Fertilising is one of the most common aspects of home lawn care, but the importance of doing it correctly is often overlooked.

Firstly, you want to fertilise at the right time of year. For most common lawns such as Sir Walter Buffalo, Couch and Kikuyu, the best times to fertilise are:

  • At the start of spring when you notice your lawn growing again after winter
  • Around Christmas time (late December)
  • Late April, early May is a very important time to fertilise. This will help stave of the winter dormancy, keeping your lawn growing for longer so it maintains colour and vigour.

The next step is selecting what type of fertiliser to use. The two main types of fertilisers are granular and liquid. But within these two types, there are several different fertilisers with different nutritional make ups.

If you’re unsure about which fertiliser is best for your lawn, read our previous blog:

You can also give one of our turf consultants a call (08 9409 4300), or come and visit us in person at 1/1 Dellamarta Road, Wangara.

Once you’ve done your research and found the type of fertiliser you want to use, it’s important to measure the area you’re going to fertilise. Different fertilisers come in different package sizing’s so it’s important you get enough to cover your area.

Now it’s time to actually spread or spray the fertiliser onto your lawn!! Before you start, we always recommend you read all the label rates and instructions. After this, if you have any further questions, please contact the fertiliser manufacturer directly.

Granular Fertiliser

We will now describe how to fertilise your lawn using LSA Lawn Fertiliser. This is a granular fertiliser with an application rate of 2.5KG per 100sqm.

So, if we needed to fertilise a 50sqm area, we would need to measure and pour 1.25KG of fertiliser into a spreader.

There are many schools of thought about how to actually apply a granular fertiliser to your lawn. But the most important thing to keep in mind, is that you need to evenly cover the entire area as best you can. We always recommend walking up and back, and then across in the opposite direction to create a criss-cross, this way you have less chance of missing a section of lawn.

You do need to be mindful that you don’t double up your fertiliser application, so do keep an eye on how wide the spreader is throwing the grains. If you use double the amount of nutrients on a certain area, you’ll get uneven colours and patterns in your lawn – which no one likes to see!!

Knights Coastal Special Lawn Mix

$32.00$69.95

Knights Coastal Special lawn Mix is a lawn fertiliser made by Lawn Doctor Turf Solutions to suit our coastal sands. High in iron and trace elements and guaranteed to be the best thing you could give your lawn.

Liquid Fertiliser

Whilst the application methods are different for liquid and granular fertilisers, the principle of applying these to your lawn is virtually the same – you want to cover the entire lawn area evenly, and before you start ALWAYS read the label and instructions.

Click here for instructions on how to calibrate your sprayer:

Lawnporn Green Light

$35.20$114.35

Lawnporn Green Light is a professional foliar fertiliser designed specifically to encourage a deep green colour and growth response in turf. Perfectly suited to Perth’s alkaline soils.

Next Steps

Once you’ve finished applying your choice of fertiliser, there’s still a few more things to do – you’re not quite done yet!! There is a couple of important things you have to do.

Firstly, sweep or blow down any hard surfaces like driveways or paths that the fertiliser may have sprinkled on to. This is done because the prill left of the hard surface can stain when you’re watering your fertiliser in (or if it rains).

This leads us into the final step: watering in your fertiliser. This is a very important step, because if you don’t do it, the contents of the fertiliser can burn the leaf of your grass if it’s left for too long.

Not all fertilisers require watering in, but the majority do. If you’re unsure, just read the label or check with the manufacturer.

Watering your fertiliser in is a simple process. You can use a hand-held hose, a sprinkler system, or time your fertiliser application to just before rain. Though one thing you need to be careful of if you decide to do this, is that you’re not going to get TOO MUCH rain. Too much rain can wash the fertiliser straight out of your lawn, meaning all of that hard work was for nothing!! But if you’re due to get between 5 and 10ml, this will be perfect.

If you decide to go with the sprinkler or hose application, again check the label, but for most fertilisers 5 or 10 minutes with the sprinkler will wash the prill down into the thatch layer where it needs to be.