Avoid The high cost of advertising gimmicks. You hear special claims like "Winterizer" or "Osmocote" fertilizer. If you want a nice lawn without spending $50 for a bag of fertilizer, use what the farmers do. Granted you may not have a farm and feed supply around you. However if so you can find generic 50LB bags of fertilizer for $20. So whats the difference, When you apply it, and The blend. Most name brand lawn fertilizer is 27-3-3 or so. The nitrogen is coated with Chemicals so it won't burn your lawn. This is good for hot summer but save money and apply generic in fall or early spring. The other is your lawn just like all plants. It needs a balanced fertilizer. A 19-19-19 or 12-12-12 is going to create a healthy blade,stem,and root structure. High nitrogen fertilizers make for a great top but crappy roots. Balanced products are the key and with better roots you need less water since the lawn can absorb more moisture. The draw back is you can burn the lawn if you don't either drench with water or apply in fall or in spring just before a rain. You might get a little more grass trying to go to seed but if you cut once a week you won't notice. Also if you want to avoid heavy watering in the hot summer, cut your lawn 3-4 inches tall. The thick grass acts as its own mulch keeping in the ground moisture also crowding out weeds. In the fall cut your lawn very low and any thatch build up will be removed. So there my 2 cents on lawns. Just remember DON'T use generic fertilizer in hot summer unless you drench drench drench the lawn after,early spring or mid fall are best.
We have been using corn gluten for years but the weeds were getting out of hand so we hired an organic company and the lawn is looking so nice. if we didn't have dogs it would be perfect without all those brown spots. They are using corn gluten and putting extra grass seed on the lawn to thicken it and organic spray for the weeds. I think it is worth the money when I see all of the toads in the yard.
