Fertilize Lawns At Least Three Times Each Year

Q. What time of year should a lawn be fertilized?

A good  fertilizer for established lawns should be
high in nitrogen (first number),
low in phosphorus (the middle number)
and moderate to high in potassium (the third number).

A. For tall fescue lawns, this is 99% of our residential lawns, I recommend at least three times per year if you are using recycling mowers; Labor Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving.The Thanksgiving day application may arguably be the most important application of the year in keeping
a winter lawn green.

If you have bermudagrass I recommend Labor Day, Memorial Day and 4th of July. You don’t want to apply anything to Bermudagrass in the fall if you are planning to overseed your lawn to keep it green during the winter.

Most fertilizer bags recommend a rate of 1 pound of nitrogen per 1000 square feet of lawn area. I consider this to be excessive unless this is a very high-end fertilizer containing lots of slow release nitrogen. You can cut that rate in half and get very good results.

It is also very helpful if you can use a mulching mower that chops up the clippings find enough to return to the lawn as a fertilizer.

You can download a copy of my fact sheet on turfgrass maintenance from here

https://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2010/fs1070.pdf