It’s the time of year when I’m usually trying to figure out if any more freezes are on the horizon. Mid-February is when I like GardenLine listeners to get busy with their lawns, and it all starts with my Fertilization Schedule.
You may worry about putting all that stuff down today and getting hit with a freeze in a week. But since forecasts show no freezing weather is expected through February, I say it’s time to get busy.
We also have several days ahead when high temperatures will be in the 70s or very close to it, and that will allow the soil to warm up enough so everything in my fertilization schedule will work as it should.
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You may have heard me give the green light on this during the GardenLine radio program last weekend. But that also got many listeners questioning the order in which products should be applied. Don’t overthink that stuff, become paralyzed, and end up doing nothing.
I really don’t care about the order.
Remember Bill Murray in “Meatballs” getting everyone to chant, “It just doesn’t matter … It just doesn’t matter … It just doesn’t matter.” Just getting busy is what really matters.
I’ve been doing this garden-advice thing long enough to know there are lots of professional procrastinators out there. And there are many “masters of creative avoidance,” too. But what follows is a list of Things We Should Be Doing Right Now! You may not need to do all six, but most likely there are three or four you should tackle immediately.
Early green-up – Yes, it’s optional.
Pre-emergent herbicides – It will block weed seeds from germinating in March and April.
Post-emergent herbicides – It will kill broadleaf weeds that are growing now.
Aeration – If you’ve never done it, do it right away.
Compost top-dressing – Best done after an aeration, but can also be done without one.
Trace minerals or supplementation – Three remineralizers are available in this area: Azomite, Nature’s Way Remineralizer, and Soil Mender’s Trace Elements. You can also just add humates, humic acid, or soil activators.
And that is the perfect order of application.
But even if you put out a weed preventer and a weed killer first, followed by the green-up, you’ve done nothing wrong. If you’re aerating and compost top-dressing then fertilizing, I’m cool with that, too. The order really doesn’t matter!
Well, don’t top-dress then aerate. That simply stands to reason.
You can also do all these things on the same day!
What? You say your don’t have that kind of time?
I could do the early green-up, the pre-emergent herbicide, remineralizer, and post-emergent herbicide all within two hours. Okay, a really big lawn might take four hours. But if you’re following the schedule, all I’m really asking for on the same day are the green-up and pre-emergent. Even then, you can spread them out over a few days. And if you have some broadleaf weeds to get rid of, post-emergent herbicide as a spot treatment should be painless, quick and easy.
Outside the month of October, this is the only time my fertilization schedule calls for more than one application. So don’t look for an excuse to put things off. I can’t emphasize enough that it’s really time to get busy.
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