I’ve said this countless times, but I make one assumption for listeners following my fertilization schedule: I expect that you have some decent soil to begin with.
If you follow my advice on soil fixing and amending, you’ll eventually get healthier and healthier soil, and the schedule will work magnificently. However, if your soil is hardpan, super-tough clay, caliche or gumbo, following the schedule it isn’t going to improve your situation. Ever.
Nothing in my lawn-fertilization plan can fix bad soil.
Weather forecasts suggest we can actually jump into my fertilization schedule this year as early as the first week of February. But, first, let’s make sure your soil is on the path to getting better and better each year. And that starts with basic aeration and compost top-dressing.
Photo: Getty Images, Pierre Hamelin via Creative Commons
I’m amazed how top-dressing yards in Houston has evolved over the past 20 years. Until 1996, you top-dressed turf with bank sand or loam. That’s all there ever was. But then, along came soil scientists who developed high-quality, highly screened composts that could provide added tilth and solve many problems with disease and weed control.
So, compost top-dressing should be the norm today. And, thankfully, several bulk-soil companies now bag up high-quality composts so they’re available to just about everyone in Southeast Texas. The Ground Up, Landscapers Pride and Nature’s Way Resources are a few.
Some enriched soils can also be used as top dressings. In fact, I wrote a piece about them last year - "ETS: Enriched Topsoil, The Whole Story." Just be sure anything you use in this category is truly enriched with high levels of organic matter. Sadly, I have seen so-called “enriched soil” intended for a top-dressing that was really just clay-based soil, devoid of any real organic matter. That kind of mismatch can actually kill a yard.
If you’re buying or building a new home, I think preparing the yards’ soil before sod is laid or seed is sown is the best investment you can make. You’ll be ensuring a healthy environment in which the root systems can set up shop. If you’ve ever driven around a new subdivision, you’ve probably observed every new yard going in on top of scraped, clay soil. How are roots supposed to establish in that? If you can get in first and prep that yard with just a few inches of compost or a permanent soil amendment, your grass will lock in its roots far quicker and much deeper, ultimately giving you the healthiest lawn on the block. Unless your neighbor reads this article, too.
So, to sum up, make your soil healthy, and my fertilization schedule will work. My hand goes to my forehead every time someone emails or posts on Facebook a complaint that my schedule failed them. Just remember … if you think my schedule isn’t working, examine the health of your soil. If you’re covered up in weeds right now, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts you’ve got some of the worst soil out there - weeds love poor or weakened soil.