Fertilising your lawn in autumn

Aerate the soil

A good piece of advice before fertilising is to aerate your lawn as summer often causes a lot of compaction.

Aerating addresses compaction by putting small holes into the lawn therefore allowing the fertiliser to access the soil and improve air circulation – aiding your lawns growth.

If you don’t have an aerator at home, they’re easy to hire and inexpensive. If you own a large yard, you may need to call a landscaper to get this done for you. 

Rake up the debris

It’s important to clear your lawn of any fallen leaves and debris as soon as you can and before fertilising.

The last thing you want is for the leaves to become wet, stick together, and suffocate the grass and breed fungal diseases. 

Want to know a tip? Rake all the leaves into a garbage bag and add a handful of Dynamic Lifter to help the leaves break down. It’ll eventually turn into compost, which you can spread over your garden beds. 

It is important that you know what sort of grass you have before selecting a fertiliser. Always apply quality lawn fertiliser based on the label’s recommendations.

Liquid fertilisers

Liquid fertilisers have the benefit of being able to be applied to both the ground or to the lawn foliage itself, also called foliar application. 

Application of liquid fertiliser through the ground will result in the roots absorbing the nutrients.

Application to the lawn allows the leaves to absorb the fertiliser and have the nutrients more readily available for immediate use. 

Foliar application gives you the option of making mid-season corrections to add vital nutrients to your lawn if it didn’t get the correct mixture at the beginning of the season or, it your lawn needs a boost.

Another main benefit of a liquid lawn fertiliser is that it can be easily administered to the largest of lawns in a liquid form and absorbed, not only by the lawn foliage itself, but also by the surrounding soil.

This is of great value to lawn care and while liquid fertiliser is commonly more expensive it can be more effective!

Again, the best fertiliser for your lawn is one that contains the nutrients your soil needs.

One of the advantages of using a liquid lawn fertilizer is that you can easily mix in any other nutrients your lawn and soil needs.

Whether you mix concentrate in a litre sprayer (the less expensive option) or purchase a pre-mixed bottle that attaches to your garden hose, lawn liquid fertiliser is more versatile than granular because you can apply it to the ground or the leaf foliage.

Key features of liquid fertilisers are:

• Uniform application
• Quick leaf foliage uptake when green-up is needed
• Seasonal application variances available
• Can blend with other liquid products
• Easy to apply

For a good selection of liquid fertilisers have a look at our online shop.

Slow release fertiliser

Most lawns respond well to a slow release fertiliser which can be found at the myhomeTURF online shop.

Using a slow release fertiliser on your lawn once during autumn before the ground becomes too cold.

Application of your slow release fertiliser should occur during late March or early April (when the weather is still warm).

Key features of slow release fertilisers are:

• The nutrients slowly release and continuously
• All of the fertiliser’s nutrients are utilised following watering in
• Use of low application rates (saves money)
• There is only the need to apply three times during the year (twice in spring and once in autumn)

Another benefit of a slow release fertiliser is that a consistent level of growth and greening occurs across the life of the application with no spike in growth and no nutrient-run off.

It is important not to use cheap slow release fertilisers as these products tend to initially release a lot of nutrients and dwindle off quickly with nutrient delivery, resulting in an initial surge in growth and greening – however, consistent growth will not be maintained.

Traditional lawn fertiliser

Traditional lawn fertiliser is often the cheapest lawn food choice but not necessarily the best.

Key features of traditional lawn fertilisers are:

• They require high application rates
• They only supply your lawn with short-term feed
• They create a crystalline or powdered appearance
• A spike in growth and greening occurs (rapid initial response which tappers off quickly)
• They require frequent applications

Traditional fertilisers also tend to dump their nutrient load immediately after watering in which often leads to high nutrient run-off into waterways and drains.

Application rates for traditional fertilisers are every 4 to 6 weeks and rely on the lawn being able to absorb the nutrients as they move through the soil.

However frequent applications of traditional fertiliser can have detrimental effects on the soil chemistry and therefore health.

Organic lawn fertilisers

A ‘true’ organic fertiliser is one that has been certified as 100% organic – so be sure to have that guaranteed when purchasing.

The simplest way to check that it is 100% organic is by looking for the Australian Organic Certified logo on the bottle or pack.

A recommended organic fertiliser is a blend of both a natural (organic) and synthetic (manufactured) fertiliser.

Therefore, the use of an organic lawn food and soil improver combines the features of both a slow release fertiliser as well as natural ingredients such as seaweed, fish, manure and bio-stimulants.

Since organic fertiliser are natural products it is hard to over-fertiliser and in fact, they make your soil and plant health strong.

As organic fertilisers can be more expensive than other fertilisers it is possible to make your own by composting manure – such as from cattle or chooks.

The best time to apply your organic fertiliser in autumn is either late March or early April.

Another application of organic fertiliser during winter – preferably late June.

Combination products – fertiliser and herbicide

New, unique herbicide formulations are available that when combined with fertilizer offer homeowners the ability to fertilize their lawn and control broadleaf weeds in one application.

Many products exist offering a wide variety of NPK and nitrogen sources to match the specific fertility needs of your lawn.

Types of combination product could include, pre-emergent weed control, post-emergent broadleaf weed control or a combination of both.

One of the most popular combined fertiliser and pre-emergent herbicide products is granular Oxafert which controls Summer Grass, Crowsfoot Grass, Winter Grass and Creeping Oxalis and offers an efficient NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) application of fertiliser.

Key features of combination products – fertilisers and herbicides are:

• Combined application of fertiliser and herbicide (pre or post emergent) in one application
• Saves time
• Easy to apply by hand, hand or push spreader

FIND YOUR LOCAL SUPPLIER: Your local Grower suppliers can easily be found with our online Supplier locator tool OR if you would like to obtain up to 3 QUOTES from your local supplier today – Click – get 3 quotes

LawnPride Maintain Mini 26-2-9 + 3.4 Fe 20kg

Oxafert

LawnPride GroTurf 20kg 15-4-11 + Traces

Terralift Activate N 18-1-4+2Mg 20kg

LawnPride Tracemaxx 5L Concentrate