When your turfgrass and lawn are not looking as you think they should, homeowners typically start looking for someone to help. Now, there are lots of lawn treatment services out there: TruGreen, CitiTurf, Lawn Doctor, or even just letting the guy who mows your yard throw out some "weed and feed" fertilizer a few times per year. At DFW Turfgrass Science LLC, we take a science-based approach to your grass, as our director has a degree in Golf Management and Turfgrass Science. And our director will personally come to your house if you choose to work with us. That said, can our company perform lawn fertilization services for you as cheaply as the laborer who mows your lawn? Nope. Can we compete with TruGreen's best weed control and lawn fertilizer services or their chem lawn treatment and lawn spraying services while offering a higher level of knowledge and personal service than they do? Absolutely.
What is the Best Lawn Grass Fertilizer for North Texas
Advertising agencies are paid a lot of money to figure out how to fool consumers legally. One of Texas's biggest shams in the lawn fertilizing world is “Texas fertilizer, specifically blended for Texas.” And Home Depot and Lowes all sell this fugazi fertilizer blend to homeowners in North Texas.
Texas has 171 million acres and almost 12 million homes and lawns. And per the Texas Almanac, there are a whopping 1300 different kinds of soil in Texas and 21 different regions or “soil areas.” To look at the Texas lawn soil map, please click this link: Soils of Texas | TX Almanac.
Therefore, there is no best lawn fertilizer company or miracle-bagged “Texas fertilizer” you can buy to fix issues with your lawn. What is “best” is to follow a scientific process. And the process helps us figure out what your lawn needs. We determine what your lawn needs by pulling soil core samples and sending a soil test kit to Texas A&M. You can read more in-depth about our soil testing service here: Soil Testing Services near north Texas. And here is a small snapshot of a customer’s soil test in Dallas.
What is the Best Lawn Fertilizer Schedule for Fertilizing Lawns in North Texas
Regarding when do I need to fertilize my lawn or what is the best schedule for fertilizing lawns in Texas, I agree with North Texas gardening God, Neil Sperry. And if you are new to North Texas, you should check out his long-time radio show on Saturdays and Sundays: https://neilsperry.com/radio/
Depending on rainfall amounts and the type of plan customers sign up for, we generally use the following lawn fertilizer schedule for warm-season grasses:
March 15- April 1 – quick release Ammonium Sulfate lawn fertilizer
May 16-June 15 – slow-release Urea based lawn fertilizer
Optional Summer Lawn Fertilization (for extra green) – organic, low dose, fertilizer + iron
September 20-October 15 – lawn winterizer fertilizer and organic material (if needed), based on your soil test results
This does not include lawn insecticide, pre-emergent, herbicide, or fungicide applications, as this topic only addresses the general grass fertilizing schedule.
Lawn Fertilization and Weed Control Services
The biggest misnomer surrounding lawn fertilizer and weed control service concerns the weeds themself.
Example - Homeowner Opinion: I know the problem with my lawn; it is full of weeds. And if I kill the weeds, the grass will heal over, and my lawn will be fixed.
Correct Answer: the cart is before the horse. Large quantities of weeds don’t exist in a perfectly healthy stand of turfgrass. Weeds fill a vacuum and grow in poor soil/light conditions in which the grass can’t thrive (maybe it grows a little but is thin). Therefore, using lawn spray herbicide to kill the weeds and then throwing new sod down on top of the dead weeds won’t fix the problem. And even though I see this done by thousands of homeowners, it is like putting lipstick on a dead pig.
With the soil testing, lawn fertilization services, and weed control programs at DFW Turfgrass Science, you can fix the root cause of the problem in your lawn while killing all of those broadleaf weeds and grassy weeds. Some of those weeds will be killed with our lawn spray herbicide, and some will be prevented from sprouting in future months with our best pre-emergent weed control service.
Here is the complete list of the various lawn fertilizer and weed control services we offer:
- Soil Test from Texas A&M or Oklahoma State.
- Lawn Core Aerification Service (every two years).
- Lawn Consultant Analysis of your Soil, Tree Shade, and Drainage.
- Lab Testing for Diseases at Texas A&M (primarily for St. Augustine & Zoysia with obvious problems, and not a free service)
- Insecticide Lawn Spraying Treatment Service
- Fungicide Lawn Treatment Service
- Herbicide Weed Control Lawn Spray Services
- Nutsedge Lawn Spraying Services
- Lawn Fertilizer Service Applications
- Pre-emergent Lawn Spray Services - winter and summer
Identify Weeds by Photo Picture in Texas
It’s another misnomer that you need to identify weeds by photo to kill them specifically. All you need to determine is the general category/class the weed is in to implement the proper lawn weed control services. Here are the general category types for lawn weeds in Texas:
Broadleaf Weeds – broadleaf weeds don’t look like grass. They look like some sort of little plant (though not woody) and have broad leaves. They are very easily controlled with most broadleaf herbicides.
Grassy Weeds: grassy weeds look like a grass. It's pretty easy 😊 They may have wider blades than normal grass, but they still generally look like a grass. Grassy weeds are more challenging to control now because MSMA herbicide is banned for residential use. That said, there are still good herbicides on the market that can kill most grassy weeds after you spray them a couple of times. Note: spraying pre-emergent twice yearly is the best way to eliminate grassy weeds.
Nutsedge & Nut Grass Weed: nutsedge and nut grass are like a lawn terrorist organization: every time you kill one, 2-3 more show up. Further, the retail chemicals that homeowners can buy at Lowes and Home Depo, which are labeled to kill nutsedge, typically damage/kill/burn your lawn grass (and don’t work well). Professional lawn grass spray service companies have better herbicides to kill nut grass that you can’t buy at most retail stores.
Woody Weeds & Vine Weeds: Woody and vine weeds must be treated at the stump. Then, you must continue treating them for several years to eradicate them.
If you would still like to try and identify the exact weeds in your yard, you can click here to read a blog post about it: Identify Weeds by Photo Texas.
If you are ready to learn more about our weed control and lawn fertilizing services near Frisco, Plano, Allen, Prosper, The Colony, Little Elm, Dallas, McKinney, Lewisville, and Carrollton, please complete the form below.
[contact-form-7 id="2769" title="Lawn Fertilizing"]