A lush green lawn impresses visitors, attracts potential tenants and shows the community you care about your business.
But healthy turf does a lot more than make your property look pretty.
It reduces run-off, minimizes erosion, cleans the air, neutralizes pollutants and absorbs rainwater.
And you thought it just felt good on bare feet.
Want a healthy lawn for your commercial property? Fertilizing is key.
Here’s what you need to know about commercial turf fertilization:
The Beauty Of Four Fertilizer Applications
At Level Green Landscaping, we recommend a four-application commercial fertilization program to all of our customers.
Here’s how it breaks down:
We visit twice in the spring — first in early spring to apply fertilizer, pre-emergent weed killer, and post-emergent weed killer. A second visit in late spring repeats the process. Those two applications target weed seeds before they germinate, then again after any sprout.
We visit a third time in the summer to spot spray for weeds. This time, we target only your trouble areas where weeds may have popped up. No need to spray everything just for the sake of spraying. Spot spray is better for the environment, but still targets weeds.
Then, you'll see us again in the fall, for the final fertilizing treatment to strengthen your turf’s root system before winter sets in.
By helping roots grow before winter sets in, you help ensure that the lawn will green up quicker in the spring and become more resistant to disease and drought.
Why A Steady Turf Fertilization Program Matters
Lawn fertilizing is a process that lasts the entire year.
Sure, spring fertilizing is important. It sets up your turf with the nutrition it needs to get a great green start. Add weed control in the spring to zap weeds before they can sprout.
But fall fertilizing is even more important.
As the weather gets cooler, those green blades of grass grow more slowly, but there’s plenty of action beneath the ground. The roots are growing quickly. That means they’re hungry.
Fertilize in the fall and you give those roots nutrients to grow nice and deep now, with some left over for a healthy start next spring.
Be Patient — Green Grass Takes Time
When you hire our commercial lawn fertilization service to treat your turf with our four-step program, that’s all the fertilizer your lawn needs. Trust us. And you have to be patient.
We use a slow-release fertilizer, that continually feeds your lawn with nourishing nitrogen at a steady rate, all season long.
While quick-release nitrogen is immediately available to your lawn, it lasts only two to four weeks, and if it’s over-applied, it can burn the grass.
The science of slow-release fertilizer is pretty impressive. Most slow-release fertilizers release at specific soil temperatures. Plant roots tend to be most active in warm soil, so the slow-release fertilizer starts to deliver fertilizer as soon as the plants need it.
As the soil continues to warm and the plant roots become more active — bam — more fertilizer is automatically released.
There are several benefits to slow-release nitrogen: It provides more uniform grass growth; it’s less likely to burn the grass; and less fertilizer is likely to be lost to rain or watering in the process known as leaching.
Too Much Fertilizer Is Not A Good Thing
Maybe your commercial lawn isn’t greening up as quickly as you’d like. Impatient, you go out and dump more fertilizer over what we’ve already applied.
If a little fertilizer is good, more is better, right?
Wrong. Really wrong.
What’s wrong with too much fertilizer? Over fertilizing, especially with high levels of nitrogen, will cause lots of pretty green blades of grass, but not enough root growth. Too much fertilizer will actually burn the lawn.
Applying too much fertilizer isn’t just bad for your lawn and wasteful — it can harm the environment, running off and entering the ground water.
Most of the properties we service are in the Chesapeake Bay water shed. Anything we — or you — apply to your lawn eventually makes its way to the bay. The last thing you want is to send unnecessary fertilizer into the water.
The Advantages Of In-House Fertilization
Most large landscaping companies subcontract their fertilization program, hiring other companies to do the work.
At Level Green Landscaping, we do all our fertilization services with our own crews.
Why does it matter?
You'll get a better response time. We’re right here — so you don't have to wait for a subcontractor’s schedule or worry about endless games of phone tag between your landscaping company and their subcontractor. If you have any questions or concerns about your lawn, we know the answers.
We know exactly how our crews were trained in fertilizer application — because we trained them. Our crews are trained to strictly follow all the varying application laws in Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC.
We train not just on proper application, but safety, too, so our crews know how to properly handle, store and transport the fertilizer.
Trust Your Commercial Turf To Level Green Landscaping
At Level Green Landscaping, our experts can set you up with the best commercial turf fertilization service for your property. We know all about fertilizing. And everything else your lawn needs: overseeding, aeration, weed control, pest control. We do it all.
If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers. Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.
Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.
We’d love to hear from you.
