Choosing the Right Lawn Food

Feeding your lawn for that rich green look couldn't be easier, but if you're not an avid gardener, choosing from the vast range lawn foods on the market today can be a daunting task.  We've put together this handy guide to try to demystify the many lawn care products available.

There are two main different types of lawn food, lawn food applied as granules and food that's applied as a liquid - there are pros and cons for each.  Many lawn foods can have a lawn weedkiller or moss killer in addition to the lawn food.  Couple these factors together with the vast difference in size between a very small lawn and a large lawn and you can see why there are so many different products on the shelf.

Questions to Ask Before You Decide

Before you read on there's some key questions to as yourself which will help you decide on the best lawn fertiliser to use.

1. Is there a problem with weeds such as dandelions, buttercups or clover
2. Is there moss in the lawn

The next thing to start to think about is just how much time do you want to spend caring for your grass - are you looking for a quick fix, a one off application or are you willing to go that extra mile for a lush green grass?

The Quick Fix

Not a good idea if you've got weeds or moss but definitely ideal if you've having a BBQ at the weekend.  Using a liquid or soluble lawn food 3-5 days before will give the green up the grass and give the lawn a boost.  Don't choose a fertiliser which also contains a weedkiller or moss killer as this might lead to bare patches or thin areas - which isn't ideal if you're entertaining.

There's three products I'd recommend to pick between:  Supergreen Soluble Lawn Food, Miracle-Gro Lawn Food and Miracle-Gro Lush Lawn.

Supergreen Soluble Lawn Food, made by Phostrogen, has the highest proportion of nitrogen (great in Summer) but now Phostrogen don't make a feeder, Supergreen can only be applied with a watering can which can make feeding the lawn more trouble than it should be.

Miracle-Gro Lawn Food can be applied with a watering can, but the job is much easier in the Miracle-Gro Feeder which attaches to a hose pipe.  Miracle-Gro's lawn food also has a relatively high ratio of nitrogen, an ideal Summer food.

Miracle-Gro Lush Lawn is a very simple product to use, screw it into a Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed Gun and water with the hose.  Although the feed blend is more balanced than other feeds, it'll still green the lawn in about 3 days.

Little Effort - Maximum Impact

If you don't want to spend much time fussing over your lawn, but you'd still like green, moss and weed-free grass then this is the solution for you.

Rather than giving your lawn a quick burst of food, granular lawn feeds release nutrients steadily so there's more time left between applications.  Many granular feeds also contain a weedkiller and moss killer.

I'm only going to recommend one product now, whether you have a weed and moss problem or not.  EverGreen Complete 4 in 1 gets it so right when it comes to fertiliser.  It's not so much the blend of nutrients themselves, but the way in which they are released.  Rather than a burst of feed after application, EverGreen Complete is control released so you don't get sudden growth spurts and the constant need to mow.  It also has the added side effect of keeping weeds and moss under control.  To my knowledge, the only way other brands have achieved similar results is by having much lower level of nutrients - which in my mind, defeats the object of feeding the lawn!

Make sure you apply granular feeds evenly, use a  Lawn Spreader to help get the dosage right.  Be careful not to overlap; any area that receives a double dose of food could grow quicker than the rest of the lawn or worse still overdoses on fertiliser and die (scorch).

Summary

Once you've weighed up the pros and cons between soluble/liquid feeds and granular feeds, decided if you need an added weedkiller or moss killer or whether you're going to use a separate product for that, the only choice left to make is size.  Generally lawn fertiliser is sold in quantities to treat an area (rather than weight) so measure the size of you lawn before you start shopping.  Provided you keep it dry and dark, lawn food will keep for the following year, so it's better to have a little left over than to run out and leave a gap at the end of the garden.

The Legal Bit

As one of the products mentioned contains a weedkiller and moss killer we must point out:

• EverGreen Complete 4 in 1 contains MCPA, mecoprop-P and ferrous sulphate

Always read the label, use safely.