Time to Fertilize…But What About My Lawn?

Landscape plants, trees, and lawns are waking up for spring and putting on new growth, which means…time to fertilize!! Using a good organic fertilizer makes big difference:  healthier, stronger, more disease and pest-resistant, more drought-tolerant, and more beautiful plants. Now that Stage 3 watering rules have been revised, we can water in fertilizer for landscape beds and trees without issue. But should we still fertilize lawns if we can’t water lawns? 

The short answer is yes! Using a good organic lawn food, like our go-to Medina Growin Green, promotes root growth and long-term health, which makes lawns more tolerant of less water. Ideally you’d want to water the fertilizer in, but you don’t have to. Medina Growin Green is gentle and won’t burn your lawn. You can apply it now and water it in slowly over a few weeks. If you have trees in your yard, keep in mind that fertilizer and water need to be applied at the drip line, aka where rainwater naturally drips off the outer edge of the canopy. Therefore, if you apply fertilizer to your lawn and water it in for the trees, your lawn will get the benefit too. You can also try to time your lawn fertilizing with a light rain. We typically don’t recommend waiting for rain to fertilize since a heavy rain would wash most of the fertilizer granules away. But, given the watering limitations, taking advantage of a light rain is a good solution. 

Homeowners can also collect free effluent water at the Oso Wastewater Treatment Plant to use to water lawns. Apply for a quick and easy residential permit from the City of Corpus Christi here. Gill’s plans to provide this service as well, but the permitting process for businesses takes a while longer. Once we receive our permit, we’ll get the word out. 

Another great option is to collect rainwater or recycled gray water at home. If your washing machine is in an accessible location, it can be as simple as connecting a water hose and having it drain into a rain barrel or water tank. Just 1 single washing machine load can produce 15-30 gallons of water. Talk to a plumber about setting this up if your washing machine is not as accessible. Dishwasher too! As long as you use the gentle “free and clear” or fragrance/chemical-free detergents and soaps, your gray water will be great for the lawn.  

Very important:  We do not recommend using chemical lawn fertilizers, especially when water is limited. With chemical fertilizers, you get a quicker green-up and more top growth, which requires more water to maintain. Whereas with a good organic, you get deeper roots that can withstand less water. Also, don’t try to treat for weeds and fertilize at the same time. It doesn’t work! That’s why we don’t sell and don’t recommend “weed and feed” type products. Treat for weeds first, wait a couple weeks, then fertilize.

We carry a few different fertilizers that do slightly different things for different plants, but you really only need one – Medina Growin Green! One 40lb bag of Medina Growin Green covers 3,000 sq. ft. of lawn and you can use it on everything else too! It’s all organic and works like magic on lawns, veggie gardens, trees, shrubs, flowers, blooming perennials, you name it.