer for the
last feeding.
Hamza and MacDonald agree that healthy,
well-fed lawns are rarely troubled by weeds. But
even with the best care, weeds can and do
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