Parkway Lawn Service
6038 Pillsbury Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN. 55419
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 Fertilizing can be one of the best things you can do for your lawn, but it can also be one of the worst. Today's lawn soil does not contain enough nutrients for healthy growth. Without proper lawn care fertilizer, turf grasses may be less vigorous, and colorful and may not grow as well. Using the correct lawn care fertilizer and herbicide (if necessary) can be crucial. But if you fertilize your yard in hot weather or use the wrong mix of fertilizer, or apply it incorrectly, you may be doing more harm than good. That's why employing a professional for lawn fertilization or a weed control service company can save you money and heartache in the long run. It's important to not just fertilize, but to employ fertilizing lawn care knowledge and best practices for the most effective results.
Parkway Lawn Service is your expert lawn care and fertilizer professional for the Minneapolis, Edina, Eden Prairie, Richfield, and Bloomington, Minnesota.
What is lawn care fertilizer?
Fertilizer consists of three primary ingredients: nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, but these are not the only important elements.
Nitrogen is the most important of the three listed above for lawn care fertilizer. Nitrogen is critical for plant proteins, chlorophyll, amino acids, and other parts of your grass. It improves the color and density of your lawn, but it also stimulates top growth. Too much, or too much of the wrong type of nitrogen, and you may suddenly find yourself in the middle of a lawn mowing frenzy. If you're buying your own fertilizer, packages often tend to place a lot of emphasis on the fast growth and deep green color, but this can actually be bad for plant growth and health, stimulating the growth of fungi and taking away from the growth of roots.
With deep lawn fertilization, you'll also need to know the proper amounts and blend of soluble and insoluble nitrogen as well as performing lawn aeration and possibly de-thatching to get the best penetration.
Phosphorus is one of the elements in Phosphate. Phosphorus is a key element in plant nutrition and is essential for turning the sun's energy into plant compounds via photosynthesis. It is also a critical ingredient in grass DNA and RNA. DNA is required for all living things, and RNA is needed to build plant proteins and other compounds needed for the grass to grow. In the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota, phosphorus content in the soil is already high. Because runoff may cause heavy algae growth in wetlands, stream, and lakes, since 2004 it has been illegal to apply fertilizer with phosphorus except in certain, tightly defined circumstance.
Potash contains two atoms of Potassium and one of Oxygen. The potassium helps improve heat and cold tolerance, increase drought and disease resistance, and improve root growth.
The Down Side of Fertilizer
While fertilization is vital for growth of a healthy lawn, too much fertilizer can cripple or even kill your lawn. Why? There are many reasons. Use of the wrong fertilizer or application at the wrong times can inhibit root growth and even encourage the growth of fungi. Fertilizers also contain salt that can kill a lawn, especially if it's allowed to build up. This is because the salt absorbs water more readily than plant roots, effectively starving the grass. Salt itself can also be toxic to plant roots by causing the buildup of sodium, bicarbonate, and boron. Salt injury can cause plants to be more easily susceptible to soil-based plant diseases.
Parkway Lawn Service knows what makes your lawn work well, in what combinations, and at what times to apply it.
Holistic Lawn Care
It's important to also remember that fertilizing and watering your yard are not the only elements of a healthy lawn. Power raking, hand raking, grass cutting, lawn aeration, and de-thatching are just some of the elements that should come into play to help keep your lawn healthy and pristine. Preparing your lawn for the winter and spring through spring and fall cleanups and application of the right fertilizer can have dramatic results for your lawn.
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