When to Fertilize Your Lawn in Sterling, Virginia

Most Sterling lawns are tall fescue, often mixed with bluegrass. These are cool-season grasses, and they should be fed on a cool-season schedule.

Fall is the main event

From September into November the grass is growing roots, not just blades. Fertilizer applied then builds a thicker, deeper-rooted lawn that handles the next summer better. If you feed only once a year, feed in the fall.

Go light in spring

A modest spring feeding helps the lawn green up. Heavy spring fertilizer produces a flush of soft growth that struggles in summer heat and invites disease.

Leave it alone in summer

In July and August cool-season grass is surviving, not growing. Fertilizing in heat stresses it further.

Pair feeding with aeration and seed

Sterling's clay compacts easily. Core aeration in early fall, followed by overseeding and then fertilizer, is the combination that turns a thin lawn around.

Test before you guess

A soil test tells you whether lime or particular nutrients are needed. It is inexpensive and saves applying things the lawn does not need.