A green, healthy lawn can transform your property’s appearance and even increase your home’s resale value. However, maintaining a lawn on Florida's Gulf Coast can be pretty labor-intensive, with routine activities including mowing, watering, and edging.
If you live in Sarasota, FL, or surrounding areas, fertilization and weed control are among your most critical tasks if you want a green healthy lawn. Below, we look at how you should meet your lawn’s nutrient requirements while controlling weed growth.
Fertilization – Essential Nutrients Your Lawn Needs
All plants, including your lawn, need nutrients to grow and live sustainably. Your lawn roots absorb nutrients from the soil, which they use to grow deeper, giving your lawn a greener, healthier appearance.
Over time, soil naturally becomes nutrient-deficient. Factors contributing to the depletion of nutrients in soil include:
- Leaching: Rainwater washes nutrient deeper into the soil, beyond the reach of the lawns root system
- Soil erosion: Wind and water removes the topsoil layer, along with nutrients
- Soil pH change: Organic matter loss and sulfur-rich products can change soil pH and nutrient content
By applying fertilizer to your lawn, you restore your soil’s nutrient content, promoting healthy grass growth.
Essential nutrients your grass needs include:
- Nitrogen synthesizes proteins to create chlorophyll, giving your grass a healthy green color
- Phosphorus promotes your lawn’s overall health and enhances root growth
- Potassium supports underlying growth processes and increases a lawn’s resistance to disease
Lawn fertilizer contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Applying the proper fertilizer offsets the effect of nutrient deficiency in the soil.
The Importance of Weed Control For Your Lawn
Weeds are invasive plants competing with your lawn for space, nutrients, moisture, oxygen, and soil. Without proper weed control, weeds can inhibit your lawn’s growth and can take over your entire landscape. Weeds are also unsightly, and they can spoil the appearance of an otherwise immaculate lawn. Proper lawn care is your first line of defense against weeds. A healthy lawn is less susceptible to weed infestation and easier to restore after weed removal.
Effective weed control methods include:
- Hand pulling weeds
- Treating your lawn with pre-emergent weed control before the weeds start to grow.
- Apply post-emergent weed control to kill off the weeds that have already begun to grow.
- Spot treat weeds as they begin to pop up throughout the growing season.
Proper Lawn Care Adds Aesthetic Appeal to Your Home
The benefits of proper lawn care are endless. A healthy lawn provides your home with functional outdoor space for socializing, exercising, and family activities. When you spend the time maintaining and manicuring your lawn, it adds significantly to your home’s aesthetic appeal, giving it a clean but natural appearance.
A healthy lawn has a settled root system that grows deep into the soil, preventing soil erosion. Lawns with well-established roots and leaves—and no bare spots—are also less susceptible to weed growth. If weeds like crabgrass take hold of an area, they are easier to control if you have a healthy lawn. With proper fertilization and weed control, you can have a thick, healthy, green lawn, and become the envy of your neighbors.
If you are in Sarasota, Siesta Key, Longboat Key, FL or surrounding areas contact us for all your lawn care needs.
If you live in Sarasota, Siesta Key, Longboat Key, or surrounding areas of Florida, you don’t have to deal with lawn fertilization and weed control on your own. At Tropical Gardens Landscape, we offer professional lawn care services that include fertilization and weed control solutions. If you want a green lawn, call us today at (941) 993-2442 and schedule an appointment.
